There are many misconceptions and contradictions in old religions, yet the “best” must be those associated with outdated knowledge of our place in the universe. Thinking of Earth as the center of everything, and of one’s own location as the center of Earth — this perception might be considered arrogant, but it comes naturally with […]

Today is the Jewish “Yom Kippur”. It’s a day full of contradictions, some of which are rather odd. According to the Jewish “Halacha” (religious laws and tradition), it used to be a happy day, in which men chose women for the purpose of establishing a family. According to the same “Halacha” it is now a […]

There is a funny thing about writing fiction and legends. Things that are unimaginable in real life, become quite normal in fairy tales (the fairies themselves, to name one – no sexual meaning is intended here). Perhaps the most striking attribute of a legend is to assign human-like behaviors to other “things”. These can be […]

In the movie “Annie Hall”, Woody Allen plays the character Alvy Singer. In one scene he is standing in line near a guy who is pontificating about the media. The screenplay goes like this: Man: It’s the influence of television. Yeah, now Marshall McLuhan deals with it in terms of it being a-a high, uh, […]

“Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them.” – Samuel Palmer How do we know God wants us to refrain from stealing from others? How can we be so sure the Almighty is against adultery? After all, it’s kind of difficult to pinpoint any individual meeting with him (her? them?) recently. Yet, millions of people […]

Things get worse when they are imprinted in our minds with strong emotional context. Usually, when someone says bad things about our parents, children or loved ones, we tend to first react irrationally, even if some of the things said may be true. Many times in such cases, we don’t even bother to verify or […]

“It ain’t what a man don’t know that makes him a fool, but what he does know that ain’t so.” – Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) The workers of San Diego’s Wild Animal Park were facing a strange kind of problem. While promoting the California condor breeding program, they reached a point in time when […]

Do you belong to the PC-DOS generation? Have you ever played Lemmings? Many people have speculated about the suicidal behavior of these small rodents, which are known to deliberately run in large numbers over high cliffs to their deaths. The Lemming Suicide Plunge was granted interesting evolutionary explanations. Some said it was a natural impulse […]

“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.” – Henry Havelock Ellis We’ll start this little fascinating research with three different short stories. One of them is somewhat fictitious. The other two are based on fact. Two of them (not necessarily the same two!) […]