Yaakov Malkin > Quotes

“Criticism of the sanctity of books such as the Qur’an was voiced by the Mu’tazilites, who claimed that the Qur’an should not be seen as a divine work, but rather as a work of literature.Caliph al-Ma’mun shared this belief, and applied rational criticism to religious texts”
― Yaakov Malkin, Epicurus & Apikorsim. The Influence of The Greek Epicurus and Jewish Apikorsim on Judaism

“Epicurus was a philosopher who asserted a deistic worldview, i.e. one in which the gods are wholly separate from the universe and human affairs. This approach denied divine involvement in the creation of the world or administration of nature and its laws, and freed man from the obligation to make offerings, pray to the gods, or observe the precepts devised by religious leaders.”
― Yaakov Malkin, Epicurus & Apikorsim. The Influence of The Greek Epicurus and Jewish Apikorsim on Judaism

“The free-market economy and globalisation process have brought about, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, a sharp and sudden rise in the standard of living and level of awareness of life’s pleasures and luxuries available to the educated and new middle classes, in all countries liberated from the “intelligent design” of totalitarian or semi-totalitarian governments that purported to resolve all social and economic problems, generally resulting in economic stagnation and mass impoverishment.”
― Yaakov Malkin, Epicurus & Apikorsim. The Influence of The Greek Epicurus and Jewish Apikorsim on Judaism

“Capitalism driven by hedonism, consumerism and globalisation is generally not restrained by the principles of social justice and legislation based upon them. One of the exceptions to this rule is the state of affairs in Scandinavia, where there is no uncontrolled population growth, and where egalitarian (between men and women) democracy has succeeded in implementing policies based on a free-market economy and social legislation.”
― Yaakov Malkin, Epicurus & Apikorsim. The Influence of The Greek Epicurus and Jewish Apikorsim on Judaism