Friday, January 21, 2011

Amish Orthopraxy

I have been watching this BBC series on the Amish, following two Amish men who are essential Orthoprax Amish. They are still believing Christians, but they struggle with trying to keep their Amsih lifestyle while being outcasts in the Amish community due to their alternative worldview.

Enjoy and have a great Shabbos/Weekend.

Part 1:
(See the section with them watching the horses, looks kinda like a Chassidishe gathering)


Part 2:
(Strict Rules on dress, remind you of anything?)


Part 3:


Part 4:
(Note the laws of Tahor and Tammei)


Part 5:


Part 6:

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Pascal's Wager

Recently I got in  a short but heated argument with abele derer on Baruch Pelta's blog post "The Kuzari Principle (Proof from Mass Revelation), Rationalist Judaism, and My Defense of Being an Atheist Jew" over Pascal's Wager.

Here are some very well made videos that on how the wager is a poor reason to become a theist.



Here is a second video aimed at countering the rebuttals made to the original video.


The major point I was trying to make in my argument with AD is that you definitely do give up something if you decided to become a theist based on Pascal's Wager. You give up integrity and self respect. Those are things I am not willing to give up on a wager such as this.