[dor]

Originally Posted by Michael Chui

A Talmudic Jew is, by definition, one whose mother was Jewish. To be Jewish is not a religion, nor a set of beliefs. It is an ethnicity. This is why anti-Semitism is a form of racism, not a theological quibble.

Michael, from what I understand that's an on-going debate with people who are jewish, since you also can convert- but if their religion believes that it i think we should respect it - it is also theological if you're born jewish to observant parents you will start the learn and do the things practicing jews do (same with christians and any other religion ) and practice is what also makes christians and jews - - as a side note I think anti semitism, like racism is a fairly useless and overused term. I don't think either mean much of anything anymore...

He doesn't want to enforce anything, he wants people to realise that it's wrong to label children by their parent's beliefs and to automatically assume that they should follow in said beliefs. Anyone brought up "into" a religion who realised it held nothing for them will agree with that stance.

takkaria is a child born of English parents English? does he 'decide' when he gets older? If they actively disavow it whenever, that's fine but a lot of religious practices are also deeply intertwined with cultural practices - western art for example is inexerably intertwined with religion (Gothic architect, nearly all high renaissance art, and so on) and a lot of these very complex believes are passed on through tradition and learning from the family.

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I can't see how he confuses religion and science, really, and I'd appreciate some expansion on that point..

He treats evolution like a fundementalist believe - that it can solve all problems- many scientists have said for example his views of the universe are ...well faith based- he has such a strong, emotional believe in his evolution as god theory that he willfully ignores reality and becomes unscientific -for example he constantly uses wars where people are of different religions to say religion= violence anyone even mildy familiar with northern ireland (an example he uses) or the middle east conflict (s) will realizes the shawlloness an inaccuracy of those claims.
the fact that he writes off thousands of years of insight, spirtuality, philosophy that make up religous texts as superstition sounds like the comments of a remarkably ignorant man.