FailedMessiah.com

Jerusalem Atheist Leader Hit With Hate Crime, Death Threat

A Star of David, “Psalms 139: 21-24,” and "Destruction of Amalek" were spray-painted on the home's fence and a knife with an envelope containing a threatening letter were found at the scene. The letter reportedly reads, "a Jew whose hands are bloody resides in your street. This Jew has received a severe warning."

Atheists Not Likely to Win Votes, New Study Finds

Open atheists are unlikely to win votes, new research shows, but Jews are a subgroup of Americans who are most likely to vote for an open atheist.

Religious Decline Does Not Equal Moral Decline, New Research Finds

Morality is not rooted in religion and religion matters less for moral values now than it did thirty years ago new research has found.

Zionist Orthodox And Chabad Missionary Proselytizing In Israeli State Secular Public Schools Prompts Call To Ban The Proselytizing, Launch New Truly Secular Public Schools

Chabad-Lubavitch hasidim regularly visit secular elementary schools and hand out fliers on the importance of observing Shabbat. A parent fought against this and the Education Ministry told her in response that no promotional literature should be distributed without its approval. But that is reportedly the Education Ministry's standard response to parental complaints about Chabad-Lubavitch activity in schools, and there is no evidence the Education Ministry has done anything to stop these visits from recurring.

Do We Need Religion To Be Altruistic?

Can an atheist really be altruistic? A common claim made by religious fundamentalists, including haredi kiruv rabbis and Chabad shluchim is that without God and religion, people would not be kind, helpful and giving to others. We wouldn't support a children's cancer charity or an old age home, or help feed the poor if there wasn't a religious basis for doing so. But is that claim true? Science has studied altruism and found several reasons that cause people to act kindly, even without religion to guide them. In other words, the proper question might really be, are people who give in the name of religion really acting on inherent altruistic impulses all living creatures seem to have, impulses that have an evolutionary basis?

Religious Kids Far More Selfish Than Atheist Kids, New Study Finds

If you want your child to be kind and giving, don't teach him or her about God, a new study suggests. Even though religious parents are more likely to describe their children as empathetic and concerned about justice than are non-religious parents. But new evidence shows the opposite is true – religious kids are less caring and more selfish than their atheist peers. The findings support the notion that the secularization of moral discourse may serve to increase rather than decrease human kindness, the researchers say. So why are religious kids so often more selfish? The answer may be religion itself.

Video: Britain's Former Chief Rabbi Talks About Atheism And Religious Political Power

Sir Jonathan Sacks says atheists are "His Majesty's loyal opposition" and says they play a vital role in keeping religious leaders honest.

Using Magnets, Scientists Reduce Belief In God

"We think that hearing criticisms of your group's values, perhaps especially from a person you perceive as an outsider, is processed [by the brain] as an ideological sort of threat. One way to respond to such threats is to 'double down' on your group values, increasing your investment in them, and reacting more negatively to the critic. [But] when we disrupted the brain region that usually helps detect and respond to threats, we saw a less negative, less ideologically motivated reaction to the [critic] and his opinions."

Did Moses Really Write The Torah?

Did Moses really write the Torah? And if he didn't, why is it that we attribute its authorship to him nonetheless? Could the whole thing be nothing more than a rabbinical error, a misreading of the biblical text by rabbis who erred because they did not know the history?

Most Religion Is A Legal Fiction; Fundamentalist Religion – Like Haredism – Is Societal Death

"…It’s perfectly rational to reject faith as a matter of principle. Many people (myself included) find no practical advantage in believing things without evidence. But what about those who do? If a belief is held because of its effects, not its truth content, why should its falsity matter to the believer? Of course, most religious people consider their beliefs true in some sense, but that’s to be expected: the consolation derived from a belief is greater if its illusory origins are concealed. The point is that such beliefs aren’t held because they’re true as such; they’re accepted on faith because they’re meaningful.…"

Video: Atheists – Inside The World Of Non-Believers

A CNN special report on atheism – in this case, mostly of the formerly Christian kind.

