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RE: What is Jewish Atheism?
December 8, 2013 at 6:45 pm
Quote:I don't call myself an American Atheist, nor a Catholic Atheist, nor an Irish Atheist, nor a Scientific Atheist. I don't qualify my atheism with some cultural meaning.
Bully for you. You are, of course, allowed to describe yourself any way you like.
Quote:Jewish Atheist is a commonly used term used I think because of the reason's Max in Greece describes. What is Jewish culture if it is not related to monotheistic Judaism?
If you'd read max's post carefully, you'd have your answer to this.
Quote: Its a 19th and 20th century thing yes?
It may be, I honestly don't know.
Quote:So Jewish Atheist means what?
It means a Jew who is also an atheist. I'm not sure it can be made any plainer than that.
Quote:What does Jewish culture and Atheism have to do with each other?
Jewish culture and atheism have nothing to do with each other, except coincidentally.
Quote:Or are we saying Jewish now has nothing to do with Judaism?
Not at all. One can be ethnically or culturally Jewish and be an atheist, or a Catholic, or a Mormon. 'Jewish' and 'Judaism' don't mean the same thing and never have.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: What is Jewish Atheism?
December 8, 2013 at 8:58 pm
Jewish atheist is an oxymoron.
It's like an atheist pretending to be a priest and merely going through the motions.
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RE: What is Jewish Atheism?
December 9, 2013 at 12:22 am
(This post was last modified: December 9, 2013 at 12:41 am by theyear12013.)
I sympathize with Max' perspective and completely understand the historical context with which I ask my questions. But as this is a forum for Atheists, I'd assume people would be quite sophisticated in their answers.
I was answering the gentleman who mentioned that Jewish is cultural and Atheist is religious belief as if this is not obvious. If I were to call myself a Catholic or Christian Atheist or a Muslim Atheist, I would be ridiculed on these forums viciously and denounced as a backwards looney who can't let go of his Theist beliefs. I'd be called a charlatan who supports an authoritarian culture for practical reasons and doesn't have the guts to stand up to it and let go.
I am not suggesting the same level of ridicule for Jewish Atheists for their label because of the historical context, but it is a strange anachronism built precisely by a 1930s maniac that forces them to use this moniker. This maniac was no A-theist regardless of the perception (A Swastika is a Hindu religious symbol ; they thought they were reincarnated Gods. Himmler had a copy of the Bagdavita next to his bed. The Caste of Jewish human beings was to be eliminated in their Neo-Indo-European-roman-German fantasyland.) That this maniac still has power over their identity is not fair to them; its not fair to the intellectual culture on this forum or elsewhere. I don't know if its an impossible choice because of the symbiotic nature and dynamic of Abrahamic cultures. Precisely because Judaism are the roots of the Theism that these forums hate and make up 50 to 80% of the other Theistic religions perhaps it is true that to end the label is to invite violence on those who have the label forced on them or continue to use the label with pride. Perhaps it is not. Perhaps it is an anachronism of 19th century racialism and 1930s German-Hindu-Fascism.
The question is: American Atheist Humanism does not a holocaust make?
