I may be getting a bit off topic here, but I thought it was a good time to bring this up.
I attend services at the Hillel at the University of Miami (I don't go to the school - I just go to the Hillel religious services because it's a place to pray and study Judaism with people my own age.) The rabbi there isn't much older than I am, which means he can relate to many of us and actually understnads what it's like growing up Jewish and maintaing a Jewish identity in a society like ours.
Anyway, during Rosh Hashanah services, somebody brought up the following: in modern American society, especially after 9/11, he had noticed that generally, when people want to get back in touch with their faith and become more religious, others look at them like they're crazy. The rabbi responded that religion is designed to help you become a better person, and if someone thinks you're a kook for wanting to be better than you are and for following a moral code, then that other guy is the real kook. Maybe some of the traditions of the religion may raise an eyebrow here and there, but the true core of religion is helping ourselves to become good people. To consider the desire to be a good person a sign of lunacy is in itself lunacy (did that make sense?)
Like I said, it doesn't have much to do with the topic at hand, but I thought it was interesting to bring up.
Thoughts?
