Our religion teaches that we can do anything, but we are not allowed to do everything. In other words, not everything is possible, but not everything is permitted. In a strange way the Torah begs us not to be too modern.
We are not supposed to do those acts that place us in harm's way. And more than that, we are not to do those acts that although physically not dangerous, spiritually they are life threatening. In the Parasha that we read this week, God commands that we do not do magic under the guise of religion. We are asked, even if possible, that we do not talk to the dead.
Religious acts, whether real or false, have within them the stamp of truth. People do them with such determination and faith and belief that even for the skeptic it is hard to imagine that those acts could be vacuous and without meaning.
What people do in the name of God or in the name of idols does have an influence on those who do those acts and those who watch those acts. Indeed, only acts in the name of religion allow people to act beyond the letter of the law.
When Dr. King integrated the lunch counters of the South, he acted by a moral law that he believed carried more force than the laws of the State of Alabama. When Gandhi stopped the trucks in India, he too acted on the premise that religious law was stronger than the law of the state.
Indeed, when suicide bombers blow themselves up, they also act in the name of Allah and believe that their acts are holier than the laws of any state or nation. When terrorists of any ilk act in the name of God or a movement that they believe has taken the place of God, they too believe that their actions are more pure than the legislation of any secular state.
Playing with the name of God, or with powers of the supernatural is dangerous business. While sometimes those powers might bring a sort of redemption and freedom, at other times they are the cause of needless hatred and murder.
The Jewish faith is a simple faith in God, nothing more and nothing less. We have no room to worship any other. We are commanded not to seek too much from the God who we believe is Creator and Redeemer.
When things go wrong, we need a faith and patience in God; we need the energy and will with which God has endowed us to change the world and make it holy.
Perhaps Wordsworth was right: "God's in His heaven, all is right with the world."