It seems many Christian sects pay every bit as much attention to Biblical texts as does Judaism, although not always in the same historical form; both religions, for example, produce endless commentaries. Alas, in both cases, pure intellectual activity is more often than not dogmatically limited to Biblical study, which means it is neither pure nor intellectual.

I don ` t really get the feeling that the Christians are all that smart at all. In contrast, when the Jews worship, they form study partners, and engage in a type of verbal, analytical debate that is not that different from discussing the fine point of a legal document.

If you claim that it is not an intellectual activity, because it is talking about the bible. Why can ` t i say it is not an intellectual activity if it is focus on some particular argument in the philosophy of science. This would obvious be absurd. So, We should not say intellectual activity cannot be from studying the bible. It is very much an intellectual activity if it uses analysis, reason and arguments.

Using reason and logic with a book of fantasy may give pretty results but the foundation is unstable. It seems more like a characterture of pseudo-intellectualism. They are going through the motions but not really questioning the core beliefs.

Sure, but that is true for a lot of things. In math, people rarely question the axioms. In physics, physicists rarely challenge fundamental equations. Most professions don ` t question the fields core belief, but they are surely intellectual.

It sounds like the kind of people you're talking about just crunch numbers or pour chemicals into flasks. I wouldn't call that intellectual insomuch as it's a technical skill. If your job could be replaced by a mostly unthinking robot then I question how intellectual a job that is.

Let me give you an easy way out. I'll agree that Jews have more brain cells active when involved with their religion but

I don't see how that's a good thing unless you think it's just some kind of brain exercise. The fact that they are doing so many mental gymnastics to shoe-horn their ancient religion into modern life is probably less healthy.

They never question the laws, or the cases themselves.

That's not true. The laws themselves are often questioned as being unconstitutional.