There are a few facts Rabbi Wein may wish to note, but he does bring up many valid points. The Enlightenment did not rid the world of evil or evil men any more then religion ever did. While it is true that the 20th century produced more dead then any single past events except perhaps the spread of Islam, this was due to technology, not that man being more evil or less evil. Machine guns and bombs in the hands of the Crusaders would have left just as many millions dead.
Proper use of reason as a tool (not an end in itself) must call into question some parts of the Torah, Bible, and all holy books. G-d gave us the ability to think, why not do it? The Torah, Koran, and Bible all support slavery and polygamy, but we have decided by the use of reason to end such evil practices at least in the West. We also no longer slaughter hapless animals for some silly sacrifice pretending G-d enjoys the aroma of burned steak. Quoting the news article below, "In the videotape, the man identified as the bomber, Raed Abdul Hamid Misk, 29, appeared with a rifle in one hand and a Koran in the other. "We are proud to offer ourselves and our lives and our houses as a present to this religion," The Enlightenment never produced suicide bombers, mindless fundamentalist religion did.
So we must be on guard against irrational fundamentalist religion on the one hand while not living under the delusion that progress in itself is the cure for every problem. We still need reason combined with tradition and lessons from the past. As a Jew Rabbi Wein should well know the results of violent fundamentalist religion. Lewis L.
An ugly reality only the most enlightened refuse to concede
By Rabbi Berel Wein
This past century, the bloodiest in all of human history, should have lain to rest two of the most cherished theories about mankind postulated by the Enlightenment and Secular Humanism.
One was the idea that all moral questions, all issues of right and wrong, good and evil, were subject to being correctly decided on the basis of man's reason alone, without the necessity (better put, without the interference) of divine revelation or organized religion. Man, and man alone, would be the final and autonomous arbiter of morality.
This idea brought with it, as a necessary corollary, the firm belief that man left to his own reasoning devices would invariably choose to do what is right, what promotes life and fairness and the common good.
This second idea of man's innate choice of goodness was aided and abetted by an arrogant belief that an educated person was more likely to do good than an illiterate one — that a Ph.D. graduate would be less likely to kill, harm, maim and destroy than a poor, hardscrabble, backwards farmer.
But none of these theories have proven true. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Milosevic and the entire slew of other murderers of the 20th century have all given the lie to these fantasies about human morality and rectitude. One-third of all of the commandants of the Nazi death camps held either a Ph.D. or M.D. degree. Man, left to his own reason, will not choose right. Reason, by itself, is death and destruction, oppressive theories and murderous social engineering. No faith and no belief have led us to the brink of the social abyss of self-destruction.
Our society hungers for a return to self, to a system of eternal values, to a disciplined life-style and to the true liberty of faith, which will free us from the ills of mindless conformity.
Balak and Bilaam, the two main characters in one of the Torah reading of this week are powerful, respected, intelligent people. Bilaam even possesses the gift of divine intuition and prophecy. But they are base, evil and immoral people. They are so convinced of their own powers, of their own ability to reason correctly, that they are convinced that they can hoodwink the Divine and destroy the Jewish people, all without consequence to themselves.
They exhibit all of the immoral traits of the dark side of human behavior — greed, corruption, jealousy, foul speech and causeless hatred. But their worst trait is arrogance — they know better, they are better, they deserve better. And the People of Israel, and through it, the G0d of Israel and His divine Torah, apparently stands in their way. So, denying God and destroying the People of Israel will somehow improve the world.
We have seen the genocidal plan of Balak and Bilaam take on the flesh of reality in this past century as well. We now know how dangerous such people are. But many, and especially, inexplicably many Jews, are loath to relinquish the good old theories of the Enlightenment. And that is a truly sad and dangerous error. Jewry needs a healthy dose of realism and should forsake many of the utopian, naive and dangerous beliefs and theories that have characterized our journey in the modern world over the past two centuries.
