The Unsolvable Argument

            Religion is arguably the number one source of conflict since humans first devised the concept.  Though the majority of conflicts that arise are between different peoples perception of god there is a growing trend that religious conflict in the United States, particularly well publicized conflict, involves the argument between established religions and atheists as to whether god exists at all.  This argument will, most likely, never be able to be resolved.  The cultural logic of each group begins at point that cannot be reconciled between the two groups.

            In Olympia Washington, next to a nativity scene, is a placard that reads: “At the season of THE WINTER SOLSTCE may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angles, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world.  Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds”, that has bought the debate between Christians and Atheists to a front.  Christians argue that that the sign attacks Christmas, and the Christian religion, while Atheists argue that the Nativity scene is a statement of hatred condemning all non-believers to an existence of eternal damnation.  Since each distinct cultural group has an inherent logic built into their culture, each group is correct both in their assertions of the correctness of their religion, and the attacks by the other religion. 

            The assertion if the Atheist group is that atheism offers freedom from the aspects of religion that can cause people to make negative decisions or have a negative influence on people lives.  A further argument of the atheists group as expressed in an ad campaign with the words “why not be good for goodness sake” demonstrates that groups focus on religions focus on doctrines and not morals.  The fact that the Atheist group sees the Nativity scene as a representation of the Christian belief that non believers will be condemned to eternal damnation is correct, because it follows the logic of Atheist culture. The assertion of the various Christian groups that are in poison to the sign is hatful is correct, because theses groups see the sign as an affront to their own culture and cultural logic. The beginning point for the Logic of Christian Groups is the existence of god.  As atheist groups would argue the existence of god cannot be proven, however as Christian groups would respond the existence of god cannot be disproven.  Consequently, to state the benefits of atheism, freedom from rule by religious decrees, is an attack on Christianity.   There will be no way to reconcile the differences between theses two groups, as their logic is mutually exclusive and found on different culture premises.

 

Works Cited

Simon, Mallory. "Atheists take aim at Christmas." Atheists take aim at Christmas - CNN.com. 5 Dec. 2008. CNN. 5 Dec. 2008 http://www.cnn.com/2008/living/12/05/atheists.christmas/?iref=mpstoryview.

Teaching Religion in America

              American culture and its perception of the legality or appropriateness of discussing religion in schools has formed a cultural disjoint between understanding the context of innumerable current world events and world history.  The religious pretext of conflicts that the United States are currently involved in are undeniable.  The entire premise of the war on terrorism is to defeat the Islamic fundamentalists that would harm the United States citizens.  American politics have overtly involved a heated debate about abortion for over half a century in which conservative Christian groups are strongly associate themselves with the “pro-life” cause.  Regardless of the blatant involvement of religion in these and innumerable other contexts in American culture, Americans remain astoundingly uninformed about religions. 

            The lack of textual religious information in American culture has drastic repercussions.  Rev. Joan Brown Campbell stated, “We’re impoverished by our ignorance… You can’t draw on the resource of faith if you only have an emotional understanding not a sense of the texts and teachings”(Grossman).   This emotional knowledge can lead to the same errors that lack of textual information given in any field.  Cathy Lynn Grossman, writing for USA Today, cites an example of this the highly circulated story that the Quran foretold that U.S. invasion of the Middle East. This claim is false, but with out knowledge of the text of the Quran citizens were unable to combat the inaccuracies of the claim. 

            The reason for the lack of knowledge about religion in the United States is the cultural understanding of the first amendment.    The First amendment of the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  The 1963 decision of the Supreme Court that disallowed religious instruction in school is widely believed to state that United States law prohibits discussion of religion in school.  However this is not the case, and the Supreme Court’s decision even makes it clear that a knowledge of religious texts is important for education, but the formation of the cultural Understanding that religion must not be a part of school.  Regardless the cultural understand of this case , not the legal understanding, is that religions shall not be mentioned in government funded schools.

 

Works Cited

Grossman, Cathy L. "Americans get an 'F' in religion." Americans get an 'F' in religion - USATODAY.com. 14 Mar. 2007. USA Today. 4 Dec. 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-03-07-teaching-religion-cover_n.htm.

Commercialization of Holidays in a Politically Correct Consumer Culture

            It’s the time of year when stores paint their windows with fake snow and cover every inch of their display in festive cheer in an effort to seduce consumers into spending every last penny in an effort to buy that perfect Christmas.   Christmas has long been a topic of great debate.  The puritans made the celebration of Christmas through “forbearing labor or feasting or [celebrating] in any other way” a crime (Cohen). The holiday then began to gain more respect as a respectable holiday after the introduction of St. Nickolas and the domesticity of the event.  More recently the later part of December has come to be know as the holiday season, rather than the Christmas season in an attempt to show respect for other religions and the religious celebrations of those religions.

