robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (11/08/84)
Regarding Yirmiyahu BenDavid's response <1683@ucf-cs.UUCP> to my article: I believe there is actually a lot of movement in Talmud interpretation regarding fire, electronics, and other modern issues. Movement is frustratingly slow (as is always the case when law is being revised primarily through legal briefs), but I would fear a faster pace because of the danger of changing the religion into something that could not survive. One can see the signs of motion by reading responsa and compilations of recent opinions on many subjects. Yirmiyahu is not impressed with the survivablity of Orthodox Judaism, since in its current approximate form it may be only 2,000 years old, but I think that is pretty spectacular. Most other religions do not last that long, or they undergo much more sweeping changes. This is certainly true of most forms of Christianity, and the oldest, Catholicism, has recently, and in the past, risked sweeping reforms. I think there is a lot of concern with the Catholic church regarding the longterm effects of the changes since 1950. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison or: decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison or (emergency): princeton!eosp1!robison