Category Archives: Atheist

Michael Pulley| Springfield News-Leader

I grew up on the Midwest prairie,where the first European settlers planted hedge rows to fence in livestock,plows dug up the bluestem prairie grass followed by corn, wheat, soybeans, andhundreds of small towns flourished, some barely 12or 15miles apart.

My father made a fine living as an auctioneer and real estate agent helping the small farmers sell to the wealthy, who bulldozed the hedgerows and planted right up to the farm roads, building new houses and buying expensive machinery.

Today, corporate farms dot some of the prairie, and hundreds of giant windmills sprouted called wind farms generating energy to distant cities. Even though I've moved, Im still haunted by the prairie's long vistas and gently rolling hills. But is reconstructing the past a fool's errand, a trick to avoid the present's pressing concerns?

The writer Joan Didion, who recently died, said, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." Stories and even thoughts from the past might, mysteriously, be life-affirming, especially in troubled times.

For example, when I was about 12I sought out the town atheist. Surely there were others, but this guy had established a quiet distinction as being approachable and kind, my parents told me, never thinking I might seek him out. I noticed he did not have fangs nor horns growing from his head.

"Are you an atheist?"

"Aren't you Lee Pulley's boy?"

"Yes."

"He's a fine man. Better listen to him."

I told him my dad was not an atheist, and the conversation ended. I wanted to hear more, but nothing doing. Telling myself that story today makes me wonder if I internalized the goodness of those two men, their shared respect, in spite of differences. A story I might apply today.

One early Sunday morning while delivering newspapers on my bicycle, I saw a man I knew sprawled on his front steps, obviously passed out drunk. He was a carpenter whose shop I'd passed several times, often stopping in, watching him measure accurately before sawing. I called his name, and he moved slightly. I pedaled off, not wanting him to know I saw him, a respectable man in that condition.

As a kid, what was I to learn from encountering atheists and drunks? And according to Joan Didion, by telling their stories am I doing it "in order to live?" The atheist and drunk still reside clearly in my mind. What's their value now?

Since leaving the prairie, why do I continue telling story after story about the place? Is it for some kind of psychic cleansing that only my psychotherapist and I discuss?

And what about that atheist? Do I remember him because of my many crises of faith, some of which still exist and about which I often struggle? Do I reside somewhere between my father's theism and the atheist's non-belief? And what about the carpenter passed out on his porch steps? Do I still recall that scene because even though I've never passed out on my front steps I hope my drinking never gets out of hand? That I might remain under control?

Our past landscapes could have shaped us. Densely wooded locales, mountains. I prefer flat distances, the freedom to see, to think openly, not be encumbered, wondering about all the stories that took place on flat land from which I might, if fortunate, gain some insight about myself today.

Even though I've moved many times, perhaps I'll always be a prairie child. A product of thatlandscape and its people. Whether I want to be or not.

Michael Pulley lives in Springfield. He can be reached atmpulley634@gmail.com.

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A look back at the people and the views on the prairie - News-Leader

Norris Burkes| Ledger columnist

As a hospice chaplain, Ive had to come to grips with legislation passed in my home state of California called The End-of-Life (EOL) Option Act.

This law allows for terminally ill adults to request medication that will bring about their peaceful death. However, patients must be able to verbalize their request and they must be able to swallow the meds unassisted.

The law was months away from becoming active when I first visited Ruth, a 90-year-old hospice patient in Davis, California. Within a few minutes of entering her modest apartment, she tried dismissing me by claiming to be a life-long atheist.

I told her what I tell many patients: Im not here to persuade you, convert you or even baptize you. Im here to be present with you through some tougher days.

Ruth smiled at that, cementing something between us.

Over the next several weeks, she told me stories of how shed raised two loving sons and made a good life for herself. However, she grew up in Hitlers Germany and had legitimate reasons to doubt Gods existence. Shed seen the imprisonment of relatives and the death of countless Jews.

Her childhood had been harassed by hunger and haunted by grief. Yet somehow, she became a woman who showed little regret about her life.

On my third visit, shortly before the law would take effect, she told me of her plans to request the EOL medications.

Would you, Ruth stuttered, could you, be there when I take the medications?

No, I screamed in my head. I wont! I cant.

Fortunately, the law allows medical staff to follow their own conscience on this. I could say no and would not be penalized by my employer.

But - and this is where things get dicey the legal wording expressly forbids medical staff to persuade or dissuade a patient in their EOL choices.

Instead of answering her straight away, I tried defusing the question.

