פרסומים אחרונים במדור "דת והעידן החדש"

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"There have also been Marxist critics like George Luk´acs, who saw in Nietzsche’s philosophy nothing more than an ideological apologia for the rapacious plunder of German capitalist imperialism and a particularly destructive form of irrationalism. Luk´acs insisted both on the reactionary coherence of Nietzsche’s “system” and on the “barren chaos” of his arbitrary language, singling him out as one of the most
dangerous “intellectual class-enemies” of socialism. Luk´acs’s own miserable record as an apologist (for the crimes of Stalinism), gave his onesided reading of Nietzsche (which equated hostility to egalitarian socialism with fascist imperialism) transparently propagandist coloring, yet it is an interpretation that had considerable influence in its day."

"While it is true that Nietzsche's writings were used extensively as Nazi propaganda, Nietzsche himself would have been starkly opposed to Nazism. Nietzsche was a fierce opponent of German nationalism, and in spite of his critique of Judaism as a religion, he wrote just as often in praise of Jewish culture. Nietzsche's attachment to Nazism is largely result of his sister's efforts to edit his work and use it as a means to advance her own social position during the period of National Socialism in Germany."
-- Douglas Thomas, Associate Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

"…You have committed one of the greatest stupidities—for yourself and for me! Your association with an anti-Semitic chief expresses a foreigness to my whole way of life which fills me again and again with ire or melancholy… It is a matter of honor with me to be absolutely clean and unequivocal in relation to anti-Semitism, namely opposed [sic.] to it, as I am in my writings. …That the name of Zarathustra is used in every Anti-Semitic Correspondence Sheet has almost made me sick several times. …"
-- The Portable Nietzsche Walter Kaufman [trans.] ©1954 Viking Press (ppg. 546-457)

If a child runs into the room saying "Mummy, mummy! I love Jesus and He loves me! We're all going to Heaven when we die and God is looking over us!", people will smile and praise the child. Nobody would say "Don't be silly. You can't possibly say that because you don't fully understand everything about the religion. How can you know that for sure, when you've not read the Bible in the original Hebrew?!?". But if a child (or teenager, or adult) says "I've had a good think about it, and have come to the conclusion that Jesus is a myth and nothing in Christianity makes much sense. I declare myself to be a freethinking secular humanist.", then they are quite likely to receive the latter response. You could have all the theological training of a hedgehog and still get wild applause if you stand up and say you're a Christian, but it seems that atheists are required to demonstrate more intelligence and Biblical expertise than all the clergymen and theologians that have ever lived before they are allowed to publicly express their doubts. -Adrian Barnett