Anti-Semitism

Garnel had a disgusting piece about anti-Semitism. I didn't want to get into too much detail, but I felt like making a few points.

What is the source for anti-Semitism? It's a long story. A lot of it is that religion, such as Christianity, can be interpreted to justify Jew-hatred. Unfortunately, your religion tells you to hate them too, so you're not much better off in that regard.

Anyway, I don't like the term "anti-Semitism." It makes it all too easy for us to play the victim. I think it's a human phenomena, not unlike racism, with a complex host of factors, such as religion, playing the main part.

Good Video

Quote

"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a better place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it."

-Bertrand Russell

Check out this insane post

Link.

Note: The comments are really brilliant.

Good Post

From here.

I've been listening to Christian radio lately, and I'm hearing a LOT of commercial programs hyping investments in gold...I'm generally interested in scams and ripoffs, and my skepticism sensor get triggered loudly when I hear a program (1) on Christian radio (2) involving pushy marketing hype, that (3) pushes an investment that is perfect for EVERYONE, and (4) predicts financial doom for anyone who does not participate.

This last bit, as I have probably said before, is a hallmark of both sneaky advertising and religion. It short-circuits your ability to think rationally about an idea on its merits, instead cutting straight to emotions and panicking you by making you think that you'll be tortured forever (or whatever) if you dare to even ask questions about the concept.

What's Garnel's Deal?

I've come to the conclusion that Garnel is an atheist. Unlike some of the more honest atheists who acknowledge it, or at least stay away from the topic of religion in general, he has decided to devote his life to denying reality, and pretending to "believe" fully in everything his insane religion teaches.

So he goes around throwing around words like "honesty", "truth" and "hypocrisy" in the hope that maybe his listeners won't detect that he's living a lie. Being the fraud and charlatan that he is, he feels compelled to try and pretend *extra hard* that he believes, in a desperate attempt to silence the cognitive dissonance within his head. Overcompensation much? Alternatively, he can just calm down, and admit that he doesn't believe in God, but that isn't really an option for him, is it now?

Lest you think I'm the only one who thinks this, a FRUM blogger agreed with my assessment, off the record, that Garnel is a closet atheist in denial. While it's not yet clear whether he's trying to fool us or himself, or a combination of the two, what is for certain is that he's trying to fool somebody.

And this two year-old is a medical doctor. He's a disgrace to his profession, and to humanity as a whole.

What's Garnel Like?

He's a horrible mamzer and a monster. He should be shot.

Why Do Most Religious People "Believe" in God?

They don't. They were just never given a choice.

Plus, they were lied to by their rabbis.

Check this out

Link

Why Don't We Just Shut Up?

Garnel Watch

I'm pretty sure "Alex" from Hedyot's blog is Garnel. (Maybe Cheerer knows him personally, too?) Just so you know. And he continues to harass Mainstream Jew.

Comment from Fakewood

every time i read your posts it pushes me closer to religion.

Who knew I was doing kiruv with this blog? Mamesh gevaldig! I better not stop blogging.

What's Kiruv's #1 trick?

TLC. And emotional blackmail.

The Faith cake

Great Post

Link

Cheerer

On this post, Cheerer tries saying that Richard Feldman (who "Paul Stein" himself was suspicious of) is not Garnel. His exact words were: "Happens to be, I know for a fact that not all those people are Garnel. I know richard personally (although its true thats not his real name, sorry if im outing you dude)".
I called him out for it at the time (while he didn't respond) and I took him to task for it here too.

Yesterday, Cheerer leaves this brilliant comment on my blog:

What reason would I have to lie? I have a completely different tone then Garnel (if you ask me) and I really dont agree with the venom in which he attacks people he disagrees with.

"Pulling a fast one?" Hardly. I would say pulling a fast one would be more like frum people like me making comments on your blog and you not posting them so you can control the comments and make it seem like no one disagrees with you

Dude... you're full of it.

>What reason would I have to lie.

Uhhh...you have a rabbi to defend?

>"Pulling a fast one?" Hardly.

Maybe you can elaborate on that a bit more? But changing the topic is always a good idea. Especially since you've so vehemently denied that Garnel and Richard Feldman are the same person. (I repeat: "I know for a fact that not all those people are Garnel. I know richard personally (although its true thats not his real name, sorry if im outing you dude).")

