[lbo-talk] The atheist delusion

Jack Stewart jackguy at newsguy.com
Tue Jun 3 11:37:47 PDT 2008


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> But if it's so fundamental, why have so many of us shed it? Most of
> Western Europe and Japan, and even some 14% of Americans are more or
> less secular.
>
> Doug
>
Limiting myself to the European cultural tradition, and to the supernatural aspects of religion - I tend to accept that powerless people tend to emphasize the supernatural aspects of religion.

I tend to view the different levels of political power between the average EU citizen versus the average U.S. citizen to be of some importance in explaining the cultural attitudes towards supernatural authority, as well as the social status of the "intellectual." IMO: Although the pile of democratic nations has been growing, when the ability of U.S. voters to influence their government is considered, the U.S. voter is close to the bottom of that pile!

In some sense "god" and the state are related. Judah is a Greek term for a tribe and later a nation. The original root may be Yahweh. At the very least the written forms are very closely related.

Of course as a democracy activist I am very biased.

Jack

My Rule of Thumb: People without power tend to suffer.

My ( under construction ) web site - Political Power in the U.S.:and why you don't have any! http://tinyurl.com/2sdtvk

================= Some material on the web relating to the root convergence of the written terms Judah and Yahweh. I hope the Hebrew text survives the lack of formatting on this list

Yahweh is a proposed English spelling of יהוה, the name of the God of Israel, as preserved in the original consonantal Hebrew Bible text. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton

Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה = "God" + "Thanks") is the name of several Biblical and historical figures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah

The Tribe of Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה = "Praise") was one of the Tribes of Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Judah

WHO IS A JEW?* *http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm* *Level: Basic Origins of the Words "Jew" and "Judaism"

Origin of the word "Jew" (in Hebrew, "Yehudi") is derived from the name Judah, which was the name of one of Jacob's twelve sons. Judah was the ancestor of one of the tribes of Israel, which was named after him. Likewise, the word Judaism literally means "Judah-ism," that is, the religion of the Yehudim. Other sources, however, say that the word "Yehudim" means "People of G-d," because the first three letters of "Yehudah" are the same as the first three letters of G-d's four-letter name.



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