Secular Jews

[SecularMotion]

I consider myself a secular Jew: I don’t believe in any of the tenets or holy books of Judaism, nor in any divine being, but I still identify with Jews, hang around the Lower East Side when I’m in New York, am proud when a Jew has a big achievement like the Nobel Prize, and use a fair amount of Yiddish in my speech. Steve Pinker, I believe, is about the same, and we’ve had discussions about things like where to find the best “smoked meat” (the Canadian equivalent of pastrami) in the delis of Montreal.

I still believe that Judaism is the only faith that also comes with a purely secular version. I’ve never heard of a cultural Catholic (is that someone who eats fish on Fridays out of solidarity with believers?) or a cultural Muslim (nonbelievers who fast for a month during Ramadan?). Now I’m sure that my readers will be able to point to a few counterexamples, but, as Jason Rosenhouse points out in his latest post on EvolutionBlog (drawn from a piece on PuffHo), estimates of the incidence of atheism and agnosticism among American Jews are as high as 50%. That means the percentage of cultural Jews must be far higher than the cultural versions of any other faith. If you’re a reader who considers yourself a secular version of a non-Jewish faith, do weigh in.

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/secular-jews/

[the other one]

1. Its a tribal thing, by brother (or sister)

There are no tenets of faith in judaism. I don't care if God exists or not, and if he does I still don't forgive him for killing my cat. But I enjoy going to the synagogue every saturday.

I do wonder if things would be different if prayers were in english rather than hebrew. It doesn't matter, I just like to be there with my people.

I wonder how many catholics would stay that way if they knew what some of the latin translated into, and if they knew how much of their religion is lifted from roman Apollo worship. They even changed their sabbath from the jewish one of the old testament to SUN-day, the day of Apollo.

[Meshuga]

14. It's all about the folk

Judaism is about the tradition and passing it to the next generation. There are no "tenets of faith" for us to reject.

[GodlessBiker]

2. I think Buddhism comes closer to offering a purely secular vision.

It offers a set of beliefs about suffering and how to overcome it without any appeal to a god-figure.

I know a lot of cultural catholics (and christians in general). They do the xmas tree thing, get together with family on xmas and easter, but do not go to church or believe in god in any meaningful way (they say they're not religious, they're spiritual).

[LeftyMom]

3. I think it would be possible to be a secular Catholic if the church weren't so objectionable.

I like old buildings, pretty music and dead languages about as much as anybody possibly could. If the church weren't such an active force for evil in the world, I could totally enjoy mass as a spectacle and community experience. I'd really, really like to go to a latin mass (the switch to vernacular precedes my birth, I feel like I missed something) if they weren't run by people who make regular Catholic leaders look pleasant and benign. But the church heirarchy is a racket run by pedophiles and misogynists (many of the laity and low level priests, brothers and sisters religious are wonderful people, I feel they deserve more and better than the institution they're stuck with and am not criticizing them,) so I can't do so in good conscience.

I've told people more than once that if it were possible to be a secular Catholic in the manner of secular Jews, I'd jump on it. I like the idea of that connection to my ancestry. I like weird things, old things, and things that don't make a damned bit of sense. I suspect a lot of Catholics feel that way, I didn't grow up with many people who got all bug-eyed and insisted in the literal reality of transubstantiation or the infallibility of Ex Cathedra statements or who thought that they or anybody else should be bound by Humanae Vitae, so I think most of us were going through the motions for our own reasons.

[Kolesar]

11. And I am truly heartbroken that the diocese is going to crush half of the churches in Cleveland

They make a contribution to the skyline and streetscape that can never be replaced. Even the simpler ones ooze charm. I think about the thousands of people who gazed at the building with a sense of awe and reverence and I feel connected.

Oh, yes, they are abandoning the temples to save money because the diocese has had to pay out millions of dollars to victims. They are even abandoning Christ is King temple on Euclid Avenue where we held a peace rally in 2003.

[azurnoir]

4. if one takes into account the number of people that celebrate Christmas and or Easter

in a secular manner (trees, gifts, baskets, dyed eggs ect) without attaching any particular religious significance to this I would say the number of 'secular Christians' is quite large indeed

[LeftishBrit]

5. Speaking as a secular Jew..

I would actually say there are a fair few secular Christians as well. In most surveys in the UK, the number of people who identify as 'Christian' is considerably higher than those who say they believe in God. Often, identification as Christian, or as a particular sect, is cultural rather than religious. Many people will call themselves, for example, 'lapsed Catholics' and will still have some tribal solidarity with Catholics, especially with regard to Irish issues.

In Australia, Julia Gillard recently described herself as a 'non-practicing Baptist'.

The concept is doubtless stronger for Jews than other groups, because of the long history of the Jews as segregated or semi-segregated groups in foreign lands. Jews, religious or not, formed strong communities, and hung together in the hope of not hanging separately. A very strong cultural solidarity was formed. And after all, atheist Jews, or even those who had converted to Christianity, were just as much in danger from the Nazis as strongly religious Jews.

[azurnoir]

9. A question is the "Holiday Season" as commercialized in the UK as it is here in the US?

some department and home improvement stores have already started setting their holiday departments with decorations for Christmas,Chanukah, and even New Years already on the shelves do stores in the uK start this early I do hope not

[LeftishBrit]

10. Maybe not quite, but pretty nearly

Though Christmas is much more commercialized than other faiths' religious holidays. Advertising for it already started some time ago! Most people don't treat it as a particularly religious occasion, but are preoccupied with the traditions, and with buying and getting gifts. I mentioned last year that one of the commoner pre-Christmas greetings these days is: 'So are you *ready* for Christmas?'

[azurnoir]

12. IMO it's getting to the point with the early season stuff that

"are you ready" could easily turn into "are you tired of" as to Chanukah decoration they're mostly redone Christmas stuff or trees decorated in blue and silver with little dreidle ornaments ect cute but hardly traditional as to Christmas in the UK when I was a little kid I used to think that Plum Pudding sounded particularly yummy well until I found out what was really in it that is

[dtexdem]

6. Hard to say: the secularism of European "Roman Catholic" countries is renown.

We get an unclear view here in the hyper-religious U.S.

[Tesha]

7. Schwartz's Charcouterie Hebraique (sp?), but I'm always open to other suggestions!

http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index2.html

[Thats my opinion]

8. There are honest secularists in every religious tradition

They celebrate the fruits of the tradition, but have abandoned the roots which produced the fruits. There would be no secular religionists had not over the centuries many others tended the roots. How would a secular Jew attend a synagogue or a secular Christian a church if nobody had kept these institutions alive? Somehow, secularists or faithful, we all depend on one another.

[Texas Lawyer]

13. I consider myself to be culturally Catholic but religiously atheistic.

I was raised as a Catholic.

I rejected that faith in the sense that I do not believe in any anthropomorphic god, and I don't believe that there was a divine entity that manifested somewhere near the Red Sea 2000 some-odd years ago, and I don't even have much enthusiasm for Notre Dame football.

Yet I am raising my kids in the Catholic church, which necessitates that I attend church, and I enjoy St. Patrick's day and other Catholic holidays.

I used to visit Ireland pretty regularly. I found that this idea of being culturally Catholic, but otherwise secular, is far more common in Ireland than it is among US ex-Catholics, quasi-Catholics, and para-Catholics.