You know our hospice staff would really miss you if you did that. Everyone talks about how uplifted they are by their visits with you.

Then, as if loading both barrels, she aimed a look at me.

Yes, she said, but I dont think its my job to encourage you. You must find your own reasons for living as I have my reasons for dying.

Ruth was right, of course. Her path was different than mine. She had to make her own decision.

A moment of silence broke over our bedside chat like stillness over a mountain lake. Then Ruth repeated her question.

So, will you be there when I end this life?

Let me interrupt my narrative for a moment to ask my own question: If youd been in my size-12 shoes, what would you have told the woman?

If your answer is a profound, No way, then Id follow up with, Why not?

Consider what the woman was really asking.

I think she was saying, I need to feel a kind presence. I need to know Im not alone.

When I realized that, I heard myself say, Of course Ill be there.

In the matter of our life, and certainly our death, the only thing we all want to know is that we arent alone.

Not long after our conversation, Ruth woke up to her last day on earth and had breakfast with her sons. Then surrounded by family and hospice staff, she became our first hospice patient to end her life with medications.

She was never alone.

In the weeks and months that followed, our staff saw the truth of what shed said it wasnt her job to inspire or encourage us.

Nevertheless, that truth never stopped us from celebrating her inspiring presence in our lives.

We will always remember you, Ruth.

Contact ChaplainNorrisatcomment@thechaplain.netor10556 Combie Road,Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602or voicemail 843-608-9715. Norris is coming to the Lakeland areaMarch 17-20 and isavailable to speak to your church, civic or veteran group, hospital, or college. For more information,email for details.

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Hospice patient chooses both her life and her death - The Ledger

By DR. DANIEL SCHNEE on January 26, 2022.

As an anthropologist I am always fascinated by how humans create systems of meaning through values and beliefs: how religion is a significant site of this activity. And, as recent statistics reveal, the number of Albertans who seek meaning through Christianity is rapidly declining.

As someone who has spent many years dealing with a variety of Christian sects and militant atheism, I happen to have a fair amount of perspective on how one finds meaning; how to gain or lose faith. The simple truth is that humans deify things: rocks, paintings, musicians, mythological figures and so on. If we got rid of all religions today, more would pop up immediately. There will never be a fully atheistic global population on this planet, ever.

So the idea that we can or must be rid of religion is as misguided as many of the religions we invent. Also, the idea that a world freed from religion would be a world of peace and equality is also misguided. This is because not all ethical and moral systems are dictated by religion, and we argue over these systems, e.g. Canadas criminal code.

This is also true for atheism, for it is not necessarily the golden shaft of rational light shining out in the spiritual darkness as often described. A true atheist can only reject religious claims via the science, logic and reason we are capable of here on Earth. We can disprove various theological claims through archeology, chemistry, and so on, but only on the scale of our current intelligence and machinery. Absolutely no one has (or may ever have) proof that in the entire span of the universe there is absolutely no god, gods, goddesses, cloud of divine particles, some alien so advanced that they seem divine, or some such thing we could call god. To assert that we might know such a fact is to once again deify ourselves, to imagine that we are growing infinitely intelligent despite living in a universe of staggering complexity.

The truth is, no matter what one believes, the most relevant factor has always been behavior; how we treat each other. Religious converts have been won or lost on these terms, and they still are today.

Cults require a lot of negative behavior to justify their own existence. Militant atheism often makes one haughty and disdainful, since it purports to rise above religious behavior. No matter how much of what we hear coming from the pulpit is true, our behavior will most likely dictate how many people are present to hear it. Our views are heavily influenced by how others behave, and nothing draws one into a church like a good example.

The stark message is this: we are seeing a decline in the number of Christians in Alberta because there seems to be a decline of Christianity in Christians. At the very least, Christianity is starting to look less about Christs love, and more about yelling and threats. As such it would only make sense that people might leave it behind, paradoxically, rejecting its theology in order to uphold the very ethics and morality it preaches.

Like any religion when it is at its best, people will return to Christianity when love, peace, and compassion return to it first.

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist who studies Japanese creative culture.

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The Human Condition: Declining religion - Medicine Hat News

Arent you sick of this!? Yes! I think we all are. Some are sick with it nowadays. It used to be that we would personally know only a few with COVID-19, but it appears that now, almost everybody is testing positive. Just within the last week, I have had appointments cancelled because of COVID positivity or people coming down with symptoms. My wife and children, who are physicians, are having to take extra calls to cover for colleagues that are symptomatic or positive with COVID. Talking about this with friends, I mentioned the pandemic now feels more like a plague. Yes! they said, Exactly!

