Nearly 50 years ago, Time magazine, in a report about Jewish opposition to “religious practices” in public schools, described a rise in Jewish secularism that disturbed some leaders of the American Jewish community.

Jewish support for a secular agenda added “fuel to the flames of anti-Semitism,” Time quoted Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue as warning. “The danger” to American Jewry, said Michael Wyschogrod, assistant professor of philosophy at Hunter College, is not the threat of conversion to Christianity, but “secularism, the disappearance of the word ‘God’ from the minds and tongues of millions of Jews.”

In 2011, the emerging strength of Jewish secularism (or secular Jews, not necessarily the same) that Time wrote about has grown into a presence that represents about four in 10 of the country’s self-identified Jews, according to studies, and which is subject to less criticism from Jewish and outside circles.

Today, secular Jews don’t feel compelled to defend their beliefs — or non-beliefs.“There are hundreds of millions of people who are non-religious,” and Jews are a disproportionate part of this group, said Phil Zuckerman, a “culturally Jewish” sociologist of religion at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., and director of the small liberal arts institution’s newly announced department of secular studies.

The times. They are changing.  Similar to the way atheism in general is slowly gaining societal acceptance. Humanist Judaism is more about the heritage and a lot less about faith. I suppose, that to any Christian or Muslim fundamentalist, Jews are atheists no matter how much faith they have. Though, that can work in all ways. In any case, Jews are known for not believing in an afterlife (at least not in the sense that those of other religions do).

“We’re more secular than Americans in general,” with roots in the waves of immigrants from Europe who came here more than a century ago, partly as a “move against rabbinic [authority],” Kosmin said.

So what’s the purpose?

A secular studies department is a natural home for students with a secular bent, said Phil Zuckerman, the department’s director. At most universities, he says, courses about secular subjects are taught in religious studies departments. At Pitzer College, he said, courses about secular subjects will be outside of a religious influence. “It’s exactly where we want to be.”

Read more.

They do it on purpose. Religious teachers, they purposely mash up historical fact with religious stories, so you stick them together. I was never a true believer, but I did think this was part of history for some time. I accidentally confused actual history lessons with Sunday school lessons. There are many bits and nuggets of information that we take as truths because we are never informed they aren’t.

I have a feeling that at least a large portion of religion teachers purposely meld all these facts together, creating an amalgam of well-accepted truths with mythological stories. Making it nearly impossible for a child – or even an intelligent adult – to tell them apart.

We need to teach children what’s real and what’s is typically taken on faith as separate entities, not throw it all into a pot and see what happens. We have to educate our future generations with all kinds of knowledge. That may include religious studies, but as something that some people take of faith and faith alone. Whether creationism or any other bible story, we can include these lessons to our kids, but not as facts. As stories that, if you are to believe, they are taken on 100% blind faith. You may choose this route, and it can be perfectly acceptable but it is not a truth. It holds no real answers, just stories that one prefers.

While I do not understand someone believing any religious material on blind faith, it happens every day. I cannot conceive why someone would want to live in that bubble, it doesn’t seem blissful to me at all. But, apparently, it is to some. Aside from that, there is a larger point here. We must differentiate between historical facts and religious myths. Does anyone think that the death of Pyramus and Thisbe is the reason that mulberries have become dark reddish-purple? At least not the white ones…

We clearly recognize some stories as obvious myths but others we refuse to separate from reality. This may not be wholly our fault. Teachers are so afraid to teach real facts for the fear of parents railing against them for bogus reasons. And some teachers believe the amalgam of truth and fiction. It’s hard to take note of where it began. But it needs to end.

Image via Reddit

Which isn’t all that exciting. Then, there’s this. Deborah Freeman describes herself as a “borderline atheist”.

Are there also atheists who come to Limmud? I ask Adler and the others at the info desk. Sure, they respond and turn to the people standing in line. “Who is an atheist?” someone cheerfully call out.

“I’m a borderline atheist,” offers Deborah Freeman, a 65-year-old playwright from Manchester. She usually comes to Limmud for a day or two, gives a session on her plays and attends a few classes on the arts, or on Israel. “I find the Tanakh [the Hebrew Bible] to be an inspiration, but I don’t see God in it, rather stories about God,” she explains. “Here, I can delve and learn, but remain the me I want to be.” [Read more]

While this is nice and all on the surface, I don’t understand why one can be charitable aside from through religions and their synagogues/churches/mosques.

But hold on a second- “delve and learn”? While I regard education and the seeking of knowledge very highly, I don’t see how this is best done with ties to any religion. Judaism is known for allowing the believers to ask questions and seek knowledge. Though, you never get any satisfying answers. I can only assume she is referring to the supposed “moral lessons”. Personally, I find very little morality in these stories, except for what not to do when told to do something and vice versa.

That said, it’s nice that she can say this without people gasping in shock as if she just ate a baby. A tasty baby.

If any question remains about the religious and political motivations of certain members of the Texas Board of Education, one need only read the words of their social studies curriculum experts.

Rev. Peter Marshall, for example, one of their appointed academic experts, wants to restore America, according to the website of his Massachusetts-based ministry, “to its Bible-based foundations through preaching, teaching, and writing on America’s Christian heritage and on Christian discipleship and revival.” He also believes that Hurricane Katrina, Watergate and the Vietnam War are the result of divine wrath.

And I could just as easily say that the events of the Holocaust displays there is no god. Hmm…

Marshall, along with his fellow reviewer David Barton, did not believe that students in the public education system should learn about Hutchinson:

Anne Hutchinson does not belong in the company of these eminent gentlemen. She was certainly not a significant colonial leader, and didn’t accomplish anything except getting herself exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for making trouble.” (emphasis added)

One of the original Puritans, Hutchinson disagreed with some of the scriptural teachings of the religious leaders and began hosting her own Bible study classes in her home. For this crime, Hutchinson was placed on trial and banished from her community. Later, she and her exiled family were killed in a Siwanoy attack.

This is indeed quite disturbing.

Liberty vs. democracy. Political columnist Jeff Schapiro says though they called their university Liberty, the Falwells didn’t allow much democracy.

See the video here.

(The Goods of) Time

Never plentiful enough; always far too much
So quick to slur, slowly blur
And jump ahead-
Ticking away, picking
At the hands of the
Clock
Who keeps
Changing the gears.

[Written: August 14, 2006]

This poem refers to the idea that the only thing that’s at all “in control” or “god-like” is time; which it’s really not per se, but c’mon a little artistic license anyone? ;) The following poem is slightly more obvious, mainly referring to the end-of-days-ers:

Believe Blind

Cyclical logic, belief blind
To those with a clear end to time
Suffering in an intolerable mind;
Divide zero by zero to get nine.

No end in sight to abbreviate,
Final energy obfuscates
Decaying mass. Signals wait
Moments as they invent fate.

[Written: January 3, 2007]

Written before I had the pleasure of knowing A Division by Zer0, btw. On to the last one (for today):

Push Beyond (Immorality Concedes)

Reveal immorality
truly, just the wrong
way of taking
a living breathing-
devour the being,
raping rational
thought. Inhumanly
consuming logic
callously
with A sharp-

[Written: July 12, 2006]

After being inundated by fundamentalists and other strong theists (mostly in the media), that godlessness is equated to immorality, I began blogging (and writing more). The teaching of children and other impressionable people around them that the events in the holy book of their choice are to be taken literally (i.e. creationism) is far more harmful than any form of atheism, secularism, or non-adherence to religion.

If you happen to enjoy any of these, don’t worry, I have moar!

Don’t Be Left Behind

The Logical Realm

Between Worlds