As to your comment about how I don't allow frum comments to "make it seem like no one disagrees with me", why don't you ask this bitch what my attitude to frummies was at the beginning of this blog? Or anyone else who was there at the time? Ask them if I was rude or angry, or in any way disrespectful to any frum person. And besides, if I'm such a jerk, how come I haven't seen a single frum blogger rip me? Over here, sure, you're very brave, and call me all sorts of names. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is, and rip me on your own blog?

First Annual I Hate Garnel Day

I have an announcement to make.

This June 1st, 2009 will be the first annual "I Hate Garnel Day."

It will be a day devoted to hate, anger, and just general vitriol to anyone and everyone you've ever been angry at. That rabbi who lied you, teacher who picked on you, rabbi who abused your trust, and caused you to lose your faith in religion, if not humanity forever and ever?

Fear not. There is now an excellent target for your hate: Garnel. Just think how much you hate him, or whoever else it is you choose as the object of your hate on this first annual "I Hate Garnel Day" and just let it all out.

Ask your therapist. It's a good idea to have a scapegoat to let out all your frustration on (why else do you think frummies hate on OTDers so much?)

Thank you.

Jailed by the rabbis

[Somewhat incoherent post]

A year or so before I went off the derech, I was shmoozing with a friend in yeshiva about OTDness. (Note that I almost never talked openly about my doubts in the frum community. Neither do you. We're all expected to keep any and all such doubts VERY well-hidden. The reaction you get if you try to be honest is similar to what you get on the internet: all-out lynching. It's tragic in both cases, especially on the internet, where you'd hope freedom of speech is respected. Which is precisely why it isn't. Could there be a greater threat to religion than the internet?) He was saying that he knows some people who are OTD, and while of course not discussing in any depth why someone might make such a choice, he insisted that they left because of weakness. He devoutly believed that his friend who had gone OTD OF COURSE believed the Torah is right and true in every way. But what? Nebach, he's a weak person, he couldn't handle all the restrictions, so (tsk tsk) he left. What shocked me was his absolute faith that there couldn't possibly a good reason to go OTD. Could he be so sure that what he had was truth, and everything else wasn't?

I think it's a common misconception in the religious crowd, and even some ex-religious people. These beliefs are true, and even if they aren't so true, who am I to question them? How dare you offend religious people by questioning their beliefs? And if you, nebach, don't have faith, the least you could do is stay quiet and not chas v'shalom cause anyone else to lose their emuna. Always covering up for religion, aren't we? Stinking guilt. What they're forgetting is how do you know you're not being lied to if you're not willing to entertain the possibility? Further, why even bother searching for truth, if any conclusions you come to that differ from the party line will automatically get you labelled an "evil person?" What's the point? Which might explain why so many people sign away their brains to the oh-so-trustworthy rabbis. You can have them (the brains). I have no use for them--not in this cult. Let's all give up, people. Stop thinking. Yes, that's what religion does always, almost by definition. No, not only "bad" religion. All religion.

Which leads us to the major question, that before you can say whether it's good or bad to go OTD, and subsequently judge huge segments of the population, you first have to prove that your religion is right. You have to show that staying on the derech is a good thing, as oppposed to a bad thing, or just a neutral thing. You may not be willing to challenge your (unquestionable--I wonder why) beliefs, but you have no right to judge those who do. Before you judge "frum good, not frum bad" or "religious good, atheist bad" maybe use your brain. Who says religion is good, secularism is bad? Maybe it's exactly the opposite?

Religion is considered a "heavy" topic, not only if you're religious, but especially if you're secular, or, horror of horrors, ex-religious.

Sure, they'll get really angry when someone blasphemes their nonsensical beliefs (but of course, they're not angry people. Atheists are angry. Why don't we just get over our negativity already?)

I think religious people generally aren't encouraged to think much about religion. They're expected to keep most of their thinking and questioning to themselves, and to mostly rely upon their rabbis to do most of the thinking, and take care of all the heavy lifting in that regard. Which might explain why they're generally so vague about their religious beliefs (except for the fact that they "of course" believe in G-d and the Torah), and get very uncomfortable and offended if anyone discusses religion (unless of course, the person's beliefs sound close enough to their own. Then it's not so bad). It's because the rabbis are meant to be the ones doing all that work. You'd think since the beliefs are so solid and concrete they'd have nothing to hide from the masses, and would encourage open, non-judgmental discussion of religion. Oh well. Could it be that if you really "searched your heart", you'd realize you're an atheist (meaning you don't believe in God)? I'll stop here, because I wouldn't want to offend anyone.

