Biased by the Blogosphere

It’s not that Dawkins did a bad job on the second half of his presentation about religion (thank you Mis-Nagid for finding it) “The Virus of Faith.” Rather, I think that I have become accustomed to so much more.

“Judaism has traditions”, says a nonplused Rabbi Herschel Gluck in response to Dawkins’ jab at Rabbinic six day creation, and then tilting his head to the other side, to indicate the shift of perspective, “Science has it’s traditions”.

Dawkins looks a bit flummoxed, and although I am sure he could have easily pointed out the holes in that comparison, his expression almost says, “Where do I begin here? How do I unravel a mind that is intractably calcified in such a backward position?”

Does it take an expert? That is to say, a specialist, doubly gifted by having the advantage of once being under the sway of such thoughts and then, with the act of breaking away, gaining the talent for seeing the light in all that darkness. Knowing by which strings the faith hangs most tenuously by, and which are most easily severed.

I think Saul Sanjfeld made a bigger dent in RYGB then Dawkins did with our good Rabbi. And in watching Rabbi Gluck offer pat, pre-rehearsed, cookie cutter, nonsensical answers to a basically nodding Dawkins, I couldn’t help wondering how much more finely honed the questions a garden variety J-blog skeptic would of raised, might have been; not to mention some of our resident experts.

I enjoyed the second segment more than the first because he did stick to some basic issues such as the indoctrination of the young with faith, and the inherent lack of morality from the bible. These two issues I think will impress people of mainstream affiliation.

He couldn’t help himself from brushing with the fundamentalists, of course, and in addition to Rabbi Gluck, he spoke with a preacher who indulged his urge for mass replication of the faith virus via something called “hell houses” where images of hell where impressed upon the target audience (twelve year olds) for such sins as abortion and homosexuality. The live plays depiction was graphic, and appreciably scary to a young mind. The fact that this is currently a protected practice in our country is more than a little frightening.

All in all, I enjoyed his presentation, but to me, all his punches seemed pulled. Well done J-bloggers, you have acclimated me to a higher, and more in depth level, of debate. Thank You.