[Livia]

Originally Posted by GypsyGoth

From what I know there is the rule about food, Jewish believers can only eat kosher meat. That might have been relevant once, like when there was a chance of getting ill from meat killed a different way, but now it shows a lack of understanding about the modern world. It seems to me really out of date.

Also there is the way bits are cut off of boys penis, that seems really messed up. I couldn’t imagine a god telling people to do that. I'm surprised it's not outlawed.

And the way a women can’t become a religious leaders, that seems like old fashioned sexism.

Now I don’t think it’s all bad, there seems to be a wonderful sense of family. And sometimes community. And I do think the muslim religion is more primitive, and christianity is out of date too.

But I suppose it’s easy for me to criticize religions when I have none, maybe the way people are controlled by faith is a good thing in someway. However it seems to cause a lot of the wars that go on, and it seems to lead to people hating each other.

Yes Jews eat Kosher meat, in much the same way that Muslims eat Halal meat. It doesn’t show a lack of understanding of the modern world at all. I think you show a lack of understanding if you think that the way animals are slaughtered in abattoirs is any better. And you can be a Jew and a veggie or a vegan.

Circumcision isn’t just a religious thing. For instance the majority of men in the USA are circumcised for reasons that have nothing to do with religion. It’s not outlawed because it’s a recognised medical procedure, unlike the "modern" passion for punching holes through clitorises and penises and other parts of the body.

Tell Rabbi Julia Neuberger that you can’t be a religious leader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_N...ness_Neuberger … then see if you can find an equivalent position to hers in… say… Catholicism. And I might mention that Israel had a female prime minister years before the UK did. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golda_Meir

I think you’ll find an equal amount of wars have been caused by greed, vanity and avarice. Religious people do not have the monopoly on hating each other and causing wars. Sometimes people with no religion show a monumental lack of understanding by feeling they have a right to criticise freely people who do follow a religion without knowing the first thing about what it means.