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A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan

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Re: A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan

#21

Post by DougN7 »

comrade1234 wrote: post #16

Around Santa Monica too and into the ocean so that people of the Jewish faith can go to the beach and swim in the ocean on the sabbath. I love that as part of their religion they think that they can trick their god. It just seems healthy to me, as an atheist.

That’s what surprises me. To truly believe and live your life by a set of rules, and then think you’ve hoodwinked the Creator. I’d like to know exactly how they expect their final judgement to go. There must be more going on in their thoughts than appears.

Re: A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan

#22

Post by nuc1e0n »

Animats wrote: post #11

The biblical idea is that you're supposed to stay home. The first level of cheat was that multiple buildings surrounded by a wall could be defined as "home". The next cheat level was that the concept of "wall" was defined down. I'm surprised that some clever religious type hasn't figured out a cheat to define the whole planet as "home". It's all kind of tacky, like kosher elevators and kosher light switches. You're s…

Why bother 'cheating' at all? If you don't want to follow those precepts, then just don't.

Re: A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan

#23

Post by amenhotep »

comrade1234 wrote: post #16

Around Santa Monica too and into the ocean so that people of the Jewish faith can go to the beach and swim in the ocean on the sabbath. I love that as part of their religion they think that they can trick their god. It just seems healthy to me, as an atheist.

It's not tricking, though. The rules come from holy texts, they're perfect, if you find what seems like a loophole then it must obviously be intended. It's blasphemous, even, to think that you understand what god means better than he did when he had the texts written.

Seems odd that his precepts would be satisfied by stringing a wire from some sticks, sure, but he's god, presumably he has his reasons.

Re: A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan

#25

Post by IAmBroom »

awakeasleep wrote: post #19
keane wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s much more complicated and interesting than this. Books have been written about it (eg. Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity by Elana Stein Hain). One of the ideas is that halachic loopholes are meant to be discovered. It’s also been compared metaphorically to the difference between tax evasion (impermissible) and tax avoidance (legal means to reduce our obligation created…

What is really incredible and worth dwelling on is how self-deception can be so clear and obvious to every person except the self. This, of course, applies to us all equally.

It honestly feels like a corollary to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: Your ability to morally justify a cheat to yourself is proportional to how badly you want to win.
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