For part I of How I Spent My Judgment Days see my previous post.
For a three day Yom Tov Rosh Hashanah was alright. It helped that I had so much reading material. I started reading Dawkins but I got bored pretty quick. His book is a lot like Hitchens in that they both break down the argument for why religion is eeeeeevil. I will get back to it but I wanted to try something new.
I stuck Thus Spoke Zarathustra in my tallis bag and read it in the back row of shul during davening. It was a nice change of pace. The book is interesting. I got the impression that Nietzsche was trying to write a bible of sorts for the non-believer. His language is over the top, almost every chapter is a kind of life-lesson, and he ends each chapter with the refrain "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Maybe it loses something in the translation but he seems to go out of his way to give it the feel of a religious text. I read a lot of it. I didn't really buy into his idea that our role in life is to make way for the Superman. I like his call to be a proactive participant in life and to have an impact on the world. But, if I understand him, he wants us to do so for the next step in human evolution (the Superman) which sounds a lot like serving god to me. Not my idea of a fulfilling life. He had some interesting ideas. If you pick this up be warned, it is no easy read.
I am so glad I picked up A Brief History of Time. Hawking is fantastic. I was not able to put this book down! The concepts are just fascinating. I find that I have to read some sentences (or paragraphs) a couple dozen times to understand them but it is worth the payoff. Thankfully I have been exposed to many of the ideas before so it's not totally unfamiliar. However, I have been having a little trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of a quanta. (I keep thinking I've got it but then I'll read something that makes me feel I don't fully grasp the concept.) If anyone has a good site that explains it please forward the link to me. LubabNoMore@gmail.com
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah I did finally get to the Reconstructionist services. I will post on that tomorrow.
3 comments:
I read a debate between Hawkins and a moderate Christian pastor, in Newsweek (or Time?) and I noticed that Hawkins was speaking with much more sense than the moderate pastor and moreover that MY thinking was more in line with Hawkins. That was quite a revelation for me re my own mind set.
nikol, the article you linked to was interesting. But since I'm an atheist the "avoda zorah" in Rosh HaShananh doesn't bother me. As far as I'm concerned all religion is false idol worship.
Philosophy, one of the toughest subjects I had to endure in college. Hey, anyone that intentionally picks up Nietzsche is is some kind of demi-god in my book. :)
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