To those of us who have read our Bibles for years, the word plague is familiar. From Genesis to Revelation, it is mentioned about 100 times, and it never seems to be positive. Some think this pandemic is an act of God and therefore blame Him for it. Others link it to prophetic fulfillment and are concerned with the civil liberties they perceive have been compromised in the name of public health. Whether for these reasons or others, peoples nerves are on edge. Could we, believing whatever we believe, still find peace and joy as we start a new year? Well, not necessarily. Let me briefly share how two exemplars describe their experience with a plague and then offer a few suggestions that could be helpful as we face it.

Albert Camus did not live through a plague but wrote a classic novel with this title.1 Camus himself was an atheist, as was his main character, Dr. Bernard Rieux, who expressed his worldview. Dr. Rieux works tirelessly to care for those infected and sees the world as absurd and meaningless and life as fleeting and ephemeral. The response to the plague reveals Dr. Rieux's beliefs: work hard for the common good, but in the end, It is in the thick of calamity that one gets hardened to the truthin other words, to silence. Silence; nothing beyond; no meaning; no hope.

Now contrast Camus with renowned English poet John Donne. Donne, born in 1572, was the dean of St. Pauls Cathedral in London, England, through the plague of his time. He himself got infected and was gravely ill. He wrote his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions while bedridden. In it, he was searingly honest about his emotional and faith struggles, yet he held on to Christ. In Philip Yanceys paraphrase,2 Donne says, Trembling, I ask, My God, my God, why have you thrown your anger so quickly upon me? (p. 26), then prays, As my body continues to deteriorate, O Lord, I only ask that you speed up the pace and lift my soul toward you (p. 27). This was similar to the suffering of those for whom Dr. Rieux worked. Donne continued working for the common good from his position until the illness took its toll on him. His response to the plague: meaning; hope; connection through faith.

What we believe makes a difference as to how we transition through this current plague. The psalmist offers a direction:

Whoever rests in the shadow of the Most High God will be kept safe by the Mighty One. I will say about the Lord, He is my place of safety. He is like a fort to me. He is my God. I trust in him. You wont have to be afraid of the sickness that attacks in the darkness. You wont have to fear the plague that destroys at noon (91:1, 2, 6, NIRV.

While offering full protection in verses 713, we know this is not always the case. However, we can always find refuge in Him and not fear the plague. John 15 offers spiritual and psychological clues. We feel safe when we feel connected, like the branches to the vine. You would not trust someone you do not know well and have not experienced as trustworthy. This type of intimate relationship is not the result of a passing thought, but it is cultivated, just as you would any other relationship you deem important. You would not trust someone you barely know and to whom you hardly talk.

Furthermore, this is the kind of Tree that bears fruit. The fruit it bears is the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22, 23). Research from the field of positive psychology identifies love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control as contributing to being resilient. As with any other fruit, it needs to be cultivated, meaning the ground needs to be worked on and the plant needs to be watered and cleared of weeds over time. Undoubtedly, we need to attend to what we cultivate. However, no fruit that can make us resilient will result unless it is connected to the Tree.

Part 2 of this article will follow next week.

1 Camus, Albert (2002), The Plague. New York: Penguin Classics.

2 Yancey, Philip (2021), A Companion in Crisis: A Modern Paraphrase of John Donnes Devotions. Littleton: Illumify Medial Global.

Carlos Fayard, PhD, is an associate professor and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Training and Community Mental Health at the Department of Psychiatry, Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He authored Christian Principles for the Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy.

This article was originally published on the Inter-American Divisions website

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Cultivating Resilience in the Midst of a PlaguePart 1 - Adventist News Network

Far-right platform Gab is sponsoring white nationalist Nick Fuentes conference. The move has proved controversial for both parties. Many of Gabs donors are claiming that theyll no longer fund the platform.

Gab founder Andrew Torba announced Monday that his platform will sponsor the upcoming America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). AFPAC is Fuentes extremist alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Everyone who will be going is a member of this website, promotes Christian values, openly proclaims the name of Jesus Christ, and promotes America First political objectives, candidates, and members of Congress, Torba wrote on Gab.

He claimed to desire unity among conservatives then proceeded to slam CPAC and Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirks group for young conservatives. CPAC is sponsored by Facebook and Google among other billionaires, Torba added. TPUSA is sponsored by atheist libertarian billionaires.

