Israelis were shocked to hear that the new candidate for the “IDF Rabbi” position referred to homosexuals as “perverts”, but they were soon calmed by the explanation that this was only an academic biblical discussion. What’s this nonsense – ‘only an academic discussion’ – or in its Jewish flavor – ‘only a halachic commentary’? As […]

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 […]

A common tactic among those who try to preach religion, is applying the phrase ‘out of context’ to many quotations taken from religious texts by secular people – quotations which demonstrate the bad things in religion. Wikipedia explains ‘out of context’ as “a passage removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to […]

In February 1999 there was a big ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstration against the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) people demonstrated against the court’s recent decisions, which they seemed to dislike. In a nearby park, a much smaller demonstration was spontaneously formed, of non-religious people who protested against this mass […]

For tens of millions of years the Tethys Ocean covered the reef and its neighbors. “Cretaceous” – this is how we use to name this era. Millions of generations of dinosaurs roamed the distances somewhere, and even more generations of old crabs and shellfish were born, lived and died in the reef. Millions of grandfathers […]

Yesterday I saw a movie about Ireland in the beginning of the previous century (“Jimmy’s Hall”, recommended). True it had also some political contents, left-right and all that, but lots of religious stuff. You’re “evil” if you’re “anti-Christ”. You’re banned from society if you don’t believe Jesus is the son of God. The beginning of […]

“Religion is the opium of the people” is one of the most frequently quoted sayings of Karl Marx. Religion and economy don’t mix well, like oil and water. Together, they tend to form a vicious circle: Religion promotes poverty, which promotes religion. It takes a great leader, someone like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to pull a […]

Before killing seven CIA agents in a suicide attack in Pakistan in 2009, the terrorist Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi took a video of himself, in which – among other things – he expressed satisfaction with the fact of soon meeting his victims, when he is in paradise and they are suffering in hell. The planned […]

So the Israeli elections are behind us, or so it seems. The media is super-busy with coverage, providing occupation for tens of local analysts and commentators, not to mention hundreds of comedians and other jokers making fun of our elected representatives, often rightfully. Most of the statistics we hear about refer to allegedly “important” things: […]

It really pisses me off when I’m being blamed for ‘hatred’. Try to criticize religion, especially the Middle-Eastern ones. Soon you’ll find yourself as the target of various accusations, which may start with ‘hatred’ and end with ‘Anti-Semitism’ and ‘Islamofobia’. Religions are not very tolerant of criticism, and that is an understatement. The issue has […]