Wine – especially red wine – is one of my hobbies. There’s something special about this red liquid with its unique aroma. Spending some time in a winery is also a unique experience. Nowhere else you can breathe the air and enjoy something like that. The so-called “western” religions of the world possess special attitudes […]

It doesn’t matter if you make my country more “Jewish” or more “democratic”, even if you promote lots of “heritage” lessons in your schools or you don’t, even if your judges base their verdicts on ancient Biblical ruling or ignore it completely, even so you “mark” some organizations but not others, no matter how much […]

It’s the little things that piss you off. The government may use your tax money to finance anti-education, to pump huge money into close associates’ bank accounts, even to spend it on luxury trips abroad. But you’re used to all that. It’s the little things that can really annoy. One of them being the Ministry […]

I owe the credit for this article to a friend whose name escapes me at the moment. “Fuck all various claims,” well, these were not exactly his words but that was the spirit of things, “It’s not any proof that convinces many people to believe in god and religion – it’s this issue of ‘soul’ […]

On the alleged symmetry between religion and atheism One of the arguments raised in countless discussions with various believers, deals with the alleged symmetry between religious faith and “atheism”. The religious believer may claim that atheists vigorously defend their viewpoints, just like religious believers. Furthermore, he or she may give many examples in which the […]

The word ‘Jewish’ is open to more than one interpretation. I remember once staying at the Scots Hotel, Tiberias, Israel (great restaurant, by the way). One of the features they offer visitors is a lecture about the hotel, its history and guidelines. They emphasize the fact that one third of the employees are “Christians”, another […]

The nice thing about defending one’s religious beliefs is that it’s always possible. In fact, “religious logic” is so flexible it can come up with two contradicting conclusions at the same time. Man was of course “created” by God, but evolution was intelligently designed. The game of justifying new scientific findings which seem to contradict […]

The ultra-Orthodox members of any religion – Judaism in particular – find themselves in a new kind of problem. Building walls between themselves and the outside world has always been a good strategy for nourishing religious contents, as silly as they may be. Alas, here comes the end of the 20th century with television, cellular […]

The name ‘Red herring’ has become associated with the logical fallacy of introducing irrelevant material to the issue being discussed, so that everyone’s attention is diverted away from the points made, towards a different conclusion (see here). For a long time I’ve been suspecting that preachers use this tactic on purpose, in order to try […]

The common myna is a songbird, quite widespread in Israel. It can easily be identified by two distinct characteristics: The yellow spots around the eyes – standing out against its dark color, and a remarkable collection of sounds. In fact the myna is known to mimic sounds of animals and even people. Another less prominent […]