When people become religious they lose the ability to discern between right and wrong. One reason is they become infatuated with some miracle worker from the Dark Side. And they think because that charismatic person [demon] is religious with their kind of religion that therefore his powers must be from the Realm of Holiness.
But there are other reasons. And some of these reasons I know about. And some I don't. But the in any case is when someone becomes religious, you can forget about menschlichkeit [human decency.]
I think Israel Salanter tried to fix this with limited success. [That was his reason to start the Musar movement--to combine good character traits with Fear of God.]
My approach is that there are universals. Morals are one kind of universal. And they are recognizable by reason. But since human reason is corrupted to the desire to fit in with some social group so we need some kind of revelation that is not thought and not sensed. So we need Torah to make us aware of the difference from right and wrong in the first place. But since Torah is connected with numinous reality it can easily be subverted. And numinous value always conquers non numinous value. Right and wrong is mainly mundane. Pay your bills. Work for a living at an honest job, etc. That has nothing like the power and excitement of some religious high that one gets from a cult.
I should mention that being religious is very different from keeping Torah. These are in fact exact opposites. There is almost nothing that the religious do that is in accord with Torah.
But there are other reasons. And some of these reasons I know about. And some I don't. But the in any case is when someone becomes religious, you can forget about menschlichkeit [human decency.]
I think Israel Salanter tried to fix this with limited success. [That was his reason to start the Musar movement--to combine good character traits with Fear of God.]
My approach is that there are universals. Morals are one kind of universal. And they are recognizable by reason. But since human reason is corrupted to the desire to fit in with some social group so we need some kind of revelation that is not thought and not sensed. So we need Torah to make us aware of the difference from right and wrong in the first place. But since Torah is connected with numinous reality it can easily be subverted. And numinous value always conquers non numinous value. Right and wrong is mainly mundane. Pay your bills. Work for a living at an honest job, etc. That has nothing like the power and excitement of some religious high that one gets from a cult.
I should mention that being religious is very different from keeping Torah. These are in fact exact opposites. There is almost nothing that the religious do that is in accord with Torah.