Facebook and Google were last reported to sponsor CPAC in 2018. Its not clear who Torbas accusing of being atheist libertarian billionaires, though its possible hes referring to Charles Koch. Koch is a billionaire, TPUSA sponsor, and has described his views as libertarian. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that hes not religious.

Gab is a notorious haven for the far-right. Antisemitism and racism are common. Torba often boasts that hateful ideas are welcome on his platform.

Torbas embrace couldnt come at a better time for Fuentes. The far-right figure who launched his public persona by claiming he was leaving college after being threatened for attending the Unite the Right rally has found himself increasingly unwelcome online. His recent permanent suspension from Gettr followed bans by more mainstream platforms where hed built his audience.

The partnership is also arguably beneficial to Gab, which is struggling to compete in a crowded far-right social media landscape.

Gab sponsoring AFPAC follows its partnership with Fuentes streaming service. Alex Kaplan of Media Matters for America reported on Monday that Torba may even help Fuentes monetize it.

The move generated controversy for both parties, however. Fuentes posts about the partnership were riddled with comments trolling him.

Many pointed out that Fuentes has recently made scathing statements about Gab users, including calling them fucking r*****ed.

Youve openly degraded Gab and its users, commented one. Especially straights and women. Fuck off.

Fuentes comments include a call for Gab to ban women from the platform.

Many of Torbas followers also criticized him for embracing Fuentes, whose extremism proved a bridge too far for them.

You are aligning Gab with a movement that wants to shut up the very people who helped your platform grow in the last year, wrote one.

People who claimed to be among Gabs sponsors said that they would stop donating if he persisted with plans to sponsor AFPAC.

I didnt agree to help fund AF, wrote one. I agreed to help fund Gab, but if this is where my money ends up, I am ending that agreement. They added that this is something that should have been discussed with the Gab community beforehand, as we are the main reason Gab has $20K to throw around.

Its not publicly known what Torbas sponsorship entails, but several people implied that hed given Fuentes money.

Torbas critics included Islamophobic figure Laura Loomer. Loomer was outraged by Fuentes posting that he trusts Gab because its run by a faithful Christian. And not some Judeo-Christian either, a Christian.

On Tuesday, Loomer, who is Jewish, wrote multiple Telegram posts blasting Fuentes and Torba. She said that shes long supported Gab, Torba, and even Fuentes, and noted that she attended and promoted AFPAC last year.

The idea that you cant trust someone who is Jewish is quite absurd, Loomer wrote of Fuentes post about Christians versus Judeo-Christians. (Judeo-Christian is merely a term that notes that Christianity is derived from Judaism, as evidenced both by Jesus Christ being Jewish and its use of Jewish scripture in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.)

In another post, Loomer wrote, Does Andrew just want to create a terms of service that says no Jews allowed?

Am I not welcome simply because Im Jewish, even though I have always supported Gab, Ive been a friend to Andrew Torba and Nick, and Im America First? she added.

The criticisms grew loud enough that Torba weighed in. True to form, his stance was defiant.

Controversy is attention. Attention is influence, Torba posted on Tuesday amid the blowback.

The point of marketing is to influence people to get off Big Tech and get on Gab. In order to do that I need their attention.

*First Published: Jan 25, 2022, 1:37 pm CST

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Gab users are furious after its CEO announces partnership with notorious white nationalist - The Daily Dot

Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schnbach meeting with German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht BERND WUSTNECK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

German naval chief Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schnbach announced his resignation Saturday after his comments about the ongoing crisis on the Ukrainian border provoked outrage, The Guardian reported.

At a think-tank discussion in India Friday, Schnbach said all Russian President Vladimir Putin really wants is "respect," and that "giving him respect is low cost, even no cost. It is easy to give him the respect he demands, and probably deserves."

Schnbach, who has led Germany's navy since March 2020, also said the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, "is gone" and will "never come back" to Ukraine.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said Schnbach's remarks were "categorically unacceptable."

According to BBC, Ukraine has also criticized Germany for its refusal to provide the former Soviet republic with weapons and other forms of "lethal aid."

Schnbach also suggested that both India and Germany could benefit from cultivating closer ties with Russia as a way to counter rising Chinese influence and preserve Christian civilization against the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party.

"India, Germany we need Russia against China," he said to Sujan R. Chinoy, a former Indian ambassador. "Probably not from your perspective, but from my perspective. I'm a very radical Roman Catholic. I believe in God, and I believe in Christianity, and then [Russia is] a Christian country, even if Putin is an atheist, but it doesn't matter."

