From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Thu 07 Nov 2002 - 17:59:23 GMT
>
> On Thursday, November 7, 2002, at 01:36 , joedees@bellsouth.net wrote:
>
> >> What a strange thing to be reminded of. Are you perhaps Jewish or
> >> Palestinian? Everything you think of seems to lead you in that
> >> direction.
> >>
> > Actually, I am Irish, English, Dutch and 1/4 Native American.
>
> The whole concept that 'jewish' is a racial description has always
> mystified me. 'Xian' or 'hindu' or 'muslim' or 'buddhist' are not
> racial descriptions. (Then again, the willingness of its followers to
> call a religion a racial characteristic is perhaps an augury of their
> willingness to kill to prove it....) Then again, irish, english,
> dutch, and even 'native american', are all _place-holders_ of
> geopolitical location. What religion one adopts has nothing to do with
> characteristics adapted from the _geological_ environment, (although
> some of the laws of that religion might be, i.e. kosher laws of meal
> preparation and storage), and if we are to accept any memetic stance
> having religions as cultural creations, that is a reinforced position.
>
> What does _place_ of birth or color of skin or eyes or hair have to do
> with it? (First, of course, one has to accept 'race' as a concept, and
> I, personally, do not.)
>
> I suppose with some it's a matter of, for so long, only having places
> of birth on the road, especially after begin told countless times that
> yahweh had reserved a very special place on the planet for you and you
> were expected to fight for it.
>
> The matter of who belongs on any piece of land is deep-inlaid
> territorial primate urge. States, and the religions usually wrapped
> inextricably into them, are reinforcers of tribal territoriality, and
> as such, will always be war-mongering.
>
> Calling political religions ethically pacifistic institutions is a
> primary error.
>
Jewish is not primarily a racial description, but a religious one. Anyone
who wishes can become a Jew; Sammy Davis, Jr. did. (BTW; I am a
secular humanist with NeoPagan sympathies)
>
> - Wade
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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