God's War Against Smartphones

Spritual enemy #1!

God's special brand of faith-based Jewish lunacy, the Haredim, have initiated another holy campaign against the 21st century. The target of the ultra-Orthodox is the menace posed by *smartphones and Apple products. And what's really sad is that the religious don't come up with new arguments against new technology. Note the stale rhetoric of those holding Bronze Age beliefs,

Pashkevilim (religious ads) published in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods last weekend, claim the iPod, iPad, Blackberry and iPhone may deteriorate children's education to "bottomless pits"

Isn't it always about the children? If you don't like gay marriage simply say it endangers your child. Aren't you in favor of censorship? Don't you care about the kids? I actually had a conversation the other day with an intelligent atheist about legalizing marijuana, and her reason for opposing it was that it would be bad for the kids. Right. Taking marijuana off the black market and setting safeguards against under aged people from using the drug is bad, and regulating the contents of a widely used drug is somehow dangerous.

Excuse my rant. I digress.

According to the ads, the rabbis are lashing out at the devices as they allow people to connect to the Internet, which they believe contains "a great amount of destruction".

It's funny how the free flow of information destroys despotic regimes and undermines widely held but false beliefs. The Catholic Church suffered horribly with the printing press. The Arab Spring was partially born out of the revolution of media that arose from smartphones.

A source within the religious faction had this to say,

"Therefore, we decided to issue ads against their possession, call on the public to avoid using them and warn against the spiritual danger they conceal," he explained.

Spiritual danger. Perhaps there's an app for that? Some type of spiritual condom for the technology?

At least those locals in the ultra-Orthodox areas wishing to buy the heretical technology can do so. After all, Israel is supposed to be a free country, right?

Faction members even launched an all-out war against stores selling the "forbidden" devices within the Mea Shearim neighborhood.

Of course they are. The religious always lose in the marketplace of ideas unless they play dirty.

This is Purgatory.

*faithphones would be OK for the devout, however they simply do not work.