THREE Israeli rabbis have added their weight to a new ultra-Orthodox campaign which uses scare tactics to prevent their communities from surfing the Internet.
The Internet is an abomination say these bearded numpties: Rabbis Ovadia Yosef (left), Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (centre) and Shmuel Halevi Wosner
The campaign claims that the internet, among other things, causes droughts and cancer.
One poster in an Haredi area claims:
Where there is Internet, there are no rains. Let’s remove the idolatry from among us. Hundreds of thousands of cancer patients (suffer) because of the Internet.
YNet News reports that, fearing the community’s exposure to secular culture, different establishments within the haredi sector published the intimidating declarations, in addition to quotes from prominent rabbis – among them Rabbi Ovadia Yosef – that describe Internet use as the root of impurity.
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was quoted as saying:
The connection to the Internet is an abomination, and the one who does it in his home brings abomination into his home.
And Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner reportedly said:
The Internet causes disease and all types of adversity. Since the creation of the world, there has never been invented a tool so dangerous and corrupting like it.
Hat Tip: Michael Cohen
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 10th, 2011 at 10:34 am
> Since the creation of the world, there has never been invented a tool so
> dangerous and corrupting like it.
I can see this being copied from some comments on the printing press a long time ago
Iago
February 10th, 2011 at 11:10 am
My guess is that with boobquake and draw mohammed day, these lads were feeling a bit left out, so they rang up their imam buddies and got some ideas.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Let us be your eyes, ears and nose, for any window to the rest of the world is, and always has been, an abomination! Isn’t that what they call censorship, practised by small and big dictators?
While at it: Israeli police issue arrest warrant for rabbi that supported book which justifies killing non-Jews. He deserves a mention: Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Funny, I’m surfing the web ATM, and it’s chucking it down outside. Not too many signs of a drought in the UK this winter…
February 10th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Any religion will think of the internet as Satan’s tool.
Because the one thing all religions fear is knowledge, even bad or incomplete knowledge.
Reading the buyBull (the source of 3 BS religions) you can see that knowledge and learning are always punished.
And OH MY GOD!! just look at those evil atheists, they tend to be heavy users and skilled users of SATAN’s Information Highway!!!!
And politicians also hate the revolutionists information super highway!!
But they have no reason to fear it. There are a hugh number of silly thoughtless delusional frightened people out there, that politicians, religious con men, and Woo masters can stay in business for a very long time.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:39 am
There’s nothing so threatening to a tyrant as free speech and easily accessible knowledge.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:45 am
@Linda but then you have increase the chance to get the Cancer.
I would like to get these close minded asses and have a go at them on national TV, asking how their magic actually works. Keep at them till the human rights commission of Bob Mugabe says that is enough.
And don’t they look like a really trustworthy group of people, with their dresses and beards.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:46 am
Yeah, I’m going to take notice of some twat with a box tied to his head.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:56 am
@ AngieRS….That box is his wireless router to god!!
February 10th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
I thought I was heavely using internet those days because I have the flu, but no, I have the flu because I’m on internet.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Well, there is a trio of stars of the “people of faith” who seem to have distanced themselves from a razor and are seriously hirsute challenged. The one in the middle looks especially pale and unhealthy. The fear, of course, from them is not the Internet but free thought and free speech. Their ideal world is one where all information is sanctioned by them. I think they would all be welcome contributers to Thought for the Day as that is sympathetic to censorship and enforces it with a severity our three heroes might envy.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
So the internet is an abomination – just like the ossifrage? Funny I can’t find the net mentioned anywhere in scripture…….do you think these creepy-looking guys are making it up?
February 10th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Wow, ZZ top have really let themselves go
So are they using the internet to speak out against the internet like this moron from the “white dot campaign” who used to do the rounds on various tv shows to speak out against tv.
but of course tyrants fear people having having free access to information thats why there is the great firewall of china and of course in cuba access to the internet is restricted.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
As others have already said, the reason these three (& other religious nutters) don’t like the internet is because it’s full of information and these guys can’t handle that. Once people are able to gather information for themselves they can see through the nonsense put forward and that means a loss of control, a loss of power and that is what frightens the religious leaders more than anything.