We should never forget that Balak and Bilaam are unfortunately real. But so is our faith and tradition.
JWR contributor Rabbi Berel Wein is one of Jewry's foremost historians and founder of the Destiny Foundation. He has authored over 650 tapes, books and videos which you can purchase at RabbiWein.com.
Jewish World Review July 11, 2003
© 2002, Rabbi Berel Wein
Note that the terrorist groups below are religious, not secular. Man left to mindless religion does no better.
Bombing Kills 18 and Hurts Scores on Jerusalem Bus
August 20, 2003
By JAMES BENNET
JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 — A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 18 people, including children, when he detonated an explosive packed with ball bearings tonight aboard a city bus crowded with families, some of them returning from Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall.
The blast resounded across Jerusalem as it peeled up the roof of the bus and blew out its windows, smearing human remains on a preceding tour bus and opening a deep wound in the American-backed peace effort.
More than 100 people were reported hurt, many seriously, in one of the deadliest attacks in almost three years of conflict. Men carrying blood-spattered children raced toward approaching ambulances. On a street strewn with broken glass and bloodied sheet metal, a man knelt near the shattered bus to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a toddler.
Later, in a hospital here, Yaacov Bahar, 35, held his hands in the air in front of him, as though he were still carrying an infant, as he described helping bring four children from the bus. "In my eyes, I'm still seeing the nightmare," said Mr. Bahar, who was being treated for shock.
Breaking off security talks tonight, Israel froze all contacts with the Palestinian leadership after the bombing. A senior Israeli official said Israel would probably seal Palestinians into their cities and towns again on Wednesday, reimposing tight travel restrictions that had been loosened somewhat as the peace effort took hold in recent weeks.
The attack tonight was claimed by members of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Israeli police said the bomber was from Hamas. Palestinian and Israeli officers had been discussing how Palestinian forces would assume responsibility from Israel for policing two West Bank cities, continuing an exchange of control called for by the peace plan, known as the road map.
But Israeli officials reacted to the bombing with fury tonight, and expressed frustration toward a peace plan they said was endangering their security. "Israel cannot be the perpetual testing ground for peace proposals that the Palestinians fail to implement," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In Gaza City, the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, told reporters, "I declare my strong condemnation of this horrible act that doesn't serve the interests of the Palestinian people." Mr. Abbas said he offered "my real sorrow" to the families of the victims.
Israeli officials noted that Israel had recently softened its own demands on the Palestinian leadership, insisting only that it supervise the people Israel considers terrorists and prevent them from committing new attacks, rather than putting them in jail. The bombing tonight appeared certain to renew Israeli and American pressure on Mr. Abbas, to take more forceful action against militant groups.
Mr. Abbas said he had ordered his minister of security, Muhammad Dahlan, "to immediately investigate this attack and to take the necessary measures regarding its perpetrators." Mr. Abbas and Mr. Dahlan have resisted taking action against militants, seeking instead to persuade them to abide by a unilateral suspension of attacks on Israelis declared on June 29. The bombing tonight occurred as Mr. Abbas was meeting in Gaza City with leaders of Islamic Jihad in an effort to extend the cease-fire, which was to last three months.
Mr. Abbas was scheduled to meet on Wednesday with leaders of Hamas, but he canceled that meeting after the bombing. Since June 29, Hamas has claimed responsibility for only one other lethal suicide bombing, killing one Israeli a week ago in stated retaliation for Israel's killing days earlier of two Hamas militants. Saying that terrorists are using their declared cease-fire to re-arm, Israel has continued to raid Palestinian towns and cities in recent weeks for what it says are wanted terrorists. In a videotaped statement, the bomber who committed the attack tonight attributed it primarily to an incident that took place before the cease-fire was declared, the army's killing in June of a local Hamas leader in Hebron.