Video: Scientists Offer To Subsidize Religious Seminaries' Science Education; 90% Reportedly Reject Offer

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is offering two-year grants to ten religious seminaries that have agreed to incorporate more science into the teaching of theology and religious studies. 250 seminaries were approached with the offer. 225 turned it down, many because they feared hurting the "faith" of their students. The effort raises debate about the age-old tension between science and religion, but the purpose of the project is to educate more effective ministers and religious thinkers.

A Proper Response To Today's Paris Terror Attack?

"Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms.…‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

The Impossible Voyage Of Noah's Ark

"…Our study of the epic of Noah has two results: we have shown beyond any reasonable question that such a voyage never took place and could not possibly have ever occurred. And we have demonstrated that those who accept this tale are using not knowledge but faith—faith of that irrational variety expressed in the old quip as 'believing something that you know isn't true.'"

Orthodox Rabbi Refuses To Reverse Excommunication Of World Famous Philosopher Because Judaism Does Not Recognize Freedom Of Speech

“The moment we rescind the herem, even if we could, it would imply that we share his heretic views…How on earth can we even consider to remove the herem from a person with such preposterous ideas, where he was tearing apart the very fundaments of our religion?"

Studies: Children Exposed to Religion Have A Hard Time Distinguishing Fact From Fiction

Two new studies published as Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds in the journal Cognitive Science find that young children given religious education have noticeable difficulty telling fact from fiction while children of the same age who have not had religious education do not.

Non-War Picture Of The Day: Anti-Haredi Modesty Sign Poster In Jerusalem

A sign posted at a bus stop in Jerusalem tells busybodies of all types to leave people alone.

Israeli Cabinet’s Ministerial Committee For Legislation Blocks Public Buses On Shabbat

“There needs to be public transportation on the Sabbath, but not in such a sweeping fashion so this special day is not harmed, also for the nonreligious.”

Israel’s High Court Rules Rabbinical Courts Overstepped Their Authority To Try To Force Mother To Circumcise Her Toddler

In a dramatic 6-1 ruling, Israel’s High Court of Justice removed the case of a divorcing couple and the fight over their baby’s circumcision from the state rabbinical courts, prompting an explosion of condemnation and anger from haredim.

Once Israel’s Premier Pork-Producing Socialist Kibbutz, Mizra Now Has Gender-Segregated Swimming Pool To Accommodate Haredim

“I of course have no objection to hosting Zionist Orthodox/haredim…but I strongly object that we kibbutz members will have to adapt to the customs of the haredim and not act like everywhere normal, where guests adapt to the local customs,” the member, who describes himself as a “devout atheist” wrote, adding that he was willing to give up the money the haredi guests will pay and cancel their stay if they could not tolerate mixed swimming. But, the atheist letter writer wrote, he was not willing to give up on being “a proud secular person on Kibbutz Mizra.”

Happy Birthday To The World's "First Secular Jew"

Today is the 381st birthday of "the world's first secular Jew." Who is he?

Are We Really That Smart? Why Jews Win So Many Nobel Prizes

"In the first decades of the 20th century, Princeton psychologist Carl Brigham tested the intelligence of Jews in America, and concluded they “had an average intelligence below [non-Jews] from all other countries except Poland and Italy.”

The Lies Of Dennis Prager

"…To put this as clearly as possible: If there is no God who says, "Do not murder," murder is not wrong. Many people or societies may agree that it is wrong. But so what? Morality does not derive from the opinion of the masses. If it did, then apartheid was right; murdering Jews in Nazi Germany was right; the history of slavery throughout the world was right; and clitoridectomies and honor killings are right in various Muslims societies.…"

When Rabbis Become Atheists

A new study deals with the surprising number of rabbis – including Zionist Orthodox and haredi rabbis – who are closet atheists.

Synagogues' Parsha Sheet Punked – Obscenely

On the surface, it looked like a pious poem titled "Talks of Holiness," and Olam Katan, a weekly parsha sheet handed out in synagogues across Israel, published it. But when read together, the first letter of each line forms an acrostic that says something very different.

