Tom Petty Says Religion = War

Expressing a view that is held by a lot of people, rock star Tom Petty explained that the title of one of the tunes on his new album (Hypnotic Eye) was about cover ups of child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. I think it's safe to say that no one supports child abuse and most people don't approve of covering it up - so Tom's tune seems pretty relevant.

Unfortunately, he then went on to make a sweeping generalization about religion as a whole by saying that "religion seems to me to be at the base of all wars."  Well, whereas it certainly has been at the base of some wars it's hard to see how any war fought by communist (and atheist) Russia or China could fall into that category.

So just how many wars, historically speaking, is religion the cause of?  Political science professor John Tures (writing in the Huffington Post) says not too many.  His research found that "religion was very infrequently a source of conflict" while issues like "regimes, riches and real estate" were major culprits.  Professor Tures also points out that many wars, like the Protestants vs the Catholics in North Ireland, weren't actually religiously based but were rather over political power and governmental representation.

So while Tom may be a great musician, he may need some more rehearsals before venturing out on the theological world stage.

Read it all here.


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Smart Money's On Isaiah - The Good Guys Will Win in the End

With the Nation of Israel under attack for the umpteenth thousandth time it is easy to lose site of the big picture - that the Jewish People are routinely reviled for their goodness and for the message of universal peace and spiritual transcendence that they have always promoted and stood for.  And the end, only these values will be left standing.

When Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues were walking past the ruins of the Second Temple, they started to weep while Akiva began to laugh.  When asked what possessed him to laugh at this terrible site of pain and devastation he replied that just as the prophecy that the Temple would be destroyed came to pass so too could they be confident that they prophecy that it would be rebuilt would come to pass as well.  They reflected on this a famously replied "you have comforted us Akiva."

As such, it seemed only fitting to boost our confidence in Toraitic prophecy at this moment of travail so that we could take comfort in the notion that some day Isaiah's vision will also be fulfilled:

"And it shall be at the end of days that the mountain of God's house will be firmly established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream into it.  And many people will go and say 'come, let's go up to God's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob and let him teach us His ways and we will go in His paths' for out of Zion will the Torah come forth and the word of God from Jerusalem.  And He will judge between nations are reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not lift sword against nation and they will not learn war any more."

Here's my take on prophecy: