You all watched NOAH: The Movie right? Good, good stuff. Check out the creation scene below:

Does Rationality Give Life Meaning? (Kierkegaard) - 8-Bit Philosophy

This video was just too good not to post.







How's everyone doing out there?

The Truth of the Torah & The Tortoise and the Hare

Recently I was explaining to a small group of people how I could live as an orthodox Jew while at the same time be an atheist. Here is how I explained a part of that puzzle.

One of the famous stories from Aesop's Fables is The Tortoise and the Hare. As Wikipedia tells it:

The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise who challenges him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the course. The tortoise gets tired but he keeps going. When the hare awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him.

Now there are a number of ways to react to this story.

Someone might say "That can't possibly be a true story. Animals don't talk, let alone race." This is the response of an idiot.

Another response is "Hares must be evil and we must emulate tortoises in every way possible." This is the reaction of a fool.

"What can we learn from this story?" seems to be the only sensible approach to this fable or the Torah.

VIDEO: Sara Hurtwitz, first female orthodox "Rabba"

Sara Hurtwitz, first female orthodox "Rabba" on becoming a first in the Orthodox community, the backlash, and what keeps her going.

See more videos at: http://www.makers.com/sara-hurwitz

See the article mentioned in the video here:
Woman ‘Rabba’ Roils Orthodox World - The Forward

Crazy Watering Can

Israeli created student video. I don't agree with all of the parallels but I hear what he's saying.

Crazy Watering Can from vania heymann on Vimeo.

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

CONFIRMED: "No one is in charge. And honestly, that's even cooler."

On BoingBoing I came across this speech on living a meaningful, irreligious life given by Adam Savage, of Discovery Channel's MythBusters. The talk was given when he was accepting the Harvard Secular Society's Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism on behalf of MythBusters.

I particularly like the following section about the (chilling) moment of realization that the real world is not what you were raised on:

The fiction of continuity and stability that your parents have painted for you is totally necessary for a growing child. When you realize that it's not the way the world works, it's a chilling moment. It's supremely lonely.

— Delivered to the Harvard Humanist Society, April 2010

(read full speech here)

Adam is just talking about "growing up" but there is a parallel to an OTDer's shift from believing to unbelieving. I remember sensing my personal moment (at the end of my long search) when I came to the conclusion that god doesn't exist. That moment that evoked many feelings: acceptance, clarity, relief. But mostly there was an unfamiliar sense of "This is it. What you see is what you get." It was (and is) both reassuring and frightening. I was no longer worried about literal bogey men but then I was more worried about the real dangers in the world. You might say I felt more control over my personal destiny (what I would make of my life was MY fault/credit) but at the same time recognizing I was at the mercy of The Universe (i.e. car accidents, recessions, natural disasters, illness).

Have you experienced an "Ah Ha!/Oh Shit!" moment of your own? What emotions did it bring out of you?