Terror in Paris

We hear today of an attack by terrorists on freedom of speech. I have not previously heard of Charlie Hebdo. Now "I am Charlie." I don't know when it will happen, but let us hope that one day reason will prevail over stupidity. True belief in God is to search for meaning in life. These fundamentalist terrorists pervert religion and have no real purpose other than terrorism for its own sake.

Restoring Relations with Cuba

The news that the USA and Cuba are going to restore normal relations and that prisoners will be released on both sides is good news. Every dispute has to end some time. The cold war ended long ago, but somehow it didn't end until now in regard to Cuba. The government in Cuba has more to fear from this fresh air than the US government.

Murder in Jerusalem

Today we read about a terrible murder of Jewish rabbis and a policeman by Palestinian terrorists in a West Jerusalem synagogue. There is no excuse for murder. The 2 murderers were shot and killed in a gun battle with police. Nenayahu promised a strong response as he should, but the response should be done intelligently with a Jewish head. There will be some Jews (like the idiots who pulled a Palestinian kid off the street and brutally murdered him in retaliation for the murder of 3 Jewish kids last summer) who will want to respond stupidly. The homes of the terrorists families will be destroyed which is OK if that is the best way to do it. But indiscriminate group punishment of Arabs who have nothing directly to do with the murders will further the goals of Hamas. Hamas openly praised the murders as expected. Mahmoud Abbas condemned them but added an implication that this is caused by encroachment of Jews on the Temple Mount. This was not a time for “but.” Simply condemning the murders would have been enough just as Yitzhak Rabin did after the murder of Moslems praying at a site holy to both Jews and Moslems years ago by a Jew. At that time he started his talk by saying something like “today I am ashamed.” But Rabin was a hero, and Abbas is a chicken. Rabin was murdered by a Jewish terrorist for his courage. Abbas lives with his cowardice just as Arafat did when he rejected an opportunity for a Palestinian state in the Clinton-Barak plan and instead opted for the intifada.

But while condemning Abbas for his lack of courage, one must look for how Israel can deal with the almost impossible predicament it is in. Israel is located in a wild neighborhood. How can it make peace with an enemy many of whom if not most are not willing to compromise. Adding to the problem is that on a lesser scale, there is a zealous Jewish faction which is also delusional in its goals. The Jews of Israel are there to stay, no matter what, but so are the Palestinian Moslems.

The problem has changed somewhat in recent years. Early on it was Arab nationalism versus Jewish nationalism. It has changed in that political religious fundamentalism is taking over, particularly in Islam, but also to a lesser extent in Jewish Israel and to some extent in the Jewish world outside of Israel. The problem is not religion. Belief in God does serve a purpose in life. Even fundamentalism does not necessarily demand disregard for others. But political religion does. Political religion gone wild can be misused to justify the most vile and cruel behavior as we have seen today in the murders in Jerusalem.

In dealing with the Arabs, Israel needs to maximize its advantages. It has the most advanced military in the neighborhood. It has great intelligence capabilities. It is far ahead of its neighbors in science and technology. In spite of all its faults, it is a democracy. Even though it is a pressure cooker nation, it has civility and stability that do not exist in the surrounding countries. These are the positive streams in Israel that make it strong. But there are challenges where Israel could do better to secure its future. More should be done to include the 25% of the nation that is not Jewish. There are many if not most Israeli Arabs who very much want to be included as equals in Israeli society. Israeli children need to be taught inclusiveness toward all their fellow citizens, not just the Jewish majority. Israel is and should be a country where Hebrew is the predominant language. But when Netanyahu insists that the Arabs including his own citizens must recognize that Israel is the Jewish state, he is cutting out 25% of his country.  Of course Israel is a predominantly Jewish nation, but he doesn’t have to shove it down their throats. Israel should also encourage a reasonable amount of immigration to bring in people who will raise their children to be Hebrew speaking loyal Israelis, Jewish or not, and keep the demographic clock in Hebrew Israel’s favor. Israel should encourage various forms of Judaism, like Reform and Conservative, to fill the void between Orthodoxy and nothing. Eventually, globalism, science, and open mindedness will win out over the medieval darkness that is taking over the Middle East. I am sure there are people out there in the surrounding Moslem world who share the same hope that Israelis want, but are afraid to say so. Israel needs to open up to them. The road ahead is now and will be difficult, but what else can Israel do but keep trying? Eventually reason and enlightenment have to win in Israel and all over the world.

Comments on Two Articles in the Jewish Journal

I found two very thought provoking articles in the recent issue of the Jewish Journal (Los Angeles, California) about which I would like to comment.

One interesting article by Jacob Wirtschafter concerns Israel, Nigeria, and the Ebola epidemic. Apparently, Israel has developed good relations with Nigeria, and Nigerians make up the largest group of tourists from Africa to Israel. Nigeria has been able to prevent the Ebola outbreak from taking over as it has in other West African countries with less developed health systems. The USA has requested that Israel send army field hospitals to West Africa to help fight the Ebola epidemic, but Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli defense minister blocked it, claiming his defense budget is too low. However there is in Israel an NGO organization IsraAID that will be sending teams to fight Ebola in West Africa. Mr. Yaalon is short sighted (He is also the guy who has insulted the USA, Israel’s best friend). Sending Israelis to do mitzvahs in underdeveloped countries is the positive stream in Israel. Building friends for Israel is an important part of Israel’s defense. I have now included IsraAID as one of my favorite objects for donations along with Ben Gurion University, the American Jewish World Service, and the Joint Distribution Committee. Unfortunately Mr. Yaalon and people who think like him are the negative stream.

