Shibboleth

Just watched the West Wing episode with that title (not sure I've spelled it right, but it's late). It's an episode that really hangs together very well. It's a Thanksgiving episode, so the theme of people coming here to flee religious persecution is quite apt, but there's also the side theme of school prayer and how it can be used to persecute children if they choose to sit it out.

Yeah, I'm tired, I should go to bed. But I wanted to write something about it. It's the last episode on this particular DVD and I'll start something else tomorrow. In-between working on the Job From Hell, of course.

But I wanted to mention a passing thought that keeps passing and I keep forgetting to do something about it--I want to find the atheist charities. I know there was an atheists' group that a friend of mine started and it turned out to attract a lot of libertarians. And that's not the kind of people I want to be around. For one thing, I don't see atheism as a political thing. Maybe it's the Jew in me, but I want to find a group of atheists that want to make the world a better place. Of course, I suppose libertarians are trying to do that, I just don't agree with their perspective. But I mean that I want to find the people who are trying to feed people, cure their ills, take care of children...all those things that a lot of religious charities do, but without all the religious, I'll call it baggage. I believe that people can both be good and do good without believing in a deity and I think there are atheists out there who act in a civilized, humanistic, caring way and I want to try to join forces with them.