Faith and Tradition (was ID as a Cultural Phenomenon) (Humans)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 20:04 (5283 days ago) @ David Turell

The BBC Radio 4 programme "Start the Week" this week featured Schlomo Sand and his book "The Invention of the Jewish People". I wondered what your impression of this might be, assuming you have heard of it.-Quote from BBC: In The Invention of the Jewish People, the Israeli historian Shlomo Sand unravels the mythologised history of the Jewish people to claim that the Israelites were never exiled from the "promised land", and that most Jews are descended from converts. What does that mean for the State of Israel? And how far are Palestinian Arabs the true heirs of the biblical Jews? Shlomo Sand argues that a new analysis of the history of the Jews is vitally important for the future of Israel and all its inhabitants.-On a related issue. It occurs to me that all religions are not so much a matter of faith as of tradition, that is of customs and ideas handed down from generation to generation, and in that way are similar to nationalism. Thus faith is not a matter of truth but of buying in to the group-think for the sake of security or a quiet life.

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GPJ