Another interesting article is “The West Bank and Gaza: Give Economics a Chance.” Essentially it says that a Marshall Plan-like aid to build up the economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip would help solve the problems between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I agree that this is a goal that should be worked toward. But there are some big problems getting in the way of reaching that goal. Loosening the blockade on Gaza would help to improve the Gaza economy, but it would also allow in weapons and materials like cement to line tunnels to send terrorists into Israel. That is not theoretical. It actually happened. But it happened in spite of the blockade. The economic situation on the West Bank has improved, but the growing West Bank settlements and an attitude by some far right Israelis of a Greater Israel including the West Bank with no concern for the interests of the Palestinians creates an impossible situation. The fence blocks commerce but keeps out terrorists, but it is part of a situation that can not last forever. There are many facets to solving the problem. It will happen gradually and in steps, but in order to happen it has to start. The Palestinians need hope. Neither side will get a perfect solution. Perhaps autonomy for Palestine or confederation with Israel should be the first goal. This could end up being the best final solution for both sides, or it could be a step toward complete independence for both. As for Gaza, in order to be helped peacefully, they need a government that wants it and respects it. So far Hamas has not done that. But who knows? Things can change with or without Hamas.

Congress

Well, the Republicans have won the House and Senate. So now the ball is in their court. The Republican administration under George Bush destroyed the American economy by spending gobs of money on an unnecessary (in fact counter-productive) war in Iraq and borrowing instead of taxing to pay for it. The Republicans made their major objective defeating President Obama. It's amazing that President Obama has accomplished so much. So now the ball is in the Republican court. Their dilemma is do they compromise with the President and accomplish something, or continue as they have and accomplish nothing?

Conversation with an Evangelist

Recently, while I was sitting in a thrift shop waiting for my wife while she was shopping, a gentleman approached me and engaged me in a conversation about God. At first I thought he was just waiting for his wife and wanted to converse to pass the time. It started something like this. He asked what my feelings were about the afterlife. He looked to be at least as old as I am, and at our ages the question takes on particular importance. As the conversation continued, I realized that he was not just passing time but actually was trying to convert me to his point of view. He is apparently a fundamentalist Christian evangelist. I found the conversation interesting because I have a particular point of view on the subject of religion, and I wanted to bounce those ideas off of him to see what a person with a point of view different from mine might think of them. At first we found many points of agreement. We both believe in God, but ultimately we hit a brick wall. He believed the Bible, including the New Testament, to be the word of God and every word is the absolute truth. He believes his interpretation of that truth to be the only interpretation. I believe the Bible was written by people, and therefore not necessarily every word must be exactly correct. I think that the Bible gives hope but no guarantees. I think that much of what is predicted in the Bible may very well come true because it was written by people and it is possible that achievements that seem impossible now might actually come to pass through the efforts of human intelligence in the future. I think the time of the Messiah might actually come at some time in the future, but it will not be contingent on how much we pray or whether we believe in God, but through science, reason, and technology, in other words the cumulative efforts of people. Meanwhile religion plays an important role in keeping our hopes alive until that time.

So we parted. He did not convince me to believe as he does. I did not change his beliefs and did not want to change his beliefs. If his beliefs work for him, who am I to tell him to change? He gave me some small pamphlets and his phone number to call him if I have any questions. I later threw away the pamphlets and the phone number. I don’t like long phone conversations. If he had given me an e-mail address I might have been tempted to renew the conversation or maybe not.

Belief in God

I know I mentioned it in a previous blog, but let me reiterate my approach to belief in God. I believe in God. I do not believe it is necessary or possible to verify God’s existence. The important question is not whether there is a God, but rather why believe in God.

Belief in a deity or deities can be found in most cultures from the most primitive to the most sophisticated. This has occurred even in places where people have been isolated from the rest of humanity for many generations. Why? The reason for the universal belief in God or gods is that once humans began to learn to communicate, they could record events (even verbally before the invention of writing). This allowed them to look at the past (history) and predict the future. That presented them with the realization of the temporary existence of individual life and of the chaotic environment over which they had little control. Religion gave them answers that could not be found elsewhere.

So for me, belief in God is to be able to think about God, to discuss, to hope, to say that life has meaning and is not just chaos. I think the best evidence for God is in logic, mathematics (the most scrupulous logic), and in statistics. The bell curve of statistics is an expression of randomness. But given a population big enough it always appears in a bell shape (for a logical reason). So is random existence really random? Yes and no.

Many of the most hopeful predictions of the Bible could very well come true at some time in the future because they were written by people. As time progresses, we humans come up with advancements that previously had seemed impossible. I believe that anything desirable (like maybe bringing humans back to life “in the end of time”) written by people in the past is possible. Prayer keeps the hope alive, but research and technology might make it happen.

What really counts is consciousness, not the physiology and chemistry that keeps consciousness alive. Our thoughts that continue even after we die (whether continued by speech, writing, electronically, or whatever modality will exist in the future) are our souls and put together perhaps that is what God is. As the Bible says, we are made in the image of God. Some would say God is made in the image of man. I don’t see any necessary difference between the two. We already have artificial body parts. Perhaps one day scientists will figure out how to extract human consciousness from the mind to maintain it separate from the flesh and blood and eventually keep it going forever. We know that light waves keep radiating over long distances for long periods of time. For example, the stars we see in the sky are actually light sent out thousands of years ago. Perhaps there are some kind of as yet unknown waves out somewhere that will give us the information needed to recreate all the humans who ever lived. Then if this were possible, where would we put all the people? Well maybe consciousnesses would not need so much physical space? Or maybe by that time we would have explored and settled the whole universe. All this stuff sounds impossible, and maybe it is impossible, but what would a person living 2000 years ago have thought if told about the possibilities of electricity, computers, automobiles, airplanes, and space travel? Anyway, hope is what religion should be about. We can organize it with structure and prayer, but we should not lose site of its purpose and certainly not subvert it with political and financial secondary gain.