The Jewish Fallacy
I am smart
And God told me this is how it is
(My smartness enabling me to recognize God)
And so what I say
(Being what God told me)
Then is correct and true
And, perhaps most importantly, unique,
(Because God told me).
And the fact He told my whole tribe at once
(Through the intermediary Moses)
Makes it proven to be true
(Even though there is no other proof).
And this is the ground,
The very Holy Land itself,
I stand upon.
This is all well and good
For forming the basis of a distinct civilization
Unified and bonded on ethnic grounds,
But it doesn’t do so well
In the broader world of many other civilizations,
And tribal bonds,
Each with their own creation myths,
Each equally valid
For explaining what is,
And how it binds the tribe together
And thus apart
From all the rest.
It also doesn’t hold up to rigorous logic
Where the postulate needs more proof
Than the postulated existence
Of said postulate.
What it does do is provide a context
For confidence and solidarity
Within the tribe
And the self of each member.
But again, this is what all selves and tribes have
To some degree or another.
But when the Jews say
They have a special covenant with God,
And with their intellectual skill
Explain it in elaborate detail
Convincing at least themselves,
What they are really doing is merely adding a layer
Onto what simply is
(In their case, so and so people
In such and such place),
And although this intellectual conceptual layer,
Held to be The Truth,
Is distinctly Jewish,
The underlying reality of what is,
Is universal
And so the basis for whatever every other tribe
Thinks about itself, its origins and its world.
In others words, all religions are different
In how this world and life is explained,
But this world and life is the same for each of us
Until we become convinced
The conceptual layer our religion provides
Is true.
And heaven help those
Who disagree…
(4/8/25)
Copyright ©
James Moore
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