Category Archives: Jews behaving badly

Rabbi Wolpe impugns Dawkins’s status as “world’s leading intellectual”

Liberal Rabbi David Wolpe, who with fellow rabbi Bradley Artson was roundly trounced in a debate with Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens over the existence of an afterlife, is butthurt at Prospect Magazine‘s naming of Richard Dawkins as the “world’ leading intellectual.”  To redress his grievance, Wolpe has a piece in this week’s PuffHo questioning […]

Three jokes I made up

It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m worn out from reading about duck genitals and the pheromones of corn borers all day (required reading for my graduate course on speciation). As a treat (NOT), I’m going to tell you the only three jokes I’ve made up in my life. In return, you’ll tell me any jokes you’ve […]

The Jew in the plastic bag revisited

Two days ago I posted this picture of an Orthodox Jew in an airplane, wrapped up in a plastic bag.  The picture came from The Gothamist, which explained that the man was a “kohen,” or a member of the priestly tribe of Jews, and kohens are forbidden from flying over cemeteries. The bag was apparently […]

Stupid religious rule #11734, and a note on my ancestry

I’ve never seen this before, but maybe the readers can determine if the explanation is true (see the link below).  This photo appeared on Gothamist, and I reproduce the caption in its entirety:   We don’t often see the classic Twin Peaks phrase “wrapped in plastic” taken so literally—but a Redditor posted the above photo of an Orthodox Jewish […]

Rabbi Lord Sacks touts atheist churches

The Chief Rabbi of the UK, Lord Sacks, has a piece at at HuffPo: “Worship at the atheist altar,” whose title is just a wee bit misleading. Yes, he does urge atheists to worship at churches, and describes one of them in London, but his real point is that even “church”-going atheists are doing it […]

Famous physicists appear in film using cosmology to prove God

UPDATE: I’ve heard from Dr. Randall, who objected to my characterization of her as an “atheist.” I apologize for that and add the correction she wishes to make: “. . . I rarely say I’m an atheist–I say I’m a nonbeliever. I actually think it’s a stupid word. (Do we have a word for non-most […]

Wacky Rabbi Sacks: Religion is here to stay because of evolution

Several readers sent me this op-ed piece from yesterday’s New York Times. It’s by Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, and is called “The moral animal.”  And it pains me terribly for two reasons. The first is my prejudice that religious Jews are not supposed to be as loony as, say, religious Christians or Muslims. […]

Rabbi defends nativity scene on public land

I’m not sure what the “War on Christmas” really is, nor do I bother myself much with the celebrations of a nonexistent Jebus. But what I do object to is using the excuse of the holiday to breach the American wall of church and state by putting religious symbols on public land.  Nativity scenes crop […]

Sarah Silverman goes after new “voter fraud” regulations; is criticized by rabbi for being unmarried and childless

A lot of people dislike Sarah Silverman for her potty mouth or Lenny Bruce-ian form of throwing light on prejudice. I happen to like her a lot, find her comedy whip-smart; and of course she’s many Jewish boys’ dream girl. Like all good cultural Jews, she’s also a liberal. In the following video she pulls […]

Britain’s Chief Rabbi calls Richard Dawkins a “Christian atheist”

This is one of the funner religion-related posts we’ve had in a while.  Two days ago Richard Dawkins debated Britain’s chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks (why on earth is he a Lord?) at the BBC’s “Re:Think” religion festival in Salford, England. I’ve put a video of the debate at the bottom, which includes a hilarious exchange. […]

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