Fireworks burst over Hebron tonight as Palestinians there celebrated the bombing. Militants from Islamic Jihad and Hamas submitted competing claims of responsibility for the attack. Although political leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip denied any link to the bombing, the Israeli police, which recovered an identity card of the bomber at the scene, said he was connected to Hamas. "He's identified as Hamas," said Superintendent Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman. He said it was possible the two groups were acting together.
Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad last week in Hebron and the group has vowed to avenge that death. In the West Bank city of Hebron, a Hamas cell released a printed statement claiming the attack, as well as a videotape of the man that Israel said carried it out.
In the videotape, the man identified as the bomber, Raed Abdul Hamid Misk, 29, appeared with a rifle in one hand and a Koran in the other. "We are proud to offer ourselves and our lives and our houses as a present to this religion," he said in Arabic. Switching to English, he said, "The people of Palestine commit themselves to cease-fire, but the criminal Sharon refused this commitment and killed many people in Palestine."
Mr. Misk was working toward a master's degree from An-Najah university in the West Bank city of Nablus, his family said. Mr. Misk left behind two children and a wife, Arij Joubeh, in the sixth month of pregnancy. She said of her husband, "All his life he was saying, `Oh God, I wish to be a martyr.' "
Members of Mr. Misk's extended family were hastily removing possessions from their family home tonight in anticipation of its demolition by Israeli forces, a standard Israeli reprisal for suicide attacks.
Mr. Misk detonated his explosive about 9:15 p.m. near the middle of the articulated No. 2 bus. The bus had just crossed the boundary from east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war, and had entered the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Shmuel Hanavi, home to devoutly religious Jews.
On March 2, 2002, a suicide bomber struck about a block away, killing nine Israelis, including six children. There were many children aboard the bus this evening, survivors said. Zvi Weiss, 18, a seminary student from Borough Park, Brooklyn, said he was sitting in the second row, squeezed in with three children. One of the children had been left in a vacant seat by his mother, who then pushed the baby carriage toward the back of the bus, he said.
"His mother was in the back, so I think — I don't know what to think," Mr. Weiss said. He said he leaped through a window and ran as the explosion enveloped him in "smoke, noise, the smell of fire." He was being treated in Bikur Holim hospital for shrapnel wounds to his arms, which had stained his white shirtsleeves crimson. He was having trouble hearing, a common difficulty of bombing victims. Yehiya Luria, 38, said the bus was "so full that you couldn't have put a pin in there." He said he was seated at the far back, and also escaped through a window. "There was a lot of blood on me — blood, bits of flesh, teeth, hair," he said. He was being treated for shock.
"It was a miracle," he said of his survival. "I prayed at the Western Wall today." Nearby, a 2-year-old boy lay in another hospital bed, holding a white blanket and a foil bag of snacks as he sucked on a red pacifier and silently watched the bustling ward. His aunt said he had been riding in a sedan that smashed into the back of the bus, and that he was slightly wounded. She said his name was Abraham. Initial reports by the authorities said five children were among the dead. The police reported removing 18 bodies from the bus. The bodies and body parts were enclosed in black or white plastic bags, which were placed in a traffic circle among three small trees. Investigators opened the bags to take photographs of the dead to identify them.
Generators hummed as emergency workers in the harsh white glare of portable lamps scoured the red-and-white bus for the remains of the dead. In the shadows, hundreds of young men in the white shirts, black coats and broad-brimmed black hats of the devoutly religious gathered on the sidewalks and rooftops, outside a police cordon, to survey the scene.
Three hours after the bombing, a spokeswoman for another hospital, Hadassah Ein-Kerem, said no one had claimed a month-old baby boy brought from the scene, raising the possibility that his parents had been killed.
"He is a very sweet 4-week-old baby boy," the spokeswoman, Yael Bosem-Levy, told Israel Radio. "He has light injuries. He has impact wounds to his stomach, and the entire time he has been here he didn't cry even once."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
Related articles, click here.
| My Homepage | Guestbook | Deism and Reason |
http://www.sullivan-county.com/
Updated 7/21/07