2007-09-15 19:40:07 · 10 answers · asked by lablover2 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'm not very good with explanations, so please bear with me.
Once you're Jewish, you're in for life. Even if you convert to Buddhism or Scientology or whatever, God still considers you a Jew.
So if you're born Jewish, but you decide that you don't believe in God, halacha (Jewish law) still says you're a Jew. And if you're female, your children are Jews, because they were born to a Jewish mother. It doesn't matter if you're raising them as practicing Muslims.
This goes for converts as well. If you undergo a valid conversion, you can't change your mind later on and decide you want to go back to being a Hindu.
It's like being part of a family, I think. You might get into a huge fight with your parents, and hate them, and run away to remote Tajikistan and never see them again, but you're still related to them. And your children are their grandchildren, even if the grandkids have never heard of the grandparents.
A Jew may think he is an atheist, or a Christian, or a Secular Humanitarian, but halacha just sees him as a lapsed Jew who will hopefully come to his senses one day.
2007-09-19 16:09:40 · answer #1 · answered by Melanie Mue 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Certainly no one who embraces Judaism could be an athiest. Judaism in highly theocentric. However, one can also apply a definition of Jews as being the descendents of Jacob in the Bible. Having been ejected from the Land of Israel by the Romans 1900 years ago, Jews can today be found in every corner of the globe, but we make up only about 0.2% of the world's population. Jews speak many different languages and come from many different countries. Some are light skinned, others dark skinned. Some are liberal and some are conservative. Some are religious and some are secular (or even athiests). But all are proud to be Jews.
2007-09-20 01:00:02 · answer #2 · answered by CoffeeDrinker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I cannot understand this either! How can they be atheists and Jewish, and yet if any are Christians they are not considered Jewish anymore? They are denied their ethnic heritage. I will be watching your answers....good question! This has always been confusing to me. If Judaism is a religion,(it is according some answers I have gotten) and atheism denies God's existence, then it would be like being Baptist, and if one were to say they were atheist, they would not be considered Baptist anymore. This is because you cannot be a Baptist and deny God's existance.
2007-09-16 02:53:40 · answer #3 · answered by Marie 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can be ethnically jewish but have secular beliefs.
Or you can convert to judaism and be religiously jewish but not ethnically.
Jews are either an ethnicity and/or a person of judaic faith.
2007-09-16 02:51:18 · answer #4 · answered by Clint 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jew- ethnicity
Religion- atheist
2007-09-16 02:51:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
his Jewishness in this regard is considered as his Race,since jews consider themselves as race & religion
2007-09-16 02:46:32 · answer #6 · answered by jammal 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Can an American be an atheist?
Can an American protest his government.
Can an American call themselves Germans.
I think your book called it.
2007-09-16 02:46:25 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
"Jew" is as much a cultural distinction as it is a religious one.
If your mom was a Jew, you're a Jew. Even if you don't keep the faith. Your observant in-laws might snub you at your sister's rehearsal dinner, but they have their own demons...
L'chaim!
2007-09-16 02:43:41 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
tablover...Jews are a "race"....Judaism is a "Belief"
Just as there are many Jews whom are "Christians" there are Gentiles (non Jews) whom practice Judaism.
Peace be with you :)
2007-09-16 02:57:42 · answer #9 · answered by ForeverSet 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I don't know but it happens, that's an individual decision I guess.
2007-09-16 02:43:59 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