But is it for real? I suspected Poe when, in the first minute, he says "It's the 21st century!" But much of the rest of it seems so earnest.

The concept appears to depend on a particular understanding of the nature of "causation", which might have theological and metaphysical implications that have not been considered.

Jerry Coyne has more info here.

It seems that you flick a switch when it is isolated from the electrical circuit. And at some point after that the switch connects to the circuit and if it is in the on position the light turns on if it isn't it stays off. That sounds a lot like flicking the switch turns the light on and I can bet it does it in a short enough time since the whole point is to turn a light on without making god angry. So without religious wibbling about what is and isn't really truly meant by the scripture it is a person turning on a light.

The Jewish religion is filled with odd rules and clever people working out how to break them so that their religion doesn't actually impact their life in any meaningful way. You would think people who believe in an all knowing god wouldn't want to test his rules with tricky "But I didn't really break the rule now did I" stuff since he knows that you set out to break the law in the first place.

hehe

My refrigerator has a Shabbat Mode. Can't remember exactly what all it does, but the lights won't come on when you open it, and the power outage alarm won't sound. I've used it once, when we were having a couple of hours of intermittent, second long power outages. Fucking thing kept beeping, so I put it in Shabbat Mode, presto chango, no more beeping. Quite useful.

Or, take the fucking stairs. Silly pricks

But that would be work.

I lived next to a Jewish guy at uni who once asked me to switch his light on for him, which I did. I did idly wonder at the time about the whole dynamic of causation - since I clearly wouldn't have done it without his involvement. On reflection I decided the whole thing was very silly but really no skin off my nose.

Are there any religions that are not staffed by total fools or lazy shits?

laklak wrote:My refrigerator has a Shabbat Mode. Can't remember exactly what all it does, but the lights won't come on when you open it, and the power outage alarm won't sound. I've used it once, when we were having a couple of hours of intermittent, second long power outages. Fucking thing kept beeping, so I put it in Shabbat Mode, presto chango, no more beeping. Quite useful.

I wonder what happens when an observant owner forgets whether they've set it to Shabbat mode?
Are they not allowed to open the door to find out?

laklak wrote:My refrigerator has a Shabbat Mode. Can't remember exactly what all it does, but the lights won't come on when you open it, and the power outage alarm won't sound. I've used it once, when we were having a couple of hours of intermittent, second long power outages. Fucking thing kept beeping, so I put it in Shabbat Mode, presto chango, no more beeping. Quite useful.

My oven has one too, but I've never used it. IIRC, it just stays on all day. Food goes in raw, comes out cooked, and you can't explain it.

Ironclad wrote:Are there any religions that are not staffed by total fools or lazy shits?

Probably not.

But if someone want's you to flick their light switch for them, you should at least get a tip.

Eisenhower was hired as a Shabbes Goy when he was a kid by a Jewish family to do such things for them. There are all sorts of weird theological justifications in Judaism why this is OK. Yews age good at suck things. Why do you think we make such good lawyers?

DoctorE wrote:

"I thought . . . this is the 21st Century. There's GOT to be a better way."

Yeah, how about you drop the bronze age superstition and just turn on the damn light switch!

But the part starting at 1:29 is freaking hilarious! "Excuse me ma'am . . . can you come up to my bedroom and turn off the light?"

But seriously, can you imagine how many of the world's problems could be solved if the amount of brain power that went into figuring out how to get around these stupid rules were applied elsewhere. It's actually depressing.

NamelessFaceless wrote:But seriously, can you imagine how many of the world's problems could be solved if the amount of brain power that went into figuring out how to get around these stupid rules were applied elsewhere. It's actually depressing.

An interesting idea, but Jews are also statistically good at getting Nobel Prizes. So being stupid about religion might be one of those spandrels that Gould talked about, or it might be good practice, like Sudoku.

NamelessFaceless wrote:But seriously, can you imagine how many of the world's problems could be solved if the amount of brain power that went into figuring out how to get around these stupid rules were applied elsewhere. It's actually depressing.

I didn't think brain power was limited in that manner? I was always under the impression that using your brain improved its power, rather than causing it to dwindle .

Anyway, like most of these rules today, it's not about tricking a God that most Jews don't even believe in any more, but about keeping up appearances.

Don't they realise that this sort of cheating really pisses God off more than anything.

I love how they are using modern science and technology to solve bronze age problems initiated by imaginary deities. As it turns out, tricking gods may actually be responsible for human advancement. In a 'round about way. And indeed, economic development. No wonder those Jews have all the money.