            The most notable religious ceremony in the United States that occurs during the “holiday season”, aside form Christmas is Hanukah.  However, to those who practice Judaism Hanukah is not a major holiday.  Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, who studies the commercialization of Hanukah, stated, “Hanukkah has always been a minor holiday, not on par with the Jewish New Year, the Day of Atonement and not even on par with other high holidays"(Manekin).  This minor Jewish holiday that has been cast into eminence in the united sates owes its prestige to the commercialization of the “holiday season”.  The rampant consumerism of the American Christmas carried over into Hanukah forming commercialized holiday that is more of a cultural than religious event. 

            The conflict between Christmas and the Jews culture is not isolated to modern American culture.  In European comminutes, according to Plaut, it was often the case the Jews would either isolate themselves from Christmas, or accept the holiday on cultural, rather than religious grounds and host Christmas parties of bring Christmas trees into their homes (Manekin).

            This awkward relationship between different religions, the attempt to from a cohesive culture, and in America to use this culture to fuel consumerism has come to be exemplified by the phrase “happy holidays”.  Sores that capitalize on the advantageous situation of consumers that are more willing to buy freely in this time of year have adopted the phrase, or other similar phrases, to entice as large a percentage of the population as possible with out offending any possible customers. Implicit in this modus operandi is the American cultural presumption that religion can be truncated and separated from popular culture.  While it is true that form may people that meaning of Christmas has everything to do with the presents, or consumer culture of America, and nothing to do with religion.  This does not, however, mean that that foundation of the holiday is in any way exculpable of its religious pretext, particularly when observing that American cultural attempt to avoid confrontation or alienation of those people who are not Christian. 

            This then is paradox of happy holidays in American culture.  The holiday season had transformed into more of a cultural rather than religious event, with a strong religious pretext.  By becoming a consumption-based holiday Christmas has created the spirit of consumerism associated with the time period that has then trans-mutated Hanukah into a major holiday on a cultural bases, rather than a religious bases.  “Happy holidays” has then come to me something bizarre and particular to American culture.  It essentially means to enjoy spending money on gifts for the sake of culture, any cultural events that occur in December, and any religious pretext that may be associated with those gifts.

 

Works Cited:

 

Cohen, Adam. "This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else." This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else - New York Times. 4 Dec. 2005. The New York Times. 4 Dec. 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04sun3.html

 

Manekin, Michael. "Hanukkah bolstered by Christmas rivalry." Hanukkah bolstered by Christmas rivalry Oakland tribune Find articles on Bnet. 15 Dec. 2006. Oakland Tribune. 4 Dec. 2008 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n16903960

 

Mckee, Steven. "An Unreasonable Fear of Christmas." Business Week. 7 Dec. 2006. Sales and Market. 4 Dec. 2008 http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2006/sb20061207_345299.htm?campaign_id=bier_smc.g3a.rssd1207zz

Growth of Jewish Food Culture

Food plays a demonstrative roll as a statement of culture.  The Jewish religion has both a very strong culture and string dietary guidelines that bind observant practitioners to a small number of foods, when compared with that amount of food available the rest of United States culture.   With the recent growth of culturally variant foods that have become popular in the United States there has also been a growth thin the popularity of kosher foods (Applebome). Sales of kosher food have grown to a $14 billion a year industry (Applebome).  This growth has brought traditional kosher food to a larger audience, but has also brought created a demand for a more diverse range of kosher products such as white grape Matzo, Concord grape matzo, spelt matzo, thin tea matzo, yolk free matzo, apple cinnamon matzo, non dairy cake frosting, even kosher Spanish pilaf mix (Applebome).   These are all non-traditional foods, by the normal standards of the culture, but the interest of those people who are not a part of the Jewish cutler has produced an economic demand for these new multicultural food products.   While many of these new products are made for the new non-Jewish market, some of the new products are, no doubt, consumed by Jews observing kosher dietary practices.  This represents the confluence of cultures to some extent, but to what extent is not clear.  According to Rabbi Yaakov Y. Horowitz “It’s the process that has to be traditional not the food that comes form it” (Applebome).  This statement makes the rules of kosher very clear, that safe handling of food, and not dietary restrictions are the central focus of kosher traditions.  The more interesting part of this statement it that the traditional process that Rabbi Horowitz refers to in this circumstance is a state of the art, fully automated, high speed manufacturing plant.  Rabbi Horowitz demonstrates that there are very specific parts of the process have to be kept traditional, and with a large number of rabbi inspecting the new machinery there is no doubt that the process adheres to these cultural and religious guidelines.

 

Works Cited:

Applebome, Peter. "Matzo Sells Like Hotcakes." Matzo Sells Like Hotcakes - New York TImes. 13 Apr. 2008. The New York Times. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/nyregion/13towns.html?_r=1.