Christian Superiority
After my most recent post about it being okay in America to believe in our one god however you deem necessary, I have a follow-up. This is from a personal stance, I’d have to admit. I have always been an atheist to the Christian god. I will to go slightly off-topic and steer you right back.
There are two main reasons persons raised of the Jewish faith have a harder time admitting atheism. First off, there is a sense that we have to stick together after all the atrocities that have been committed against us. And secondly, the mere idea Hey, at least we’re not like how those crazy Christians and Muslims can be! I’m not positive about everyone in Israel, however in America there is no Jewish Extremism. There aren’t any Falwellian Jews. I’ve actually known people who came out as gay and converted to Judaism because it is “the most liberal of the mainstream religions” (I suppose, the phrase in America was left out by accident, not ignorance). Plus, Jews generally don’t dismiss science (i.e. evolution).
At some point, we do have to stand up and say religion is quite harmful. So here I am. Also, my feminist views don’t quite match up with how Christianity, Islam, AND Judaism portray women. And, that’s what probably broke the straw for me. Finally leaving the Jewish religion for good, but always somehow a part of the Jewish culture (or race). When you have a Jewish-sounding name with brown curly hair (and the nose!), its seems more like a race to me than anything else. I grew up in a Jewish area where very few actually kept Kosher or attended Shul more than once a year. But every boy AND girl had a Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
And then this brings be back to Christian superiority. Being an atheist, we get a lot of the “love Jesus”, “Jesus saves”, etc. Being raised Jewish, it hits a different chord than just being an atheist. If I were go along with a religion, I would most definitely go along with the religion I was raised. Not because it was how I was raised, but because I still wouldn’t be Christian. And that’s the only reason I had a hard time admitting I was an atheist a few years back: I had already denied the holy spirit and thought of Jesus (if he did in fact exist) as a mere mortal.
Religions were only created and pushed to hold women back and take the enjoyment out of sex (for everyone). Anyone who disagrees must not be reading their texts …or perhaps just don’t see women as real people too.
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yeah, there sure is a lot of fear of women in most religions, but there’s a lot of other fears bundled in there too.
You raise a good point. It is probably easier for a Jew to become an atheist because we are indoctrinated so early (no matter how secular are homes are) to the fact that Jesus was just a defiant or hippy Jew and had no supernatural ties whatsoever.
We have Jesus in our face every Christmas and Easter, and every Sunday morning, yet we know the Christians are wrong.
It makes us ask even more questions about the Jewish God….and the answers lead to atheism.