111–120 of 175 posts
Clever hack, but if you're coming up with ways to circumvent your religion's practices, are you really still practicing your religion?
Clever hack, but if you're coming up with ways to circumvent your religion's practices, are you really still practicing your religion?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are just trying to bend definitions to make them agree with what you're saying. The common definition for "god", from http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/god#Noun is "A supernatural, typically immortal being with superior powers". The "supernatural", "being" and "superior powers" parts are very clear. If you can accept that a supernatural being with superior powers created existence, then you cannot be atheist. If you…
Whatever created existence (or the big bang) is by definition supernatural (which means outside nature). So my definition is not different, just differently formulated. > If you can accept that a supernatural being with superior powers created existence, then you cannot be atheist. Using your definition no atheists even exist, or at least they are illogical because clearly existence exists. It was created somehow . O…
Unless nothing created existence, and the big bang was a natural event unrelated to the existence of existence.
>are we going to argue about the word "being"
Maybe. "being" is pretty clear and necessary to have a God. Wind comes from outside the ocean to make waves, but it is in no way a being or a God. No matter how 'supernatural' it would be from the perspective of ocean=nature.
No binary decision is ever truly perfect, but the yes/no of atheism is pretty damn close.
There's only one empty set.
Clever hack, but if you're coming up with ways to circumvent your religion's practices, are you really still practicing your religion?
The opposite happens too. Look at where the rule against mixing milk and meat comes from. Such an enormous extrapolation from an ultra-specific line.
To be fair, cooking a calf in its mother's milk is pretty messed up, so going a bit overboard on that one isn't going to keep me up at night.
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> I'm _I_ collecting the money when a third party (or automated process) deposits it on my bank account? Yes. You don't have to physically touch it to own it. There is a concept of "clearing", once the money clears it's yours. The dispute is if it's enough to avoid clearing payments, or if you should avoid taking any orders altogether. > It would be the equivalent of delegating that responsibility to a non-jew. I don…
Easy solution to the last problem - create all AI to be Jewish, presumably by having a Jewish woman program it. Then it has to observe shabbos in its own right without you worrying about comparing it to a servant or an animal.
There is discussion in the Talmud on if a Golem can be counted for a quorum, i.e. can be considered Jewish, and the answer is no because like an animal, or an angel, a Golem does not have free will.
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Well, maybe. I don't understand the argument that you are "doing work" when a light automatically comes on for you in the first place. I can see arguing that opening a refrigerator is work, or that it isn't, but I can't see coming to a different conclusion if a light comes on when you open it. I would have made a crappy rabbi.
> I would have made a crappy rabbi. Me too. When someone asked me whether such-and-so was work, I would have just said, "Use your judgment. If it feels like work, it's work."
And the reason for that is that it's not about work, but about creative action.
Clever hack, but if you're coming up with ways to circumvent your religion's practices, are you really still practicing your religion?
The opposite happens too. Look at where the rule against mixing milk and meat comes from. Such an enormous extrapolation from an ultra-specific line.
In the Torah is only a hint to the laws, that's why the line looks so unspecific to you. It's just a reminder to check the oral tradition for the details.
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This, by the way, is a huge problem for a German expat in IL (back in DE now) during Passover. Not only do they hide bread, there's a certain golden drink that is just as off limits in all the 'following' supermarkets and that's quite interesting. (I kid. Yes, you don't get bread and beer, in theory. Tel Aviv has lots of shops that aren't Jewish or don't care or .. so it's mostly a sight to be seen and a way to explo…
I was lost here for a minute until I finally realized that IL was Israel not Illinois.
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>I don't see having such cakes as a loophole, or even contrary to the spirit of the holiday, because the spirit of the holiday is to avoid leavened and bread products. I don't follow you here. Cakes are leavened, and the spirit of the holiday is to avoid leavened products. In my view, that makes the Kosher for Passover cakes (which are effectively leavened) a loophole. Or are you suggesting the Kosher for Passover ca…
Yes. Kosher-for-Passover cakes don't fall under the rules of leavening (chametz) in Jewish law. Sometimes they're made with potato flour. (Yuck.) Sometimes they're made with matza meal, which means very finely ground pieces of matza. The idea is that once flour has been wet and baked into matza, further contact with water won't leaven it. Some Jews don't accept this "wet matza" rule, but the majority do. If someone m…
Clever hack, but if you're coming up with ways to circumvent your religion's practices, are you really still practicing your religion?
Welcome to the world of Jewish law, in which it's considered acceptable to find ways around rules. For example: Jews aren't allowed to eat leavened food, known as "chamets," (e.g., bread) on Passover. We're also not allowed to own leavened products. What do you do with all of the food that you bought before Passover? In theory, you have to throw it out, which would be a huge waste of money. The solution is to sell th…
Welcome to every religion.
As a Catholic, I order pizza at 11:30pm on Good Friday and having probably wolfed down 2 slices by 12:01am after a day of fasting. I have Muslim friends who shift their hours around during Ramadan to sleep during more of the day.