DAS Blog

Why does it have to be an atheist challenging the sacriligious invocations of God on our currency, etc.? A key aspect of the Hebraic mindset is the idea that, unlike the ancient Greeks and Romans, etc., who would invoke the gods whenever possible and thus reduce such invocations to mere tokens of cultural belonging, the invocation of God is something significant and not to be done in vain.

So shouldn't people defending Judeo-Christian morality (I am sure Jesus would have some choice things to say about currency invoking God) be at the forefront of trying to get God off of our currency rather than fighting to keep a vain (I thought the religious right was in favor of the 10 commandments, not against them -- if they just want to post them without actually following them, doesn't that make those monuments into mere idols?) invocation on our currency? Why does the so-called "religious" right want to continue the cheapening of the invocation of God, reducing it to a mere token of cultural belonging? And why is it left to a non-believer to be safeguarding the name of God from vain invocation?

I guess a true Christian might respond -- that's just the way things are: after all, "blessed are the poor in spirit" -- not necessarily blessed are those with great faith.

BTW -- anybody hear about Harold Bloom's new book? The NY Times Book Review describes it as expressing the kinds of things many Jews think about Judaism (it is somehow distinct from the religious view expressed the J-author of Torah) and Christianity (Jesus was exactly aligned with the J-author, Christianity sometimes seems to be something quite different, which is not necessarily a bad thing) -- and that sounds about right to me from the descriptions presented in that review. I reckon I should actually read that book someday.