2007-02-15

Divine Land Grant

Today we find a letter which reminds us how dangerous mixing religion and politics can be. This letter by Harvey Weinshenker was published today under the heading, “Israel: Lack of research noted.”

A letter writer's opinion about Israel and the United States was well taken. However, a little research on his part would be in order.

In 1948, the U.S. government introduced and voted in favor of the U.N. resolution establishing the current state of Israel.

But even many thousands of years before that event, a higher authority (God) established the geographic boundaries of Israel. He is still the landlord and holds the deed. Read the Bible.

Although I am far too ignorant of the intricacies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to adopt even a general stance toward it, I am confident in saying that such an opinion is the paragon of superstition and tribalism which has fueled the mutual antagonism in this region for millennia. It's sad enough to realize that anyone in the modern world believes that an invisible perfect being has given a certain tract of land to a certain ethnic group in perpetuity, but then one realizes that he expects this claim to be respected merely because it's written down on a piece of paper. He doesn't seem to understand that the vast majority of the world, i.e., everyone who is neither a Christian nor a Jew, does not accept the validity of this divine land grant.

Perhaps the followers of the Invisible Pink Unicorn should ask her to grant them the islands of Hawaii as their homeland.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Using your own words, "I am far too ignorant ...", I must respond even to you: even if you are an aethiest (forgive my spelling), the Bible is still considered some what of a hisory book. As such, it still sets out the geography of Israel (the United Nations is not even mentioned therein). Respectfully, Harvey Weinshenker (born Jewish and a practicing Catholic for the past 47 yrs.). Religion has nothing to do with it!!! The creator of us all, does!!!

David Mann said...

While the Bible does indeed contain some authentic history, atheists most certainly do not recognize the Bible as any sort of authority, especially regarding alleged conversations with invisible beings thousands of years ago. What is written in that books is completely irrelevant to those outside the Abrahamic traditions.

Your contradictory claims that religion has nothing to do with anything but that God does indicates that you are not open to any of my argumentation at this point.