Kesher Talk

Happy birthday Kesher Talk! This is a great forum you have going Howard and it's clear you have some amazing contributors.

I don't know if this counts as a discussion topic but i want to share something with all of you that one of my students pointed out on his/her course evaluation of my sociology of religion class. Do you folks ever spend time thinking about Judaism (or any religion) being right/correct/accurate? I mean we can all assume that we have made the decision that Judaism is best for us (whatever that means), but do you ever contemplate if religion is accurate? As a sociologist, I don't wrestle with this question a whole lot. I know what works for me as a person and I do my best to accept that other people may have something else that works for them (even the very different ways I am learning that people "experience" Judaism). My point is that I think this one student was really frustrated with my class becuase I never said whether or not any religion was right or wrong or accurate. Than I was wondering if most people even contemplate this question. There's this huge theory that some people apply to religion called rational-choice. It assumes that people make very calculated rational decisions based on the costs and benefits of belonging to a particular religion or even joining an indivudal congregation. Personally, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I don't think religion is an overly "rational" decision that most people contemplate and analyze. What do you folks think about this?

posted by Rachel @ 12/10/2002 01:41:46 PM