Faith schools

are buddhists religious?

Buddhism is more of a system of philosophical values than a religion imo.

hahaha "imo"

Of course its in my opinion.

Judaism is a monotheistic religion by definition isn't it? Wiki says it is so it must be true

it was the first monotheistic religion, but one can still practise the religion without believing in the G-d, there are thousands of these Jews that are classed by themselves and the surrounding world as religiously jewish...

Your opinion is mistaken

Religious Jews can be atheists eh? There's hope for you yet

do they send their kids to no faith schools?

I want to know more about this atheist Rabbi, sounds like someone's going through the motions for the sake of a cushy job Who does he pray to when he prays exactly?

They tend to believe in a universal harmony, similar to einstienian/buddhist religions....

Richard Dawkins claims to subscribe to to sort of ensteinian-philosophicalish wishy-washy wonder-of-the-universe type of religion in a trivial kind of a way, and claims that we all can, but I don't really think you'd describe him as religious?

Judaism is monotheistic, you cannot subsribe to a monotheistic, and therefore theistic, religion if you are atheistic. They are incompatibile by definition, and if your Rabbi is telling you he doesn't believe in a god, then not only do I think you should listen to him, but he needs significant questioning as to how he can be a proponent of Judaism whilst thinking pretty much the entire Torah is nonsense, from G-d making the earth onwards.

Also, I'm delighted to hear that you think religion is a totally man made construct, I entirely agree, is this agreement that there is nothing supernatural to it after all?

Of course religion is man made... the Torah however is not.

And will you stop going on about Dawkins, you worship him like a religion.

torah is not man made is it not?

PROOVE IT

I thought you said it was written by Moses?

Also, I don't in any way 'worship' anything, however I respect Professor Dawkins writing what is perhaps the most elegant and crushing evisceration of religion and superstition I have ever read.

In the same way as I respect his achievements in evolutionaru biology

I can't.

What I can say is that there is an incredible profusion of wisdom that was generations beyond its time included in the scripture... The Torah & Talmud contains information that modern science is only just discovering.

Andy, it was scribed by Hashem who used Moshe as a vessel.

The work of dawkins is clumsy and blinded by his own arrogance, it is far from highly regarded by his peers.

God Delusion was written for a lay audience, not scientific minds. Selfish Gene and Blind Watchmaker are critically acclaimed in the field, however.

Your argument 'they had some knowledge before their time so they must have got it from a god' is a flawed one and here's why.

A month or two ago, a stone inscription was found in Egypt, I think, that clearly showed planets, and 9 of them too, orbiting around the sun. This is knowledge far in advance of anything in the Torah, assuming it wasn't lucky guesswork. Therefore, you should really be worshipping the Sun God, or whatever.

You might as well say that if we can teleport things in 200 years time that we must have got the knowledge for star trek from god

Many ancient civilizations had some knowledge advanced for their time, many of them more advanced than the Jews. Only one of them worshipped your god in particular though, which is not what you would expect if there was some factual basis to one over the other

Andy the vast majority of the world worships my G-d...

In 1609 (400 years ago) Galileo discovered there were many stars invisible to the naked eye; up until then the majority of the world believed there to be no more than 6000 stars, 1600 years ago it is clearly documented (Berakhot 32) that the heavens are divided into galaxies which are composed of 1.0643*10 18 stars (that’s a long way from 6000)… modern science concludes there are 1*10 19.

Hillel records in Tractate Rosh Hashana 25 that the time between new moons is 29.53059 days (the Hebrew calendar is a lunar/solar calendar), upon landing on the moon Nasa published that the actual time is 29.530588, it was only till much more recent findings that the time is now recorded as 29.530589… One tenth of a second out is pretty impressive don’t you think?

The Zohar is another truly enlightening book, recorded 1800 years ago it states that the earth was a sphere revolving on an axis (over 1000 years before Columbus), it then goes onto explain a gravitational force which pulls people towards this sphere (1500 years before Newton), it then went onto explain the 7 continents (including those unknown to middle eastern empires), it also described that when one side of this sphere was exposed to sunlight the other was in darkness and because of the angle of the earth there is a place on this sphere that is occasionally exposed to one hour of darkness at night… not bad.

There were wise ancient societies, but Judaism pre-dates most of these and presented a much more substantial body of modern wisdom… From big bang theory to modern medical procedures – the heebs had it on lock down.

In that case, you should take up a career in research, I'm sure with G-d whispering little hints in your ear you'd soon have your first paper in Nature

Joe, I reached a little bit in the old testament the other day that is going to require some explanation - I have been reading it for a little light comic relief from revision

Old Moses, you say, had his hands under celestial control when he wrote the torah. If this is the case, were they also under remote command when we get to the old golden calf story?

Now, one of the key points of your arguments has been that I am intolerant of religions and that I shouldn't be (not that this has any bearing on the likelihood of it existing). By this reckoning, one would expect such a prominent member of your faith as the author of your scriptures to be the very model of multifaith inclusiveness.

For anyone unfamiliar, a few people in the bible made themselves a new god, a golden calf, which they worshipped (danced around naked, in fact) - and theres just as much evidence that this calf created the world as any other god, needless to say.

Moses threw down his tablets with rage when he saw this bovine divinity, broke them, burnt the calf, ground it up, mixed it in water and made those worshipping it drink it

Then God was so vexed by this adultery that he ordered moses and co to kill everyone involved "and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour."

Not content with this, he sent a cheeky plague in to finish the job

Now, I'm very sorry, but you can't call me intolerant for a bit of light mockery on the one hand whilst on the other hand kind of passing this off as 'par for the course' in its day. I shall be interested to hear your interpretation of this terrible piece of ethnic cleansing by the key members of a religion you claim is the foundation of modern morals.

and then god's boy turned out to be gentle jesus meek and mild. It must have really pissed the old man off.