Wow, it's so bizarre when religions literally try to sell themselves. Frankly, I thought Judeism was above that. However, I was just checking out an article about nuclear whistleblower (or as the Jerusalem Post referred to him, nuclear spy) Mordechai Vanunu and spotted a column ad that asked "Does Judeism think women are inferior?"
I was curious, so I clicked on it. What I got was this flash animation that felt more like a commercial for Dianetics than Judeism. Once you get past the flash, you can choose to educate yourself or your kids. Either way, you end up at a website that shamelessly plugs Judeism as this catch-all, wonderful religion and that everyone who is Jewish is happy. Well, that's what all the pictures of smiling people suggest to me and being an Atheist, I'm hardly qualified to know how successful Judeism is at making people smile. I guess I'm just urked by the fact that they feel the need to advertise.
They're Judeism, for Christ's sake!
Oh, sorry, badly put, but you get the point. They're the most important of the big three! Without Judeism, Christianity and Islam wouldn't exist. Why do they need to advertise? Who do they think they are, Coke? But that's the other thing--they don't seem to be interested in making money. What they do is they set up an appointment for an expert to come by your home and talk to you or your kids about Judeism for free. Which is pretty cool, if you ask me. But then why the PR push? Especially with the uber-cheesy slogan "Got Torrah?"
I mean, come on, aren't they getting kind of close to Kevin Smith's Buddy Christ? Why do they want to embrace the idea that your religion should be hip, cool, and warm and fuzzy?
One of the reasons I abandonned Christianity was because I felt it patronizing. This kind of ad campaign doesn't make me want to be a Jew, although I would love to sit down with someone and talk about Jewish history and religious practices. Only because I'm curious. Sorry! ;)
The sad thing is, I'm still curious if Judeism thinks women are inferior... :( (The website doesn't say!)
I think the reason for the pr is to distract the young people from the anti religious pressure
ReplyDeleteput upon them by people such as yourself, and to bring them back to the fold,if you will. to reenforce their religious heritage. It's indeed sorry that they must resort to such methods, but religions realize that that is the way of the times and they feel compelled to join the current customs. Why don't you forget the reasons you left the church, they are shallow reasons and look to the original messages which came out of biblical times respectfully Harry Juers
Thanks for your comment, Harry. I don't think I could ever go back to religion because I just don't "believe" in things that can't be proven. I also feel it's unhealthy to believe in things that can't be proven simply because people have believed them for hundreds or even thousands of years. However, I do believe that people should be allowed to do what they want to do so long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of anyone else.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't believe in religion, I do believe in the morals it teaches and don't believe religion has the monopoly on morals.
Also, I don't see religion keeping leaders like George W. Bush out of trouble the way religion claims that it should.
While I do appreciate your point of view, Harry, in the end I still feel that when any religion tries to "recruit" I think it speaks to the lack of a real need for said religion. In my view, people turn to God when they are having trouble dealing with the realities of the world. When the explanations of science and logic fail to do enough to justify why things occur the way they do people turn to God who "works in mysterious ways" and feel like they're not alone--like they are not the only ones suffering. Which is fine--we all do what we need to do to get by. But when that religion is used as a reasoning for war, killing or descrimination surely we can all see that is bad for all of us, not just us Atheists.
And FYI, I left Christianity for more reasons than just the patronizing but those reasons are for another post.
Thanks again for your comments, Harry!