David Berman Quotes
My faith was undermined by the same sort of things that make people skeptics of religion in general. Part of it was, there was no real place for me in Judaism. Maybe if there was I would've hung in there, but I was attracted to the social-justice aspects of Judaism, and I was attracted to the prophets.
O'Neal, Sean. "David Berman of Silver Jews." The A.V. Club, 17 Jun. 2008.
He was referring to the possibility that Barry Goldwater might win the presidency in 1964. Goldwater's father was Jewish, but the family was Episcopalian.
See {617157} for a similar legal opinion. The concern was that poor Muslims may desert their faith when they see how well housed the tolerated people, Christians and Jews, are. They might conclude that Christianity or Judaism is better at making people wealthy than was Islam. See {617162} for a Koranic support of the idea. The Western view of this is generally, that is what the marketplace of ideas is all about. In 21st century America, Jews and Mormons on the average were the wealthiest religious groups. The logic of al-Ramli is that Mormons and Jews—each only 6 percent of the population—should not be allowed to show their wealth, lest Roman Catholics for example—25 percent of the population—will convert from Catholicism to the other two religions. From a democratic point of view, the response should be, we so be it. That is their choice. But America is the living proof that the assumption of conversion and loss of faith is per se wrong. The Mormons and Jews are visibly more successful, yet there are very few Roman Catholics leaving their church and converting to the two wealthier religions. There are some, but not at any greater rate than people convert from “wealthier” religions.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Franklin was a deist. He believed in God and the Creation but not the Bible which is often referred to as “revealed” truth. He did believe that classic Christianity was a positive force as some people were led to good works and a moral life by it.
David Cloud Berman was an American musician, singer, poet and cartoonist. In 1989, he founded the indie-rock band Silver Jews with Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. He was the only constant member during the band's discography, which concluded in 2009, following the band's sixth and final album Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008). He provided the distinct lyricism and, alongside Malkmus, the sparsely simple country-rock sound—which developed from initial lo-fi recordings.
