Monday 29 April 2013

Huffington Post: Can You Respect a Religion You Disagree With?

In my latest blog on Huffington Post-Canada, my goal is to present a theory by which a person with religious convictions can also adopt a value of freedom of religion. The impetus for my original investigation was, of course, the need, which I believe existed, to reconcile Torah with the benefits the Jewish worlds experienced in living under a system that promoted this value. If this value was one which had practical benefit to Torah, in my opinion, it could not be one that could be easily dismissed. The article, while not explicitly stating so, reflects my understanding of the Torah conclusion on this issue. (Aspects of these thoughts were also presented previously in Nishma Insight 5762-01: In the Name of Religion)

My original title for the post, btw, was 'Freedom of Religion: The Value of Doubt' but it was changed by the editors.

Please see
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rabbi-ben-hecht/religious-freedom_b_3174720.html

Please feel free to comment here or there. The article on Huffington has already received much attention so please feel free to join the discussion

Rabbi Ben Hecht
 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If God wanted us all to believe the same thing, or follow the same religion, HE would have made us that way. Persuading people to follow a religion is great. Forcing religion on a nonbeliever is, in addition to everything else, is an ultimate act of hubris. It is stating that the user of force knows better than GOD.