Putin is, at least nominally, a Russian Orthodox Christian, but has expressed discomfort with speaking publicly about his faith.

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German navy chief who said NATO should give Putin 'the respect he demands' resigns - Yahoo News

The world-renowned Christian theologian, Alister McGrath, believes science and religion can work ... [+] together in helping us deal with life.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has triggered conflicting responses, and some groups have grounded their resistance to public-health guidelines in religion. While a religious mindset is driven by trust in a higher power, a science-based outlook leans on knowledge based on empirical evidence to understand life. Some may say the two are incompatible, though according to the world-renowned theologian, Alister McGrath, they inform each other.

McGrath is an old friend from when I taught at Oxford. I cant remember how it happened, what was over 20 years ago, but I ended teaching what I taught at the Said Business School, Leadership and Change to ministers of the Church of England with him.So, in the midst of the crisis, I thought of asking him some deeper questions to see what he might pitch up with.

Science can give us answers which don't necessarily solve things but provide us with a way out of some of the worst aspects of the pandemic, said McGrath, the Andreas Idreos professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.

Known as one of the worlds leading apologists for Christianity and esteemed Christian theologians, McGrath was once an atheist. Born in Belfast in Northern Ireland, he grew up in the town of Downpatrick and majored in pure and applied mathematics, physics and chemistry at the Methodist College. He later joined Wadham College at Oxford University to study natural science before turning to theology. Noted for his work in historical and systematic theology, much of his research advances the dialogue between science and religion.

McGrath stresses the importance of scientific research and discovery. After all, the health care system is deeply rooted in religious institutions.

If you look at medieval monasteries, they always had a hospital because that was part of their faith, said McGrath. Medicine was seen very much as a means of grace, a way of actually using human knowledge and God's Earth to develop treatments.

Some would still say that science and religion are inconsistent with each other, he added. They are indeed different, but so are science and ethics, and every scientist I've met wants to be an ethical person.

By the logic that science and religion are incompatible, we would have to assume that scientists cant be religious, yet an awful lot of them are, added McGrath.

According to the Christian theologian, we are thus confronted to find a way to bring our scientific, ethical, and religious understandings together to make sense of our lives.

Scientific knowledge can lead to practical explanations, whereas religion can bring much-needed hope, especially during a time of crisis.

One of the big questions we're facing with Covid-19 is sheer exhaustion, said McGrath. We need something to animate us and give a sense of direction in what seems to be darkness and uncertainty.

In response to vaccine hesitancy, McGrath shared that although he understands the apprehension, the pandemic has reminded us that human existence is more precarious than we might think and requires us to protect ourselves and each other.

There's a logically continuous argument from taking an aspirin for your headache to getting vaccinated, he said. The question is where you draw the line.

He describes the coronavirus vaccination program asa necessary extension of the medical program which has been ongoing for the last 2,000 years. According to McGrath, Christians must then share a sense of responsibility towards the global health crisis and serve God through serving others an important principle of Christianity.

We have no idea what's around the next corner, and the whole vaccine agenda has given heightened importance to preparing for whatever may come next, he said. It's a very natural, very obvious thing for me as a Christian to do.

Earlier this month, McGrath publishedReturn from a Distant Country, a pocket-sized book in which he presents his vision of Christian theology.

I try to explain why I'm really interested in science and religion, but I'm also interested in historical theology, looking at the emergence of ideas, and why public engagement is so important to me as a theologian.

In the book, McGrath further advances the need for religion and science to work together to address contemporary social matters and urges theologians to voice their views in public debates.

There are some wonderful opportunities for discussion for showing how Christianity plays into leading cultural issues, gives good answers," he said. "Those answers are not being heard because people are not speaking up.

Watch the full interview with Alister McGrath below.

Stephanie Ricci contributed to this story.

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Science And Religion Don't Have To Clash, Says World-Renowned Theologian Oxford's Alister McGrath - Forbes

NEW YORKWorried he would never be able to escape the aftereffects of his rigorous religious upbringing, local ex-Catholic Brock Lastra told reporters Tuesday that he still felt a twinge of guilt every time he masturbated on the subway. I know its not logical, but when I start to pleasure myself on the Q train, I become overwhelmed by this haunting feeling that what Im doing is wrong, said Lastra, who confirmed that despite not having stepped foot inside a church in nearly 20 years, he was still haunted by the memory of his priests stern face any time he so much as thought of whipping out his penis on a crowded car during the morning commute. I wish I could just relax and enjoy it, but I guess my childhood really fucked me up. Its definitely affected my ability to perform, tooa lot of women get mad at me. Who knows, maybe this is something I can solve by masturbating at therapy. At press time, Lastra added that as an atheist, he knew God wasnt really watching him, but he wished He were.

