The Year of Living Biblically, Month Two

1. Jacobs goes to the Creationist Museum because Creationism is one of the best examples of biblical literalism, and he still has a lot of questions about how to continue on his quest and follow all of the rules at the same time. One of the main thing that he learns and is surprised by is that the creationists are liberal on some topics, and conservative on others, which is contrary to the stereotype that all creationists are extremely conservative. Another thing that he struggled with was the idea that dinosaurs we on Noah's Ark and that the earth is really as old as the Bible says it is. Another thing that he learned was that there is a lot of science behind their claims, it just is not generally accepted by the population, but he seemed to have a hard time believing this, because he still believes in evolution.

2. Jacobs goes to the Simchas Torah because he wants to try to experience the "joy of religion" like King David did when he was dancing about bringing the Ark of The Covenant to Isreal. One of the things that Jacobs struggles with is the fact that all of the men at the party are extremely drunk, which he has never really seen before in people who are so devout. He also sees how connected his friend is to God when he is praying, and wants to be able to do the same thing and be in the same spiritual state. The biggest part of the night that he takes away is the feeling of pure joy that he experiences when he is dancing, and discovers that he is not as far away from God as he thought.

3. The thing that Jacobs loves about the prophets is not just their message of social justice, but also how they deliver that message. They performed public displays of their beliefs and devotion to God, and usually did it in a very dramatic and entertaining way. Jacobs feel like he has a lot in common with the prophets, because they did absurd things to follow what they believed, which is the same thing that he is doing for this project. Even though he may look and act like an idiot, he still does it because he is curious about his faith and believes that he should be doing it.