Rabbi: Disengagement caused Tsunami

[davidinalameda]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1106796050503

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, former chief rabbi of Israel and leading halachic authority in the religious Zionist camp said this week that the tsunami that wracked South East Asia was retribution for supporting the disengagement plan.

In the latest edition of "Mayanei Hayeshua", a weekly Torah pamphlet distributed to thousands of synagogues throughout the country, Eliyahu was asked how we are to understand the tsunami.

Eliyahu answered, "The Talmud says that when God is angry at the nations of the world for not aiding Israel - they want to evacuate, to disengage, to interfere in our affairs, He claps his hands, causing an earthquake."


this is my WTF post for today

[trotsky]

1. This is why religion needs to get the fuck out of politics.

God's mad because we don't help Israel enough?

[Spinzonner]

2. The Tsunami victims aren't the only ones who were all wet

[Speck Tater]

3. And here I thought it was Neptune,

mad because he and his fellow Roman gods are no longer worshiped.

[trotsky]

4. That is JUST as valid, isn't it?

Too bad people like this guy won't "get it."

[mutus_frutex]

5. What do you expect from a religious fanatic?

This guy is the jewish equivalent of Pat Robertson..

[FM Arouet666]

6. An epiphany, the Rabbi is completely sane

I just realized that religious folk that make these statements are not insane, they make complete sense. That is to say, within the paradigm of their own belief system.

If you look at the world as a construction of a supreme being, controlled by that being, with all human life beholden to a deity, then yes, you might see natural disasters in the same way the Rabbi does.

Is he insane? No, completely logical within the frame work of a mind that interprets the world based on religion.

Is he incorrect? Yes, if you hold that science has been the only valid method to explore the physical world. Our current reality would support science much more than religion or philosophy.

The question becomes, why do we have leaders that support a religious interpretation over a scientific one. Appease the masses for votes? Personal ignorance? And the masses, generally ignorant of science? Excessively religious?

Religious people are not suffering from inferior intellect. Quite the contrary, many religious people are very intelligent. It is an ignorance of science and an unquestioning faith in religion that is the problem. :evilfrown:

[Sgent]

7. To give an indication

about 10% of Jews in the US are Modern Orthodox (the rest are more liberal).

Of those, probably 99% of them would find this idiots comments abysmal.

As a Reform Jew myself, I am sorry to share a religion with him (as he probably is with me).

[sakabatou]

8. Urgh

A nutjob and a disgrace.

[Djinn]

9. you'd think if this was the case

that God may have directed the tsunami a little more towards those nations that have an influence on Israel - I'm just not sure how much diplomatic pressure there was for the Gaza disengagement coming from Thai and Indonesian fishing villages.