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Ex-Catholic Still Feels Twinge Of Guilt Every Time He Masturbates On Subway - The Onion

From Richard Rodgerss melodic music to Arthur Millers tragic dramas to Stephen Sondheims brilliant scores, Jewish artists have been essential contributors to Broadway theater.

This years spring season is a testament to that legacy, with a list that includes Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish playwrights and librettists. I talked to three: Harvey Fierstein, a winner of multiple Tonys who has revised the book for the first-ever Broadway revival of Funny Girl; Paula Vogel, who is reexamining her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive for its 25th anniversary and its Broadway debut; and Richard Greenberg, whose 2003 Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out tells of what happens when a Major League Baseball player comes out as gay.

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Harvey Fierstein.

First premiering in 1964, Funny Girl tells the partly biographical story of Fanny Brice. The daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, Brice rose from the tenements of the Lower East Side to show-business fame in the Ziegfeld Follies in the first decades of the 20th century only to languish in a doomed relationship with an infamous gambler. In the original production, Brice was portrayed by Barbra Streisand, who soared to stardom from Flatbush, the then-Jewish neighborhood where she grew up. The revivals star is Beanie Feldstein, whose movie credits include Lady Bird and Booksmart.

While critics raved about Streisand, they were much less enthusiastic about the musicals book. I dont think it was ever really a classic book, Fierstein, 67, said in a recent telephone interview. I think they sort of gave up after Act One and just made it a Barbra Streisand concert for Act Two. It had its problems.

So what has he done to improve things? When you rewrite, when you reshape, when you come in like this, the idea is to not give up any of the stuff that people want to see. Youre coming in to fix something and hopefully not leave fingerprints, so that nobody really knows what it is you did.

Asked what exactly hes changed, Fierstein said, Ive restructured it somewhat, taken a song out, added a song, moved things around, but in such a way that you will get every thrill that you want from what you remember. There are things that have never been in Funny Girl before that hopefully will be delightful.

Its a terrific show, he said. That score is such a fabulous score it includes the classic Streisand hit People and its a good-hearted show. Its a heartbreaking relationship between two people who really wanted something to work out and it didnt.

Why has it taken so long for a Broadway revival and why is now the right time? The show has had its problems and nobody really felt like taking it on, Fierstein said. But we did. We did it in London. I rewrote the show and we put it up at the Menier Chocolate Factory where it was a huge hit. And we moved it to the Savoy Theater and then we took it on tour and then the plan was to bring it to New York. But then the pandemic hit and it delayed everything. But here we are now.

Funny Girl was originally composed by Jule Styne, with the lyrics by Bob Merrill and a libretto by Isobel Lennart. The revivals director is the Tony-winning Michael Mayer (known for Spring Awakening), completing the all-Jewish creative team.

Fierstein, who has won four Tony awards in four different categories, played the iconic Jewish storyteller Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. His Jewish heritage, he said, shows in the way that he thinks, in the way that he writes being Jewish figures into it all.

I was born and grew up in Bensonhurst, he said, referring to the Brooklyn neighborhood. I lived Jew-centric, because on one corner was the Jewish Community House and on the opposite corner was the Yeshiva of Bensonhurst. The rabbi walked past my house six times a day. I grew up in a household that spoke Yiddish. My mother and her friends rolled bandages for the Israel Defense Fund in the basement and for cancer care, and there was a woman with the tattooed numbers on her arm from the Sobibor concentration camp, so I grew up with that reality of the inhumanity against the Jews.

Sure, hes also an atheist. But as he sees it, that has nothing to do with his Jewish identity. Im a very Jewish person. Somebody said to me, How can you be Jewish and an atheist? I said, I guess youve never really met Jews. He laughed. Because if you took three rabbis and put them in a room together, one of them would be an atheist. Just so they could have a conversation. Jews have to have something to argue about. Its just our nature.

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Paula Vogel.

Paula Vogels How I Learned to Drive won a Pulitzer Prize when it premiered Off Broadway in 1997. Now the show, which explores a sexually abusive relationship between a young woman and her uncle, is making its Broadway debut with its original stars, Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, and its original director, Mark Brokaw.

Vogel, 70, whose father was Jewish, is no stranger to Jewish themes. Her recent play Indecent riffed on Sholem Aschs God of Vengeance, an early-20th century play about a daughter of a Jewish brothel keeper who falls in love with one of her fathers prostitutes.

