Darwin Fish

Why do I drive myself to a frenzy, reading articles that I know will make me crazy irritated?  Pieces full of lazy thinking, facile arguments, and just plain wrongness.  I guess it's like people who enjoy horror movies, some kind of emotional rush.

Anyway, a friend of mine writes for a Jewish newspaper, and so I pop over to see her on-line column, along with the associated links, which are religiously very liberal (meaning they are liberal on points of religion, not just that they are "religiously = always" liberal, which is also true).  Most of the people who regularly read the column, or at least the people who post comments, are in such agreement with the views expressed, that their instant reaction to any critique is to call it the opinion of a hateful ignoramus.

With the christmas season upon us, there has, of course, been lots and lots, and lots, and lots of posting about how Jews should [can't, do, won't and are abused for the way they] celebrate christmas. Apparently, at least a couple vocal people feel that other vocal people have been especially vocal in expressing the belief that Jews should not entertain the trappings of the christmas season.  The (first) vocal people have responded, in the main, "Shut up, it's a free country, don't tell me what I can or can't do, you hateful ignoramus."

Are you still with me?  If so, you are probably already of my same opinion, and thus, again, any arguments I make are a big waste of time, just to please myself.  But anyway, here's my thought:  I hate those darwin symbols on the back of cars.  You know the ones, they look like a jesus fish, but with feet.  I hate them because this kind of blurring of importance of different priciples brings so much trouble.  Now understand, I DO NOT want to see creationism taught in schools, I think it is foolishness to teach about supernatural occurrence in a class that should be about natural law.  Why would I interupt a class in car mechanics to teach about music composition?  Even more, since this is not science in any form, there is no excuse for the direct integration of church and state. But the "darwin fish" only spurs on this demand to teach creationism in schools by 1) equating a scientific theory which (true, untrue, I don't care) is just a SCIENTIFIC THEORY with a TOTAL LIFE AND SOUL BELIEF SYSTEM,  and 2) taunting a TOTAL LIFE AND SOUL BELIEF SYSTEM as if to say "ha, my theory system beat your belief".  Very, very few people hold a scientific theory as their life's highest belief.  So don't pretend this theory is analogous to their belief, if you don't want them to fight back by saying "teach my belief system as if it is analogous to your scientific theory."

My take on the people who want to be respected for celebrating both christmas and hanukkah is that they are just not taking the belief system of either religion very seriously.  If you need to light you menorah and eat your fruitcake and plum pudding too, well then you have made a decision about how much value you give to either system.  To you they are just symbols, like the jesus/darwin fish that have only as much importance as you, as a person, decide to imbue.  And you are right to say this is a free country, thank goodness, and I cannot dictate how you practice.  But when people insist that this is practice is representative of normative Judaism, this is an invitation for correction.  Meshing hannukah and christmas is the antithesis of hannukah.  Many people don't want hear that, may even believe it is incorrect (although I haven't heard any arguments better than "but everyone's doin' it, plus it makes everyone happy which is what is most important").  But to insist that your human devised plan for a nice holiday custom is on par with someone else's LIFE AND SOUL BELIEF SYSTEM is a foolish and flawed comparison.

That said, I truly do wish everyone a good, happy and productive holiday season and a great year ahead!