As to rabbis' credibility, judging by their track record, I wouldn't trust them to borrow a nickel, let alone answer the most important questions in life.

Another idea that is antithetical to the frum belief system is freedom, or choices.

Stealing from Goyim

Garnel had a ridiculous, apologetic post the other day about stealing from gentiles, and how the Meiri doesn't allow it. I usually hate descending into the horrible world of bullshit in which Garnel and his fellow rabbis reside, but I felt like it this time.

First of all, Shalmo makes an excellent point in the comments: "To do justice amazing legal loopholes have to be invented. And if that is the case, then why follow religion, just follow secular humanism and let that be all and end all."

Very good. Who needs the Ten Commandments, the 613, or the millions of minor "laws" one derives from Jewish law? A little common sense and secular humanism works wonders. And best of all, you're not forced to bend over backwards to fit obscenely immoral ancient laws to resemble something sensible (with little success, I might add).

E-Man then makes a ridiculous point: "the point here is that the immoral idolater steals and cheats. It is like the case of Bernie Madoff. Does anyone care that all of his possessions are being taken away from him? No, because he cheated people and mistreated them. This is the idolater that the Torah talks about, the immoral cheat that mistreats people."

Who the hell are you trying to fool? "Idolater" means any non-Jew. It's got nothing to with Bernie Madoff. Geez.

As to Garnel's points, great job bringing up some obscure rishon (does anyone pasken like this daas yochid, asshole?) Why don't you ask R' Dovid Cohen what he thinks of stealing from a non-Jew? Oh, and the Tana d'vei Eliyahu is not a refutation whatsoever. (According to him, the only problem with stealing from a goy is that it would LEAD you to steal from a JEW. Some refutation.) Strip away your arrogance and false confidence, and your "arguments" are nothing but hot air. You better hang on to that arrogance, though. It's your only hope to "convince" anyone. Sound like you believe in what you say. Maybe you'll fool a few poor suckers.

And this is the most important point of all: rabbis are charged with the responsibility of learning as much Torah as possible, AND defending the Torah as much as possible. Unlike scientists whose task it is to search and find as much truth as possible, your job is to defend as much "truth" (aka falsehood) as possible. One must wonder, if you had problems with the Torah or your emuna, would you let us know? Hmmm. I say not a single one of them should be trusted ever again, on anything related to their field of "expertise". It's our only hope to ever get at the truth. It's not truth; it's lies. ("Same thing!!" "To ME it's truth...") Defenders of lies is all you are.

The problem isn't so much that they fudge facts and distort truth on a regular basis. The crying shame is that so many people out there actually trust and believe them - in the most important areas of their lives.

Best Frum Blog Ever Award

Link

On Garnel

A Facebook friend of mine wrote this on his wall today (without any prompting by me, I might add).

Garnel Ironheart, you are an asshole! I say that without an iota of regret. As far as deceitful motherfuckers are concerned, in the skeptic Jewish blogosphere there none worse than you. Do you honestly think you are going to bring any of those countless apikores back to the frum world, by pulling all the shit you do?

Someone's gotta say it.

Frustrated Atheist

A frustrated atheist rants about the thought police.

He's right. It's about freedom of speech. It can happen to anyone at any time. Especially with religiotards on the internet.

Great new blog

Link

Update

In case you were wondering on which posts Garnel and his fellow clowns have been abusing OTDers exceptionally recently, here are some links.

Garnel really abuses the comments section on this post. (That blog in general is also where he's done most of his recent abuse.) The trend is to abuse naive new bloggers who don't yet realize how corrupt rabbis, especially rabbi bloggers are. (They're probably the most dishonest people on the planet, who don't believe a word they say.) (But he's of course, just trying to help our "hit counters!!!" LMFAO)

Check out this post too, same kind of thing, and Cheerer tries pulling a fast one right at the end of the comments.

I can't believe I have to babysit all these mamzers, or that they've been getting away with this shit all these years. Sheesh.

Do rabbis believe in God?