Like the iconic How I Learned to Drive, the play frankly addresses topics that are hard to talk about. Indeed, theater theorist Jill Dolan has noted that Vogel gravitates toward sensitive, difficult, fraught issues. Vogel, reached by phone for an interview, agreed.

I think thats true of every artist, the playwright said. This is what theater is made for for us as a community, to examine the fraught issues that are hurting us.

And this, she said, is where her fathers Jewish heritage has influenced her as a playwright and as a person. What I knew from my fathers side of the family is that all topics were ripe for conversation at the dinner table. No topic was barred. The whole purpose of having dinner was actually to have the arguments and the conversation. The food was nice too. But just this notion that if something is troubling us we need to examine it, we need to talk about it, we need to look at what our values are. And then we need to take action.

Vogel is thrilled by this revival of How I Learned to Drive, noting that female playwrights rarely see their work revived during their lifetimes.

Rather than doing this as a revival, we are doing it as a reexamination, she said. Were going to get back into the room and were going to apply and share the insights and experiences weve had as artists and as human beings living in this world for the last 25 years.

While 2022 is very different from 1997, the plays central preoccupations will still ring true with modern audiences, Vogel said. In a way, this is asking us to reexamine as audience members what Im afraid never goes away, which is the use of sex as a kind of power as an obsessional power.

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Richard Greenberg.

Richard Greenbergs Take Me Out is another revival with modern themes. When we first started talking about reviving Take Me Out it was several years before it happened I thought, this is great, Greenberg, 63, said in a telephone interview. It will be a diagnostic or an image of how far weve come. And then things happened, and people started saying to me things like, Its so relevant now again.And I thought, thats good for me but terrible for the world.

I didnt expect it to have the relationship to the present it does, Greenberg added. When we first did the play I thought wed better do it quickly because there will undoubtedly be an active Major League Baseball player who comes out any minute now. And that still hasnt happened. And the sort of fascistic trend in this country was not something I was expecting back then. And the kind of astonishing bald-faced racism.

How has his Jewish heritage influenced his life, his writing, the way he looks at the world? Its probably not quantifiable, but its pervasive, he said. We were quite secular. I did have a bar mitzvah. But all of history courses through us. And my parents, my family, were absolutely Jews.

There was the sound of the way they talked, he said. They were either first- or second-generation children of immigrants. And you could hear it in the wit. You could hear it in the language. You could hear it in the constructions. You could hear it in the sprinkling of Yiddish that was supposed to keep me ignorant but didnt, because I figured out what they were saying. The sound of the way the people I grew up with spoke has been going out of the world, and sometimes Ive written plays just because I wanted to hear it again.

A revival of Neil Simons 1968 comedy hit, Plaza Suite, starring husband-and-wife team Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, will also debut this spring. In the three-act play, three couples, portrayed by Broderick and Parker, occupy the same Plaza Hotel suite at different times. John Benjamin Hickey is the director.

For Simon, who died in 2018, almost everything he wrote was implicitly, if not explicitly, Jewish. The speech patterns and rhythms, subject matter and concerns of his work were New York Jewish, as was he, so much that he once said Jewishness was so deeply embedded in me and so inherent in me that I am unaware of its quality.

Billy Crystal, who hails from Long Island, stars in and co-wrote the libretto for Mr. Saturday Night, the new musical version of Crystals 1992 comedy-drama film about the troubled life of a stand-up comedian. Music is by three-time Tony winner Jason Robert Brown and lyrics by Tony nominee Amanda Green.

The revival of David Mamets 1975 American Buffalo, about a junk shop, the American dream, American greed and a buffalo nickel, will star Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss. Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross.

These revivals all differ from their originals in one big way: Theyre all premiering in a world plagued by coronavirus. Commenting on the situation, Vogel put what felt like a very Jewish emphasis on community.

In the midst of Covid, plays need to give us a journey thats collective, Vogel said. Weve been isolated. Weve been bearing the trauma and isolation alone. And to come together as an audience and have a common journey, where we go through the dark and enter into the light, I hope is going to be uplifting.

Funny Girl begins previews March 26 and opens April 24 at the August Wilson Theater.

How I Learned to Drive begins previews March 29 and opens April 19 at Manhattan Theater Clubs Samuel J. Friedman Theater.

Take Me Out begins previews March 10 and opens April 4 at Second Stage Theaters Hayes Theater.

Plaza Suite begins performances February 25 at the Hudson Theater, opening March 28.

