Category: Religion

This volume by Dennis Prager (the second in the Rational Bible series, ISBN-10: 1621578984, ISBN: 978-1621578987) was released after the his take on the Book of Exodus. Why write the books out of order? As I stated in my Exodus review, ” As Prager says, “The Torah: because its central message–that God is good and demands that we be good–is the only belief that will enable us to make a good world.” So I will assume that Prager wants readers to grasp the central message even if they don’t read the rest of the series.

After reading these first two books, I was inspired to order a copy of The Torah and I am currently reading it. Although it is essentially the same as the Old Testament of Christian edition bibles, it is closer to the original before various kings, monks, and “officials” tinkered with it. As they say, the devil is in the details. (“Let us guide the populace?”) So, reading this in addition to Prager’s first book of the series book gives additional insight.

Why All the Explanation?

Well, this is an interesting question. I can answer it for myself but you may have other views. In my opinion the Bible is damnably hard to read, and then interpreting the underlying meaning of the text is almost impossible. So if one has a literal understanding of the verses, the contextual understanding may be skewed.

This is where Prager’s works come into their own. He is a Talmudic scholar, speaks the lingo, has studied the text for many years, and applies his common (or not-so-common) sense to his interpretation.

My Opinion

I think if you have just started reading Dennis Prager’s series of The Rational Bible or are considering reading the bible, you can now start with Exodus or Genesis, but start now if you want a detailed ride.

I hope that you have found my review of The Rational Bible : Genesis a help. If so please forward it to your friends. We bring you the best info that we can find but this site relies on donations, not subscriptions,

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About the Author:

Photo of Kelly R. Smith Kelly R. Smith is an Air Force veteran and was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation and financial and energy trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at I Can Fix Up My Home Blog where he muses on many different topics.

October 29, 2018October 29, 2018

The Importance of Rituals

Charles Darwin's Daily Rituals — *Charles Darwin’s Daily Rituals*

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So. This is the most important bit. Insomnia. Can’t sleep, brain runs like a freight train right through the night. But the thoughts keep coming, the leftover refuse of books recently read and audio-books droning on I assume.

So here it is. I’ve been thinking about how important rituals are. Sometimes the big ones that your church orchestrates. Sometimes the little ones that we do everyday.

One of my big ones: when she-who-must-be-obeyed is home on the weekend, in the morning, I always say “Do you want some coffee?” Of course she says,”yes.” That’s part of our morning ritual. Then I make it for her.

And so it goes.

Rituals and Monotheism

Rituals have been around since the beginning of time. They can keep things the way they are or they can change things. A good example is in the years after Moses brought the Jews out of Egypt. Egyptians believed in many nature-centered Gods. All societies were along those lines. But things were about to change.

When God revealed his existence to Moses, he also started laying out many rituals — the Feast of Ingathering, resting on the Sabbath, the redemption of the firstborn son, observation of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and many others.

What is the reason for all these detailed rituals? In his book The Rational Bible: Exodus, Dennis Prager tells us, “One way people guard against the temptation to create idols and other false gods is by observing regular rituals that keep them focused on the One True God. One of the appeals of idols is that they exist physically, whereas God does not. The practice of physical rituals helps keep people attuned to the reality of God’s presence; otherwise, God can become too abstract and difficult to connect to.”

Rituals in Sports

Some rituals in sports can seem downright quirky but they do serve a purpose. Good luck and the idea that if things are done ritualistically, the outcome will be favorable. For example, Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls shorts in every game; Curtis Martin (New York Jets) reads Psalm 91 before every game.

Before every serve, Serena Williams bounces the ball exactly five times.
Wade Boggs, third baseman (Boston Red Sox), woke up at the same time each day, ate chicken before each game, took exactly 117 ground balls in practice, took batting practice at 5:17, and ran sprints at 7:17. (Boggs also wrote the Hebrew word Chai (“living”) in the dirt before each at bat.

