(August 21, 2015 at 2:52 am)Randy Carson Wrote: And what would you say to a Jewish friend who was intrigued by some of the arguments made by atheists and beginning to have doubts about G-d?
Have you ever lived outside the south east of the United States?
In the world in which I grew up and was educated, being an atheist was - and is - quite normal but we're all, theists and atheists, a minority in comparison with the can't be bothered. On the whole, I dislike most those people who really, really know what the answer to everything is, whatever their religion or lack of it.
You also need to get it into your head that other religions do not have the same concept of the divine and don't work in the same way as Christianity, which is one of the reasons why many of your questions are often rather meaningless. In other words, in order for an answer to have meaning, you'd need to have at least some understanding of the context - something you'll never be bothered to try to get - so answering usually seems rather pointless, especially since it will only be drowned by your copy and pasting or something from your really rather dreadful collection of clip art.
Thus I've kept telling you that Judaism isn't Christianity minus Jesus and Christianity isn't Judaism plus Jesus. God is not as portrayed on the Sistine Chapel roof or a nice young Aryan man with a decorated heart on his chest and an arm around a lamb. One might describe our understanding of God as an argument that's gone on and on and on and on - on the one hand, while on the other hand, meanwhile on yet another hand . . . . .
So, what would I say to my friend? I'd start by asking what was wrong with continuing the development of her understanding of how to live a considered/examined life from within the context she'd been brought up in.
The gods did not reveal, from the beginning,
All things to us, but in the course of time
Through seeking we may learn and know things better.
These things are, we conjecture, like the truth.
But as for certain truth, no man has known it,
Nor shall he know it, neither of the gods
Nor yet of all the things of which I speak.
And even if by chance he were to utter
The final truth, he would himself not know it:
For all is but a woven web of guesses.
Xenophanes
All things to us, but in the course of time
Through seeking we may learn and know things better.
These things are, we conjecture, like the truth.
But as for certain truth, no man has known it,
Nor shall he know it, neither of the gods
Nor yet of all the things of which I speak.
And even if by chance he were to utter
The final truth, he would himself not know it:
For all is but a woven web of guesses.
Xenophanes