February 10th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
“[Religion] causes disease and all types of adversity. Since the creation of the world, there has never been invented a tool so dangerous and corrupting like it.”
Now that sentence makes sense!
Once upon a time the religiots hid, banned or burned books because of knowledge contained therein.
February 10th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Another reason they don’t like the internet is it carries the risk of child abuse being exposed and reported in the community.
This is a recent story out of New York
http://www.cliffviewpilot.com/.....sex-abuse-
February 10th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Is that what it is, Kev? I dread to think where the cable went before wireless…
February 10th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
The one in the center with a sheet on his head, I think he has an X-Box glued to his forehead. What a bunch of backward looking idiots. Ha! Ha! Sad, really.
February 10th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
@ Angela_K
Well fixed
February 10th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
I just have to laugh it is so stupid. They look like the Marx Bros.with beards. In fact I believe beards cause vulcanoes.
They are helping to make religion look as mad as it is, thank you men. Instead of Rabbis they should have chosen to be comedienes.
February 10th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
So once they’ve got rid of the internet, will they start on getting rid of books? TV and radio? Smoke signals?
February 10th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
People, that little box on Yosef Shalom Elyashiv’s head contains his cuckoo, which should be obligatory for the likes of him. Makes them easier to spot.
February 10th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
The connection to the Internet is an abomination…
Too bloody right it is. Up to 8Mb/s my arse.
February 10th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
The one in the middle – the unhealthy pale man with no eyebrows – has no career problems if he is booted out of what passes for his job. He would make the ideal, creepy, skin crawling James Bond villain. Complete with the box on his head.
February 10th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
All knowledge is evil. Ban books. Ban education.
Let’s all go back to the Stone Age, then these three gents will feel right at home.
February 10th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Can’t burn witches anymore let’s get the internet…religion like them is full of bull shit…
February 10th, 2011 at 5:54 pm
@ Normand & Broga I’m sure I saw him in one of the Star Wars movies. Or was it an episode of Dr Who? No, no, wait – it was Space 1999!
February 10th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
“Where there is Internet, there are no rains.”
Oh really? How do you explain all the rain we get here in Seattle? We have lots of Internet.
February 10th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
I think the one on the left is Max Headroom, ageing badly.
February 10th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Not only Rabbis!
http://economictimes.indiatime.....451346.cms
http://volokh.com/2011/02/07/c.....d-muslims/
February 11th, 2011 at 1:20 am
Rick Brewster said:
““Where there is Internet, there are no rains.â€
Oh really? How do you explain all the rain we get here in Seattle? We have lots of Internet.”"
Damn near stole my thunder. Not quite. Do you suppose they have internet in Australia? Just to document myself, I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Australia
It seems to me, that judging from short term evidence, that the internet causes rain. So much rain that containment becomes quite dicy.
In honor of the assholes who don’t like the internet, here’s a post of the most awesome XXX video I have ever seen. And it’s free: http://video.xnxx.com/video458....._into_porn
NeoWolfe
February 11th, 2011 at 6:00 am
Not only rabbis (1):
http://economictimes.indiatime.....451346.cms
February 11th, 2011 at 6:01 am
Not only rabbis (2):
http://volokh.com/2011/02/07/c.....d-muslims/
February 11th, 2011 at 7:32 am
I’m hoping the rain thing is true. I’m surfing the internet night and day to try and get a dry weekend. Fingers crossed!!
February 11th, 2011 at 8:55 pm
A thought that has occurred to me was that when I was younger I was a bit of an idiot, often acted irresponsibly, knew very little and thought that I knew everything, etc. Surely most people here recognise the follies of youth from their own past.
During just over half a century of life I have taken on responsibilities, learned from my mistakes and taken on the lessons of experience, read lots of books and thought about them, agreed and disagreed with what was within. I would like to think that I have become a more thoughtful, a more knowledgeable, a wiser and better human being. I don’t want to sound smug, millions of others have done likewise, there is nothing special about my path through life.
