Is Jewish atheism a joke?

Question

I thought Judaism was a religion.

Answer 1

I guess it's the sort of atheism that keeps its money inder the pillow and refuses to share beer.

Answer 2

It doesn't sound right, does it? But no it is not a joke!

Judaism is a culture, ethnicity, and religion. If you are Jewish by ethnicity, that does not being you are Jewish as a religion. It is not well known that actually, Israel has a large atheist community (about 40% - much higher than the United States http://www.impactlab.net/2006/03/26/the-50-countries-with-the-highest-percentage-of-atheists/ ).

So anyways, yes, there are cultural and ethnic Jews that are not religious. But there are many religious Jews as well. But Jewish atheism is not a joke or oxymoron, it is very much real and it is relatively common.

Answer 3

I know some Jewish atheists. If you are born to a Jewish mom you are considered Jewish unless you convert to another faith but not believing in Judaism does not mean you are not Jewish and flipping it over would be just because you are born to a Jewish mom but you do convert out would not mean you are still Jewish because you did convert out.

Jewish atheism is real

Answer 4

In Christianity, you cease to be a Christian when you cease to accept the basic tenets of the Christian religion. In Judaism, you cease to be a Jew when you start to believe in the tenets of another religion. Hence, while there's no such thing as 'Jewish atheism', there are indeed Jewish atheists. It's just a case of where the religion draws the line in saying that someone is no longer part of it.

Answer 5

But Jewishness isn't. Any person born from a Jewish mother or who converted halakhically (according to Jewish religious law) is Jewish, even if he/she becomes an atheist.



Jews are a family and a spiritual nation tied together by Judaism and Jewish religious law, but that doesn't mean everyone practices Judaism.

Answer 6

Atheism is a Christian preocupation.



It is not as important in other religious cultures.



Jew is an English corruption of Judean.

When Rome conquered the nation of Judea, refugees created strongly cohesive communities throughout the world. This is the Jews (aka "the people of Israel").

Judaism is the religion and culture of the Judean people.



Some Jews who are not comfortible with the idea of God, nevertheless find strong value in being part of the people of Israel.

Even the religious texts themselves (from at least two thousand years ago) say that it is more important that a person keeps the laws even if he does not "love God" versus a person who says "I love God" but does not keep any of the laws of God.

Answer 7

Judaism is the RELIGION of the Jewish people, it is perfectly possible to be a Jew, while rejecting the absolute truth about the existence of God and thus the religion.

Answer 8

It is an ethic group (or a set of closely related ethnic groups) that usually coincide with a religious belief. That's why you'll, say, hear people talking about someone having a "Jewish nose" or whatever--not something that would be possible if being Jewish was purely a religious matter. Most religious Jews are also ethnic Jews, and it's probably the case (by at least a slim margin) that most ethnic Jews are also religious Jews, but they're slightly different things.

Answer 9

I would expect that a Jewish atheist is someone who identifies as culturally Jewish but does not ascribe to Judaism as a religion.

Answer 10

Being Jewish can refer to religion or ethnicity.

Answer 11

No. I'm a Jewish Atheist.

I'm Jewish Ethnically, and was brought up in a Conservative Jewish household.



I just don't beleive that there's a God. I'm a secular Jew.

Answer 12

You can be culturally Jewish without believing in god.

Answer 13

Judaism is a religion but beings Jewish is a race. Its like being black. Black Atheist. Jewish Atheist.

Answer 14

Jewish is a cultural identity as well so no, it's not a joke.

Answer 15

Same as when christians say christianity isn't a religion, but rather a personal relationship with god.. LOL

Answer 16

judaism IS A Religion...





The Religion Of The DAMMED...

Answer 17

There's more to judaism and the jewish race than just that, christianity is a jewish conspiracy to insitute a NWO over the gentiles. http://see_the_truth.webs.com/http://www.666blacksun.org/satanic-natio…



“Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.” — Menachem Begin – Israeli Prime Minister 1977-1983



Holocaust activist Elie Wiesel claims that Jews are a superior race. “Everything about us is different,” Wiesel boasts. “Jews are ontologically exceptional.”



WHAT is significant about this? People don’t use terms like “ontologically exceptional” without first understanding the meaning of such big words. Read the wikipedia definition of ontology here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology



In philosophy, ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences.



Rabbi Mendel Schneerson, the late Jewish Lubavitcher and friend of the senior George Bush, also believed the Jews are a superior Master Race. Many Jews today agree with the late Rabbi. Some even believe that Schneerson will himself someday be resurrected and return as the Jewish World Messiah. Schneerson once explained his theory of Jewish racial superiority this way. He said, “We have a case of the Jew…a totally different species.”



“The body of a Jewish person,” Schneerson bragged, “is of a totally different quality from the body of members of all other nations of the world. Bodies of the Gentiles are in vain. An even greater difference is in regard to the soul…A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness.”



Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg: “Jewish blood is not the same as the blood of a (Gentile) goy.”



When, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), you walk into a synagogue, the very first prayer that you recite, you stand -- and it's the only prayer for which you stand -- and you repeat three times a short prayer. The Kol Nidre In that prayer, you enter into an agreement with God Almighty that any oath, vow, or pledge that you may make during the next twelve months -- any oath, vow or pledge that you may take during the next twelve months shall be null and void.



The oath shall not be an oath; the vow shall not be a vow; the pledge shall not be a pledge. They shall have no force and effect, and so forth and so on.



And further than that, the Talmud teaches: "Don't forget -- whenever you take an oath, vow, and pledge -- remember the Kol Nidre prayer that you recited on the Day of Atonement, and that exempts you from fulfilling that". -Freedman



Sounds like a people you can trust to tell you the truth?



-Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."

-Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."

-Libbre David 37: "To communicate anything to a Goy about our religious relations would be equal to the killing of all Jews, for if the Goyim knew what we teach about them, they would kill us openly."

-Libbre David 37: "If a Jew be called upon to explain any part of the rabbinic books, he ought to give only a false explanation. Who ever will violate this order shall be put to death."



“They (the Jews) work more effectively against us than the enemy’s armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in. It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.”

-Source: Maxims of George Washington by A.A. Appleton & Co.

Answer 18

i dont know,but messianic judaism is big joke.

Answer 19

Sadly no. There are many atheist Jews. It isn't just a religion it's an ethnicity.

Answer 20

Is that kind of like a flaming snowball?

Answer 21

If you don't know, then you are not cool.

Answer 22

Yes, it is. God's wrath abides on them.