Rituals and Superstitions

Many rituals are performed to keep bad things from happening. Remember step on a crack; break your mother’s back? Is it still applicable from beyond the grave? No sense in taking any chances. The advent of the Fitbit has created a new ritual — get those 10,000 step in or wallow in guilt.

Here are a few more: knocking on wood to bring good luck or to bring rain. Avoiding walking under ladders or crossing paths with a black cat. Unlucky Friday the 13th can cause anxiety in even the bravest and most rational souls. If you happen to look at the clock when it shows same figures for hours and minutes (10:10 for example) you can make a wish.

If you are walking with someone and you are forced to separate and each of you walk around either side of a pole, you have to say “Bread and Butter” three times or else it brings bad luck.

Daily Rituals

One reason to indulge in daily rituals is to keep our lives in balance; routine breeds stability. For men, a morning shave is not just good hygiene. It also prepares us for the upcoming day.

A daily walk or run is a healthy ritual. Doing it in the morning can clear the night’s cobwebs and prepares us for the day. Doing it in the evening can relax us and help us to unwind. It’s common to tackle emails the first thing when arriving at work. With that task in the rear view mirror the real work can begin.

The bottom line is that the importance of rituals can’t be understated. They give life a comforting stability in a chaotic world. Now, I’m off for my morning run so I can get on with my day and be productive. Knock on wood.

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September 1, 2018September 25, 2019

The Rational Bible: Exodus; a Book Review

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The Rational Bible: Exodus (ISBN 978-1-62157-772-0) is the first book in a series authored by religious scholar and talk show host Dennis Prager. Rather than starting with the first book of the Torah (Old Testament or the first five books of the Bible) he begins with Exodus.

Why Begin with the Book of Exodus?

Why not begin at the beginning? Good question. The Book of Genesis is the first book and it would seem to be the place for Prager to start. But Exodus really gets to the meat of the matter. It encapsulates the essence of the message. As Prager says, “the Torah: because its central message–that God is good and demands that we be good–is the only belief that will enable us to make a good world.”

It sounds simple and that is exactly what it is; it’s not rocket science. But, up until this point in human history religion had never embraced this simple concept. But this is what Exodus is all about. Monotheism and the system of commandments that are the foundation of a moral existence. Prager says the Ten Commandments are, “the most important moral code in world history, and the central moral code of the Torah.”

Face It; Reading the Bible is Hard

Most modern people have attempted to read the Bible and failed. The translations are ambiguous and the phrasing is cryptic. In this book, however, Prager does the hard work for us. He puts the actual passages in bold and then goes into excruciating detail to explain the meaning. He does so with reason, logic, and the experience of a life-long study of the material. It could be said that he takes a scientific approach to explain the mystical.

Since he works from the Torah rather than one of the many Christian translations, and the fact that he is fluent in Hebrew (where words and phrases can have multiple meanings) his observations are likely the closest thing to reality that a layperson can hope to attain. After all, he has been teaching the Torah verse-by-verse for eighteen years.

The Deeper Meaning of the Plagues Visited Upon Egypt

Exodus of course means the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses. This was quite a process since the Pharaoh was reluctant to let all this free labor go. One might wonder why God did not just “make it happen” rather to instruct Moses to visit the Ten Plagues upon the Pharaoh and Egypt.

God had to convince not only the Egyptians but also the Israelites that he was the one and only God. The Egyptians worshiped many nature Gods and each plague was directly connected with destroying the belief in one of them.

The first plague turned the Nile water into blood; so much for the Nile Gods. The second plague, that of the frog infestation, destroyed belief if the frog God and Goddess. So on and so forth.

Moral Absolutes and Moral Relativism in Modern Society

Sam Malone coined the phrase “the Godless Alt-Left” and while it might be primarily click-bait, it’s not far off the mark. The modern left has not only become an anything-goes cult but in a contradictory way has become the intolerant that trumpets the virtue of all-tolerant.

Prager points out that moral truths by definition require God. Scientific truths can be proven or disproved but moral ones can’t. Why is murder wrong? Because it is right there in the Commandments. Keep in mind that there is a distinction between murder and killing which is where the opposition to capital punishment using a religious justification falls apart.