Haredi Nursing Student Loses Her Faith, Haredi Nursing School Expels Her For It

A haredi nursing student was kicked out of a nursing school linked to Laniado Hospital in Netanya and the Sanz hasidic dynasty because she had a crisis of religious faith.

Lack Of Faith May Be A Psychological Issue That Requires Medical Treatment, Noted Haredi Psychiatrist Says

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski tells a yeshiva student who has tried hard to remove doubts he has about Judaism but can't that he may have a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that requires medical treatment.

Once A Villain, Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Now Gets Unexpected Support From Gays, Lesbians

Rabbi Shay Piron, who was named to the second spot on secularist Yair Lapid's new political party Yesh Atid’s list, has received strong unexpected support from Israel’s LGBT community, even though the Zionist Orthodox rabbi once advocated for change therapy for homosexuals.

Secular Jews Want Secular And Cultural Outlets For Their Judaism That The Jewish Community Still Refuses To Provide

A poll of 1,000 American Jews reveals that one in six are trying to find a way to express themselves Jewishly outside of affiliation with a synagogue or religious programing.

Jerusalem's Secular Jews Organize, Fight Back

After years of setbacks, Jerusalem's secular population has begun to push back against what many believe are heavy-handed tactics by the city's haredi residents to impose their religious mores on the general population. A growing number of restaurants now open on Saturday, an array of cultural events have sprouted up, and for the first time in years, a longtime exodus of secular residents for nearby suburbs appears to have halted.

British Chief Rabbi Accuses Atheist Richard Dawkins Of Antisemitism

Further tarnishing his reputation, the Chief Rabbi if Great Britain Lord Jonathan Sacks accused noted evolutionary biologist and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins of using antisemitic stereotypes in his best-selling book The God Delusion.

Religious Believers Less Motivated By Compassion Than Atheists, Studies Find

In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently caused less religious people to do acts of generousity. But for highly religious people, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were – or were not.

A State Based On Jewish Law Would Be Like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tel Aviv's Mayor Says

"Herzl did not speak of a Jewish state, but rather, about a state for Jews. A Jewish state would mean…Jewish law instead of democracy. If we'll have an ultra-Orthodox majority here, Israel will turn into a fundamentalist state like Saudi Arabia."

Thinking Weakens Religious Faith, Study Shows

A new study finds that rational analytical thinking weakens religious belief. (That may be why rational analytical thinking appears to be so rare in religious movements, and why it is rarely stressed or taught by religious leaders.)

Haredi Rabbis Conspire With Unethical Psychiatrists To Drug Non-Compliant Followers

The Gur hasid trembled as he spoke about a family gathering. One daughter in the extended family, a married woman with children, attended after a long period in which she had remained secluded in her home. "We were shocked," the hasid said. "At the beginning, we could barely identify her. This is a woman who has always been blessed with a lively, expressive personality, but now it looks like pills have finished her off. We met an apathetic woman who has a solemn, stony face; a woman who has had the life sucked out of her."

Satmar Blocks Atheist Billboard

Satmar hasidim appear to have been behind blocking American Atheists from posting a billboard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “The Jews have stopped the billboard,” said American Atheists' David Silverman. “It’s really ugly bigotry. As a former Jew, it’s repugnant to see Jews act like this.”

God Is A Myth

God is a Myth billboards to go up today in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Patterson, New Jersey.

Escape From The Haredi World

She wore daring attire, lost herself in forbidden books and chafed under the stringent religious dictates imposed on women. She read voraciously. In the mornings, before the family woke up, seated erect on a kitchen chair, she took pleasure in her books. Books that were never placed openly on the table or on a shelf, but were hidden.

Did Deborah Feldman Lie?

The author of the much ballyhooed memoir “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” which was published earlier this week by Simon and Schuster, claims that a 13-year-old Satmar boy was murdered by his father who, Feldman claimed, cut off the boy's penis and slashed his neck with a jig saw in the basement of their Kiryas Joel home because he caught the boy masturbating. Feldman further alleged that Hatzolah and Kiryas Joel leaders covered up the murder and buried the boy within 30 minutes of his body being discovered. She also said police were not called and that there was no death certificate issued. But all this appears to be a lie.