A very common concept in the gemara is "meegu." What it means is if you're trying to claim something in court, you're allowed to make a claim called "meegu" which means "believe me when I say 'a', because I could have made a better claim, 'b'." It's a claim to enhance one's credibility, and it's fairly likely to convince the court, or the rabbis (same thing). For example, "believe me when I say I forged the letter, because I could have said someone else forged it." It usually works, although I imagine people could play games with this type of trick. (Usually lawyers would take care of this kind of thing, but there aren't any in Jewish law. At least this guy seems to know his way around the system.) What I don't understand is why someone who's modeh b'miktsas (partial admission) can't claim a meegu that he could've denied everything. Ugh, I'm getting rusty. (Or it's a bumbe kasha. Oh, I miss yeshiva.)

Anyway, why am I saying this? It reminded me of the fact that if someone makes a claim, it pays to look closely at the alternatives. So for example, if someone says they believe in God, is it because they really think so, or is it their only option? One must ask, if a rabbi did not believe in God, would he admit it? I submit not.

Which brings me to a story. There's a guy in my town who used to be a Christian missionary, and now he's a big macher for Jews for Judaism. My father always loved his story. One day he's giving a lecture to a bunch of Christians, and all of a sudden, he realizes it's a bunch of BS. He doesn't believe in it, or more precisely he came to the conclusion that Judaism is the correct religion, not Christianity. So he walks out on the spot, never comes back, and has been doing anti-missionary work ever since. (You could see why BT's would get a kick out of such a story.)

I wonder, if a rabbi would have such an "epiphany", say, in middle of a shiur, or just anytime, would he leave? (You'll have to ask Garnel.) ::snort::

Doesn't that take a hell of a lot of courage, and really how many priests, rabbis, imams, or even laymen, would make such a "radical" move? It's an interesting question, or as they'd say in yeshiva, yeish lachkor.

Thoughts

As you may have noticed, I've had a hard time blogging.

I should've known to be more careful. Religious people aren't exactly known for being the most tolerant people when someone challenges their beliefs. Not that they're excused in any way, but I should have expected it.

Wasn't it religious people who went bananas over a bunch of cartoons? Or who freaked out about this kid, Yossele?

Religious people do a lot of good too, don't get me wrong. Remember Suri Feldman, or how everyone in your class was all of a sudden related to her? What I don't know is if all the good they do outweighs all the bad.

(Yes, I wanted to give out those links more than put up this post.)

Here's a random song I like:

Also for Garnel

Open-mindedness
Uploaded by totocacapouet - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

His Youtube channel
HT: Warrateru

What's the difference between BT's and FFB's?

BT's believe in God. FFB's don't.

Why is Garnel worse than Hitler?

Hitler tells you he hates you, then kills you. Garnel tells you he loves you, then kills you.

Warning

I've mentioned before, Garnel trolls on many blogs, using a multitude of names. I'm almost certain he also goes by the name "Ari", and I could probably list ten names right now that are probably him as well. Suffice it to say, if you're a non-Orthodox blogger, and you get an obnoxious comment, there's a good chance it's the man himself. His IP address is 142.47.165. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Frum people often want to know

Why they're not welcome in this blog.

One of my main reasons is simply concern for their precious souls. If I'm not mistaken, kfira is one of the cardinal sins punishable by death. I don't think any self-respecting rav would allow you to read this blog, even if your purpose is just to do kiruv. I understand you have a hard time controlling your ta'avos, but Mashgiach OTD is here to make sure you don't read. Hey, I don't make up the halacha.

For Garnel

Godless and free


Yes, this guy is a little more radical than I. But hey, it's for Garnel. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

HT - JR

Blog Roundup

Check out this great post, from a promising new blog.

Check out this insane post from a kiruv fanatic.

Check out Joshua's blog, a long-time commenter of mine, and a math whiz.

Announcement

Elisha receives the Best Blog Ever Award. After just one week! And it's not even close.

Greatest reply in the history of J-blogs:

[Follow-up to this comment: Rav Bina does more acts of chesed in a single day than you have and will achieve throughout your entire lifetime!]

dead-on about Rav Bina's chesed. But I'm gonna go a step further. You say that Rav Bina does more chesed in a day than Elisha will do in his lifetime. Hogwarts. My estimates put the ratio of Rav Bina's acts of chesed to Elisha's as closer to 1 picosecond of Bina chesed for every 12 gilguls of Elisha chesed.

Nice Video