A religious question?

Question

Can someone be agnostic and Jewish at the same time? I was born Jewish, and I don't want to forget that (especially the fact that I lost so much family in the Holocaust) but I have never believed in God.

Answer 1

A man I know is Jewish and once told me that agnostics are just
midstream Jews

Answer 2

You can be of Jewish decent. There are 2 ways of being Jewish, by faith and practice which are both religious and traditional, and because your family are descendants of the chosen people. So I would say you are always part of the culture regardless of your faith and without any action. I am Irish, English and American Indian. I don't have drink tea, I have never done a rain dance, I do not live on a reservation, and I don't know any Irish songs. And I do not follow the typical religious beliefs of any of them.

But if this is something you do not want to forget, I would ask you, are you preserving that heritage in your life? Are you keeping the traditions of your family and teaching them to your children? Have you learned Hebrew and speak and read the language of your people? If it is so important to you then to me find a way to honor the history with your life.

Also just a note how can you have family go through the holocaust and not believe in God? If there is not a God then there is no Satan. There is no good and evil. The holocaust was horrific. I cannot imagine living a life that would allow my family to die and not be able to definitively say it is wrong. To not say Hitler and his followers were evil incarnate. To me there has to be a God for there to be any idea of justice. It is not my only reason for believing, but it is a big reason for why I could never disbelieve.\


For the person who told you to look it up, YES you can, here is the definition you would be the 2nd and an ancestor of the 3rd

Jew (j) KEY

NOUN:

An adherent of Judaism as a religion or culture.
A member of the widely dispersed people originally descended from the ancient Hebrews and sharing an ethnic heritage based on Judaism.
A native or inhabitant of the ancient kingdom of Judah.

Answer 3

I am so sorry you lost your family in the dark period of the Holocaust. But you should never lose faith in God and Jesus Christ. I am a Christian but most people believe Mormons are not Christian when we are. Mormonism is very similar to your Jewish faith. The only thing missing is Christ, the core of our religon. So I invite you to pray and seek Him with all of your heart. God bless you, and your family who have suffered so much in the Holocaust.

Answer 4

A lot of people consider "Jewish" to be a nationality, so, yes, you can be an agnostic Jew. But, you should find what your heart believes. There is this cool thing on beliefnet.com called the BeliefOMatic and you answer questions and it chooses your religion matches its totally awesome

Answer 5

Yes. You would be at home in a Reconstructionist synagogue. I'd recommend you read Mordecai Kaplan's book "The Concept of God in Modern Jewish Religion" and see if his concept of God appeals to you. He was the founder of Reconstructionism.

Answer 6

I didn't either for a long time Sarah. Then this happened to me.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 7

Yes, because being Jewish is both an ethnicity/culture background and a religion.

Answer 8

Jewish is both a religion and a race of people.

Answer 9

You can honor your past without following the actual religion of your forebearers. One really has nothing to do with the other. If you are agnostic, you are at least open to the possibility that God exists...so if there are traditions and rituals that make you feel closer to your ancestors, do them...

Answer 10

Not really. I mean you could stay culturally Jewish, but if you are not you are not.

And if you don't believe in God, you are an atheist.