richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

262 THK C O D D E L U S I O N
a significant tendency towards religious homogamy in Christians
(Protestants marry Protestants, and Catholics Catholics, and this
goes beyond the ordinary 'boy next door effect'), but that it is
especially marked among Jews. Out of a total sample of 6,021
married respondents to the questionnaire, 140 called themselves
Jews and, of these, 85.7 per cent married Jews. This is hugely
greater than the randomly expected percentage of homogamous
marriages. And of course it will not come as news to anybody.
Observant Jews are strongly discouraged from 'marrying out', and
the taboo shows itself in Jewish jokes about mothers warning their
boys about blonde shiksas lying in wait to entrap them. Here are
typical statements by three American rabbis:
• 'I refuse to officiate at interfaith marriages.'
• 'I officiate when couples state their intention to raise children
as Jews.'
• 'I officiate if couples agree to premarital counselling.'
Rabbis who will agree to officiate together with a Christian priest
are rare, and much in demand.
Even if religion did no other harm in itself, its wanton and carefully
nurtured divisiveness - its deliberate and cultivated pandering
to humanity's natural tendency to favour in-groups and shun outgroups
- would be enough to make it a significant force for evil in
the world.
THE MORAL ZEITGEIST
This chapter began by showing that we do not - even the religious
among us - ground our morality in holy books, no matter what we
may fondly imagine. How, then, do we decide what is right and
what is wrong? No matter how we answer that question, there is a
consensus about what we do as a matter of fact consider right and
wrong: a consensus that prevails surprisingly widely. The consensus
has no obvious connection with religion. It extends, however, to