A Book that Warrants Re-Reading

While reading The Rational Bible: Exodus is revealing, instructive, and entertaining, there is so much food for thought in it that it is hard to digest it all in one setting. Like one of those favorite movies, you will find yourself asking, “How did I miss that the first time around?”

This book contains important lessons on politics, morality, religion, history, philosophy, and the direction society is heading.

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August 27, 2018December 24, 2020

Secret Societies: the Illuminati

Does this Secret Cult Have a Hand in Controlling the World?

by Kelly R. Smith

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This article was updated on 12/23/20.

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Secret societies have always held a special place for the curious. Whether credible or not, who doesn’t love hearing about a good conspiracy theory about powerful figures lurking in the background and plotting world domination? As far as secret societies go, the Illuminati looms large. There is even recent speculation that social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter have been working with them as a method for evoking social engineering.

Origins of the Illuminati

Like most things conspiratorial, there has been much theorizing, speculating, and downright exaggeration of the origins of the Illuminati, giving it something of a cult status. There are no shortage of conspiracy theories in the digital age; the current one involves deaths involving COVID-19.

The generally-accepted facts are these–the name usually relates to the Bavarian Illuminati which was an Enlightenment-era secret society thought to have been founded on May 1, 1776. The society’s stated goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism (opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge or deliberate obscurity or evasion of clarity), religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power.

The organization wrote in their general statutes, “The order of the day is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them.” The Illuminati along with Freemasonry and other secret societies were outlawed through on the order of the Bavarian ruler Charles Theodore with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1790. In the several years following, the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that they continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.

Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians were members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, who held the post of the Order’s second-in-command. It also attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.

The Mystique of the Illuminati

What would a secret society be without a rumored conspiratorial agenda? The lore of the Illuminati is rich with these rumors. It has been said that they conspire to control global affairs by masterminding events and planting clandestine agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power with the likes of Vladimir Putin to influence and to establish a New World Order.

They are said to have influenced a number of novels, films, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos in order to achieve their notorious agenda. These are much cleverer ways to change society rather than the thug groups today like Antifa.

Their Rocky Relationship with the Rosicrucians

The Rosicrucians can be described as a rival secret order and the Illuminati did their best to keep their distance. The goals and beliefs of the two societies were at loggerheads with each other.

The Rosicrutians were against the church, pro-monarchic, and held a world view conflicting with the Illuminati’s vision of a rationalist state run by philosophers and scientists. Also, the Rosicrucians were not above promoting their own brand of mysticism with fraudulent seances.

The Illuminati continues to be a fertile breeding ground for all sort of conspiracy theories such as subverting national soverignty. U.S. presidents are frequently thought of as being in cahoots with them to influencing world events such as when President Bush the Elder made his famous “New World Order” comment.

They are also rumored to have had a hand in the Battle of Waterloo, the French Revolution, and the Kennedy assassination. What do you believe about the Illuminati Nd other conspiracy theories about world domination? Please participate in the poll on the right side bar of this page.

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About the Author:

Photo of Kelly R. Smith Kelly R. Smith is an Air Force veteran and was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation, financial, and energy-trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at I Can Fix Up My Home Blog where he muses on many different topics.

The Rational Bible: Genesis; a Book Review

Why All the Explanation?

My Opinion

About the Author:

The Importance of Rituals

Rituals and Monotheism

Rituals in Sports

Rituals and Superstitions

Daily Rituals

The Rational Bible: Exodus; a Book Review

Why Begin with the Book of Exodus?

Face It; Reading the Bible is Hard

The Deeper Meaning of the Plagues Visited Upon Egypt

Moral Absolutes and Moral Relativism in Modern Society

A Book that Warrants Re-Reading

Secret Societies: the Illuminati

Does this Secret Cult Have a Hand in Controlling the World?

Origins of the Illuminati

The Mystique of the Illuminati

Their Rocky Relationship with the Rosicrucians

About the Author:

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