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Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

aeon.co

241–250 of 285 posts

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#241
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of cause. People don't dismiss "religious things" like singing, gathering together or confiding in others. They dismiss the religious part of those things. And the assumption that wearing spaghetti strainers or turning off your phone on the weekends will somehow bring you closer to the giant spaghetti monster in the sky. > It's why the stories and practice of them have survived so long (because the practitioners…

> to the giant spaghetti monster in the sky. It seems like you could make your point without going out of your way to insult people. You don’t have to believe in anything, but wouldn’t it be considered “hate speech” to essentially besmirch those that believe in God? If we said something about an ethnicity’s cultural traditions, would that be acceptable on HN? Of course not. But somehow making fun of someone’s religio…

> You don’t have to believe in anything, but wouldn’t it be considered “hate speech” to essentially besmirch those that believe in God?

Just because someone doesn't believe in the existence of a god doesn't mean they "believe in nothing".

I believe in all sorts of things. I believe in a naturalistic universe, that came about, and operates, in a naturalistic fashion. This is not the absence of belief.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Jewish and don't observe but know a lot that do and also talk about how great it is to be able to leave everything behind on the Sabbath. I can definitely see the value in disconnecting one day a week. However, they also do a lot of really weird things that I can imagine creates even more stress, just for the sake of interpreting religious law as strictly as possible. For example, my friend's cousin accidentally…

My oven has a Shabbat mode: when you activate this mode, touching the controls doesn't make any sound anymore, opening the oven door doesn't trigger the light, and when touching a button the effect is delayed by a few seconds so you're not technically getting any result from touching the button while still getting the effect from touching the button.

I always find these things kind of funny. How important are these rules if god is so easily tricked?

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the concept of a weekend at least as old as Sabbath, ie thousands of years?

Yes, but it was only recently “won”: that is, most of western society has had two days off per week (to varying degrees) for just over 100 years if my recollection is right.

And we will probably never get to three days off (for the majority of population) despite all the productivity growth etc.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Jewish and don't observe but know a lot that do and also talk about how great it is to be able to leave everything behind on the Sabbath. I can definitely see the value in disconnecting one day a week. However, they also do a lot of really weird things that I can imagine creates even more stress, just for the sake of interpreting religious law as strictly as possible. For example, my friend's cousin accidentally…

My oven has a Shabbat mode: when you activate this mode, touching the controls doesn't make any sound anymore, opening the oven door doesn't trigger the light, and when touching a button the effect is delayed by a few seconds so you're not technically getting any result from touching the button while still getting the effect from touching the button.

Don’t you trigger an electronic counter by pressing the button?

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My oven has a Shabbat mode: when you activate this mode, touching the controls doesn't make any sound anymore, opening the oven door doesn't trigger the light, and when touching a button the effect is delayed by a few seconds so you're not technically getting any result from touching the button while still getting the effect from touching the button.

Don’t you trigger an electronic counter by pressing the button?

If I recall, some of these modes activate a random timer, so you don’t directly trigger an action. More like indicating that an action should occur, without directly starting it.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#246
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on your understanding Christianity is also an ethnicity?

Many people treat it that way. If you're "Christianed" or "Baptised" CofE and Catholics will both mostly consider you Christian even if you're an atheist by confession. The issue is that religious actions become cultural actions. And that religious leaders claim people as their own. People who live in Thisistan are Chrewslims; or people whose parents were Chrewslims are also that. Silly.

Overall silly, but that history and location are important to understanding the ground in which a person grew, so to speak. There are some quips about "the God an atheist doesn't believe in" that have a point -- a person's worldview is shaped by ambient society and the philosophy they were exposed to as a child.

It is weird how culture and religion become decoupled and religious actions become cultural markers.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#247
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electrical power stations, security guards, newspapers (they work on Sunday to print the news for momray mornkng), tv and radio, isps, hotels, airports, trains, small shops. It's basically just big shops that close. Anachronistic practice that makes no sense. Go to Jerusalem on a Saturday and you'll see what "not working" means. Still plenty of people working though.

Don't they have quite large non-Jewish population that keeps working?

This is in response to someone equating Sundays in Germany with Saturdays in Israel. Even in Israel though things don't shut down.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#248
post #42

Kind of have this in Germany, where many businesses are prohibited from being open on Sunday. For example, grocery stores can't be open unless they're at a central train station or airport. In practice, to me it just feels really annoying and limiting. Means I basically have to plan any larger shopping trips for Saturday, even if that doesn't work well for my schedule. I get that they want to make sure workers have e…

As we live in a society, it makes sense to have a common day of rest - consider that schools, hospitals, public transit etc. are also resting. Plus your family and friends.

Hospitals are certainly not resting. You might not have a scheduled procedure on the weekend, but those places certainly aren't resting. Public transport depends. Airports certainly aren't closing. Taxis still run. Some places will halt bus service, basically meaning poor folks cannot spend time with family on that day - other places don't halt much at all or simply have fewer buses. Gas stations are generally open. Emergency services are open and tow trucks are available. Many places have on-call HVAC folks available (for when heat breaks) and/or emergency plumbers/electricians. Utilities still have folks on-call to fix those. In some places, a pharmacy is open due to a hospital being nearby (mostly because the hospital won't really give out prescriptions).

"A common day of rest" depends on a portion of society doing their jobs on that day of rest, not to mention the ability to do the stuff they need to do the rest of the week.

I don't even think it makes sense to have a common day of rest - perhaps save a few (3-4) holidays a year. I don't see the issue with someone wanting to not miss work for the doctor and go on Sunday afternoon instead. Nor should it be odd for a family to get together on a Wednesday afternoon. Just make sure folks have the flexibility to do these things. The individual should definitely get days off, but that doesn't mean society should stop one day a week.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#249
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I can't lie -- it sometimes seems appealing compared to the constant, gnawing sense that you might not be doing things good enough that comes with Christianity.

The thing about Christianity is that you can always be forgiven. It's understood that people are imperfect sinners and while there are ideals and moral codes, we will fall short of them.

What's the incentive to even try to do the "right" thing if you can always be forgiven?

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#250
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of cause. People don't dismiss "religious things" like singing, gathering together or confiding in others. They dismiss the religious part of those things. And the assumption that wearing spaghetti strainers or turning off your phone on the weekends will somehow bring you closer to the giant spaghetti monster in the sky. > It's why the stories and practice of them have survived so long (because the practitioners…

> to the giant spaghetti monster in the sky. It seems like you could make your point without going out of your way to insult people. You don’t have to believe in anything, but wouldn’t it be considered “hate speech” to essentially besmirch those that believe in God? If we said something about an ethnicity’s cultural traditions, would that be acceptable on HN? Of course not. But somehow making fun of someone’s religio…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
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