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Jewish Public Forum Seminar: “What Is Religion For?”
November 19, 2001 

Pre-Seminar Response to the Question:

“What Is Religion For?”

By Bob Scott 

Shortly after the terrorist attacks, the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said on Robertson’s TV show that the tragedy could be blamed on a variety of people they didn’t like (i.e., liberals) whose behavior had caused God to allow this tragedy to happen. After the predictable uproar, Falwell explained that the comments were meant to be heard in the context of Christian theology and were intended for a particular audience, and he was sorry if they were offensive out of context.  

What I think most people missed was that the two men were not suggesting that the behavior had somehow weakened our country in any rational cause-and-effect manner (i.e., made us soft or overconfident). I believe that their statement was made out of a purely premodern worldview. Even pre-Christian: It was Oedipus Rex, where the protagonist’s sin of sleeping with his mother caused a plague to fall on Thebes, not by transmitting disease, but by displeasing the gods, who sent the plague.  

Such a statement only convinces many in our culture that religion equates with superstition and has nothing to say to the post-Enlightenment world. Yet at the same time, if religious voices are to be true to their traditions and of service to others, we need to articulate a worldview beyond pure scientific rationalism, one that describes a universe rich with meaning.  

I know that those voices are emerging, but my question is how can we find our voice in time to make a difference?

 


    

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