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Maybe Orthodox Judaism thinks homosexuality is morally wrong but most other branches of Judaism do not. There are openly gay rabbis. I have 3 relatives who had same sex marriages presided over by rabbis. Not all Christian churches preach against homosexuality either. For example, The United...

OK, I understand what you're saying, more or less, although I don't see how it relates to the article under discussion. I have nothing more to say on the subject. You're entitle to your opinion.

The Shma says we should love God and Jesus reiterates the teachings of the Shma. I still don't understand who you are calling a sinner and why.

Nothead, Shema, or the Shma, is a Jewish prayer. Joshua and the Israelites crossed the River Jordan into the Land of Milk and Honey, long before Jesus was born, according to Joshua 3. Jesus said, "Judge not that ye be not judged?" Matthew 7:1. Where do you get your information?

This is how genocide begins. It starts with harassment, and if left unchecked, can lead to full scale ethnic/religious "cleansing". The irony here is that Baha'i is a monotheistic faith that believes all religions come from God. It speaks positively of Mohamed. Ibrahim's experience is one where...

Thanks Jane and Paarsurrey. As you’ll see, we have 3 answers among us to the question, “Who inherited Isaac's flock and the rest of his ‘estate’ after he died?” Jane says Jacob received 2/3 inheritance; Paarsurrey says there was no inheritance to inherit by anyone. Here are my thoughts. First...

I agree that more highly evolved mammals probably have some free will, wil (and GKnot.) I don't know if that includes my dog, though.

There are different ways of knowing things and when you use different ways of knowing, you can get different results. Most of my understanding of the world comes from some combination of observation, talking to people, my personal experiences (viewed at least somewhat objectively), reading and...

No. Why do you ask? Have you?

I haven’t been able to follow all the philosophical discussions on this thread but I think that free will that needs to be addressed in any serious discussion of religion. When it comes to most things I am a determinist except for 1)quantum mechanics, where I am an indeterminist and 2)the...

I'm sorry Shibolet but I'm still unclear about what you think about my post #97. I have 3 questions, each with 3 or more options for your answer, including "none of the above." Q1 :When you say you missed the characteristic of probability in my post, do you mean you missed it because you...

Would you please explain the non-dual philosophy of 'advaita', in simple terms if you can. Thanks.

How did I miss the target? Please explain. Oh, I see I did post my post, more or less repeated in #97, above. It's #3 in the Ultimate Proof of God thread.

Shibolet, I'm sorry I didn't respond to your challenge earlier. I know I wrote a response but I must have forgotten to submit it, or something, because it appears not to be here. So here's take 2: As an atheist my position is not that the universe caused itself to exist. I don't know why the...

Paarsurrey, If I understand you correctly, you are saying that Isaac, as second born, would have received nothing from Abraham and therefore had nothing to bequeath to either of his sons. So your answer to the inheritance question appears to be that nobody inherited anything from Isaac because...

Jane, I just did a search. Apparently you are correct about what the Bible says about inheritance rights. Never-the-less, I have a different answer in the case of Isaac and his sons, although it's just a hypothesis. I'll wait to give others a chance to pipe in before I give my own response...

Jane, That's interesting. Where did you get this information? Was it in the Bible or some other source?

GKnots' entertaining description of scientists reminds me of a story I heard somewhere. I think it might be true. Once upon a time, in a prestigious university on the coast of a great country, a young mathematician had the good fortune to be working with a revered scholar in his field. The...

GKnot, No it’s not too personal. I’m glad you asked. I go to secular services for the High Holidays: Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). We recite "prayers" of sorts, that allows each of us, individually, to reflect upon our past year and commit ourselves to trying to...

Thinking about this thread a few weeks ago a question occurred to me: Who inherited Isaac's flock and the rest of his "estate" after he died? It surprised me that I never wondered about this before as I learned the story as a child and read Genesis more than a few times since. The answer also...