Then there are these fools. They are old but still behave like idiots. It appears that a lifetime of experience has taught them nothing.
February 12th, 2011 at 12:43 am
Stony said:
“Then there are these fools. They are old but still behave like idiots. It appears that a lifetime of experience has taught them nothing.”
Over time, stony, your posts become endearing.
My father died in a small hospital, in agony, with a morphene drip directly to his hip where his colon cancer had metastisized. He died a devout JW, so suicide was never an option. He clung to life to the last second. My mother didn’t cry, she said she was relieved because his suffering was over.
He became a JW because that was what she was, and it was his only chance to marry a girl (I’ve seen the pictures) who was “knockout” gorgeous. But, he really embraced the faith in all enthusiasm (only he would have known if he ever really believed)and died as he lived. Mom was left deeply in debt and left to care for her mother who had advanced Alzheimers.
In the years since, thinking back over everything that happened in our family, something suddenly became clear. That at the end of his life, to have an awakening, would be the same as admitting that his whole adult life was wasted, too late to hedge his bets. I think it is like that for these rabbis. To have an epiphany at this point in time, to seriously entertain some progressive thought is tantamount to admitting they have exhausted their entire life in a vain pursuit, and that is a hard pill to swallow. So they go down fighting, because it is the only meaning their shallow lives have ever experienced.
NeoWolfe
February 12th, 2011 at 8:14 am
During just over half a century of life I have…read lots of books and thought about them, agreed and disagreed with what was within.
But supposing you had limited yourself to the pronouncements of just ONE book, Stonyground? What then?
NeoWolfe is right – the longer you carry on with the charade the more difficult it is to admit that your life has been built on sham foundations, and the more determined you become to validify your belief system. The alternative is too horrific to contemplate!
February 12th, 2011 at 9:02 am
“Endearing”? Not sure if that is a compliment or not?
I might have added that I have gained quite a few insights from internet discussions such as this one. Thank you for that story Neo, I worry that you sometimes express a very dark outlook on life. When things like this have happened in your past I can maybe see why.
I sort of see where you are both coming from with the fact that you are stuck with a belief that you have advocated all of your life. I would add that, for me at least, changing your view when you realise that you were wrong about something is worth cultivating as a habit. Constantly turning over and thinking about, even the things that you feel absolutely sure of, is a way of avoiding the mental cul-de-sac that you both describe.
Just for interest, if you translate cul-de-sac verbatum from the french you get arse-of-bag.
February 12th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Stonyground: I doubt that your life revolved around your beliefs in the same way that the lives of these idiots do – or that mine did at one time!
February 12th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Sometimes it’s just good sense to throw the baby out with the bathwater, especially when it’s the baby making the bathwater noxious to any humans which come in contact with it.
Abomination? Pot meet kettle…
February 12th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Stony,
It was a compliment. We never see your fangs or the hair on your neck bristled. Just calm common sense discussion.
You just seem like the kind of guy I could sit down and have a cup of coffee with and have a mutually rewarding conversation. That’s all I was saying.
NeoWolfe
February 12th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Addendum,
Stony said:
“Thank you for that story Neo, I worry that you sometimes express a very dark outlook on life.”
I worry, too, about things that seem to be beyond the social consciousness. Such as, if population continues to grow at its present rate, a date is coming when this planet cannot sustain it. But, who is the force blocking any measures to limit population. You guessed it, religion. No condoms, no pills, no abortion.
I worry that medical advances, while wonderfully compassionate, are negating natural selection. Nature elimates the problem by death. We stepped in with our intelligence and our creativity, and nullified it.
I think that there are common sense measures that can be implimented to restore natural selection, but such measures would be considered “eugenics”, “nazi”, and of course, by any church hoping to swell it indocrinated membership, “immoral”.
So, yes, my eyes are open, and my outlook is dark. Scientists say that 95 percent of the species that ever existed on this planet are exstinct. Anyone who thinks humans are immune from this pattern belong to a religious delusion.
Maybe, you have to look into the darkness to find the light. Or you can prentend the darkness doesn’t exist.
NeoWolfe
February 13th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Nice use of the word “numpties”