I am not yet an atheist. But I have a belief that has been creeping into my mind about hard determinism. I am starting to believe in hard determinism and disbelieve free will. I'm not quite there yet, but I am certainly leaning toward hard determinism. I see no room for a deity if we don't have free will. Judaism entails soft determinism. It has to be soft. There has to be a measure of free will. Without it, there is no Judaism. So if I really became convinced of hard determinism, then I would become an atheist.
But being an atheist wouldn't be very important to me. I would simply not be a religious believer anymore. If I were walking by a synagogue and some guys stopped me and told me that they need a tenth man for a minyan, I would go in and make their minyan. They are just asking me for help, and it is part of our culture for me to give them this help. I wouldn't feel any need to tell them that I'm an atheist, and they wouldn't really care very much.
But being an atheist wouldn't be very important to me. I would simply not be a religious believer anymore. If I were walking by a synagogue and some guys stopped me and told me that they need a tenth man for a minyan, I would go in and make their minyan. They are just asking me for help, and it is part of our culture for me to give them this help. I wouldn't feel any need to tell them that I'm an atheist, and they wouldn't really care very much.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
