Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
"Can I Have Faith Without G-d?"
A good friend sent me a link to this meditation/sermon on whether one can be a good Jew while still being agnostic/atheist. An excerpt:
At this point in my life I don’t know if I believe in G-d, but I do not think belief in G-d is necessary for me to be Jewish. Today, we do not see many miracles that we cannot explain. Floods and rainbows can be explained by science, most people don’t believe the world was created with Adam and Eve but in some version of the Big Bang, and I would certainly believe someone is crazy if they came up to me saying they just heard God’s voice. While G-d is central to Judaism, I try to live my life around G-d’s lessons and not the hope of his presence. We know we have free will, but it seems people expect G-d to protect them. I do not think that if a drunk driver is behind the wheel of a Mack truck aiming for my car that G-d will whisk it away and protect me. No, if that car is aimed at me going seventy miles an hour I am going to die. That’s just the way it is. Now, I will still probably pray to G-d in my last seconds hoping he misses but I do not expect him to save my life.
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As a Jew, I believe action is more important then belief. We can struggle with our certainty of G-d and still be Jewish. The foundation of our people is in our community and traditions and those are what have made us a great people. Some say we are chosen and that’s why we have a third of the Nobel prizes while being point .05 percent of the world’s population…I say it’s because we study more. But that’s what our tradition teaches.
My current philosophy on life and Judaism revolve around three separate quotations. One from a wise, old rabbi named Stephen Fuchs, and the others from two guys named Hillel and Aristotle. Rabbi Fuchs says, and you may have heard this one before, “Our goal as Jews is to make the world a more just, caring and compassionate society.” Hillel says, “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor.” Aristotle says, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” If I take these simple teachings and use them as the foundation of my life then I will be making the world a better place, one action at a time. Reform Jews understand that we are not here to wait for G-d to send down a messiah who will make peace in the world. If we want peace, we must work to create it. The combination of these quotations gives us an outline of our purpose, how to reach it, and how often we need to be working toward that idea. The goal is to create a just caring society; we do that by treating our neighbors as ourselves, and we continue to do it everyday.
I've long said that if I *had* to choose a religion, I'd choose Judaism, and precisely for the reasons outlined above. No gods required.
Thoughts?
Jim Downey
(Hmm, Brent - no "Judaism" tag . . .)
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What's interesting to me is
What's interesting to me is how only some religions take on a cultural, almost ethnic importance. What's the reason for those that do?
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Which religions don't? I think anthropologically the very purpose of religion is to create cultural and ethnic importance. It's the glue that binds societies. Christianity may not seem cohesive on the surface, but the different sects do have cultural and ethnic importance, e.g., the orthodox is Greeks and Russians, catholic is for certain Europeans and south Americans, etc. I'm not aware of any established religion that is just a total melting pot of cultures and ethnicities.
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Hannah S.
Seattle DUI lawyer
Golden Rule
I especially like that take on the golden rule.
re"..no BLT rule"
Actually I worked in Israel for 6 months a few years ago and lived at a hotel run by a kibbutz. One of the key products of the kibbutz was pork. They were a large producer of hogs and also ran a restaurant which served some excellent pork. Of course they could do this since the pigs were raised on wooden platforms so that their feet did not touch the soil of Israel. :-)
The local politicians could get the secular and religious votes.
There are Jewish dicks too
In case you forgot and thought only christian, muslim and hindu fundamentalists wreck havoc in the world, remember the jewish dicks who think they can waltz onto other people's property with automatic weapons and take it for themselves because God promised it to Abraham several thousand years ago.
Did I say otherwise?
Um, no, I haven't, and I don't see where I said otherwise. I merely pointed out that it is possible to be agnostic/atheist within the Jewish tradition.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Which religion would I choose?
Scratch Judaism, I'm not circumcised!
Basically, any that would let me live my life just as I do now, i.e. the one with the least obligations and restrictions. I'd need to research the matter :)
I agree, except for the "No BLT" rule
However, religion is rarely about the doctrines or the intellectual commitments; it's about the rituals that bind communities. The rest is useful only so far as it maintains social cohesion of the religious community.
I want a community in which the ritual behavior is blogging... hey, wait!
I think the reason it works
I think the reason it works out like that is precisely because Judaism is a cultural identity as well as a religion. So, even if you don't believe in God, you're still culturally Jewish.
The problem is that...if you aren't culturally Jewish...how do you become culturally Jewish? It's not a big religion on conversion and missionary work.
What's interesting to me is how only some religions take on a cultural, almost ethnic importance. What's the reason for those that do?