Mr. Saturday Night begins previews March 29 and opens April 27 at the Nederlander Theater.

American Buffalo begins previews March 22 and opens April 14 at Circle in the Square Theater.

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Coming to Broadway this spring, a bevy of Jewish themes and writers - Forward

Image: Artemis, goddess of the hunt, with nymphs; a fresco from Pompeii, by ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Editors note: We are delighted to present a new series by Neil Thomas, Reader Emeritus at the University of Durham, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus. This is the third article in the series.Look here for the full series so far. Professor Thomass recent book isTaking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design(Discovery Institute Press).

The ancient voices of Epicurus and Lucretius, whose resonance in antiquity right up to the middle of the 19th century was but meagre, have been hugely amplified by the appropriations of post-Darwinian mediators who have, in effect, co-opted the atomist philosophy and adapted it for consumption by the modern worldon the back of the Darwinian hypothesis of natural selection. Such voices have rendered considerably less audible the voices of the ancient teleologists whose ideas successfully supported Western civilization for two millennia. Atomism as instrumentalized by Epicurus and his successors was, as David Sedley remarked, a vital weapon against divine creation.1The atomists contention that all was due to accident was touted not as what it was an unsubstantiated philosophical lucubration without any empirical back-up but taken at face value and used as a means of freeing fellow citizens from what was taken at the time to be multiple divine persecutions.

One can understand and even sympathize with the atomists argument from a purely tactical point of view. From all that we know from Homer, the gods and goddesses of popular conception were little but fallible human beings writ large. They had the same vices as their mortal counterparts and had little enough to do with the later human tendency to project moral ideals into that non-finite and unconditioned realm imagined to be that of the divine. The classical pantheon, lacking the moral credibility that goes with an identification of gods with ideals of purity and moral sublimity, had become a source of embarrassment to thoughtful Greeks. Lucretius contended that the gods inspired fear rather than allegiance and were more to be propitiated than venerated.2

Hence Epicurus was an atheist in the original sense of the word of being an anti-theist, one who rejected the baleful and destructive values of the Athenian pantheon. His was more a declaration of war against the flawed moral nature of the gods (technically termed theomachy or misotheism) than it was a statement of outright disbelief (a-theism).3He was often in fact referred to by his contemporaries as Epicurustheomakhos.4Today we have thankfully come a long way from the times of child sacrifice and other cruel propitiatory rites, yet the anachronistic thought of divine persecution has curiously been rescued from near-oblivion in our own day by the atheistic proselytizing of Richard Dawkins.

When some two decades ago Dawkins paid to have a somewhat underwhelming motto Theres probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life emblazoned on the side of London buses, many were bemused and prompted to ask themselves what precisely they might have to be worried about. The sentiment seems more than a little anachronistic. It is as if Dawkins were living in the time of Epicurus when conceptions of the gods as capricious, amoral, and unhelpful to humankind were commonly held. The slogan appeared to represent a projection of Dawkinss own thinking rather than an effective means of outreach to the generality of people.5It is perhaps not too difficult to imagine him clothed in an Epicurean toga with an imposing-looking scroll in hand intoning the message of Absolute Truth in his latter-day guise of Grand Pontiff of Humanity.

However much Dawkins lays himself open to parody,6there is no denying that this latter-day avatar of the ancient atomists has achieved some degree of traction through his indefatigable channeling of the spirits of Darwin, Epicurus, and Lucretius. Indeedcountless instances of Epicurean notions abound in modern, advanced thought. In Jacques MonodsLe Hasard et la Necessit(Chance and Necessity), for instance, the author advances a number of arguments which are quintessentially Epicurean/Lucretian, to such an extent, it has been observed, that it would be an exaggeration, but a pardonable one, to say that no leading principle of significance separates Monod from Lucretius than that the former merely knows more chemistry.7

In fact, David Sedley has gone so far as to claim that the atomists, with their faltering anticipations of Darwinism, may for the majority of readers have emerged as todays winners by proxy.8Quite so. Darwin, largely innocent of formal philosophy himself, was nevertheless able to pull off a dazzling intellectual coup against the major thinkers of repute in the Western tradition going back over two millennia and to single-handedly rehabilitate the reputation of a philosophical school once almost universally excoriated. The coup is particularly notable since Darwin succeeded where all the argumentative brilliance of David Hume had struck little fire. So how did Darwin pull off this astounding philosophical manoeuvre?

Next, For Darwin, Timing Was Everything.

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Epicurus and Natural Selection - Discovery Institute