Dan Minette wrote: > > Well, I don't think most folks in Israel keep kosher. > That is not the impression I have from people who live there - but you are the statistics master :-)
> The laws do not regulate that. The laws in question > regards what shops can be open, and what can be done > publicly. If Ms. O'Hare were to have visited Israel, > she would have had to obey the laws too. > Ah, but then you can argue that the USA is theocratic, too, because the shops close at 20:00 [IIRC] on Sundays, or you can�t drink and drive :-) > >> IMHO, this is a religious behavior, like the USA >> superstition wrt the number 13. > > I understand why some superstitions are religious, because > they are means of not offending the gods. I think the > superstition with regards to #13 is > more akin to a belief in the world working magically. > Such a belief does not inherently require thoughts about > appeasing gods. > But this _is_ a religious thing, because it makes assumptions about God, namely, that God is weaker than the number 13. Some religious people would believe God is stronger than number 13, so there�s no reason to fear it, while some other people would believe that God is weaker. Superstition _is_ religious, it just makes God weaker than the traditional religions of the West. > IMHO, science and religion are on orthogonal axis. > Not exactly; I would make these axes form an angle of 120 degrees [or should I stick to my coherence and write it 133.33... grades? :-)]. It�s improbable that someone can believe that 100% of everything can be explained by Science _and_ 100% of everything can be explained by Religion. [OTOH, there are Religions that claim to be Scientifically- based; these are IMHO the most affected by superstition...] Alberto Monteiro
