During Passover I came across a very interesting article in The Jewish Week written by Eric Herschthal that was addressing the following question: Can religion, especially Judaism, work if you don’t believe in the Big Guy upstairs?
Below are some excerpts from the article
The latest turn in the New Atheist debates can be summed up like this: even if you don’t believe in God, religion still has a lot to offer. Public intellectuals like Alain de Botton and James Gray in Britain, and scientists like E.O. Wilson and Jonathan Haidt in America, all of them atheists, have made a similar case in their recent books and essays….
To many Jews, this argument may seem unremarkable. In fact, it may seem eerily like a description of American Judaism today. It is not so much that most Jews in America define themselves as atheist – though, according to the latest research, almost 20 percent do. It’s that the question of whether God exists – in striking contrast to Christianity – is almost beside the point to how Jews define their identity….
“The cliché is that Judaism is about deed, not creed. But there’s a lot of truth in that,” said Jay Michaelson, a prominent Jewish writer and thinker, who says he believes in a Spinozian-type God (“God does not exist; God is existence itself,” he said, summing it up.) “The innovation was Christianity, which said that if you believe in Christ, you are redeemed,” he continued. “In Judaism, questions of belief in God are secondary.”
Alan Mittleman, a professor of modern Jewish philosophy at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, said, “I imagine many Jews go to shul, even Modern Orthodox shuls, and have doubts about God. But still they feel deeply committed to Jewish life and the mitzvot….”
But not everyone sees the idea of Judaism as a culture – or “Judaism without God” – as good for the faith. When asked whether Judaism can remain a coherent entity – even one defined as a culture – without a strong belief in God, some were ominous.
“Without God playing a central role, Judaism will collapse,” said David Wolpe, a Conservative rabbi who leads the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. (He is also a regular contributor to The Jewish Week and topped this year’s Newsweek list.) He dismissed the idea of preserving religious rituals as merely valuable “traditions” – a common description since “Fiddler on the Roof,” if not Mordecai Kaplan.
“In the end, traditions are hard to maintain unless there’s an attempt to understand the traditions in a deep way, and that God is central to those traditions….To read the rest, click here:
What do you think? Can Judaism “work” without a belief in God? Do you feel comfortable with your own understanding of God? Has your understanding of God developed from the concept that you had as a young child?
For more on the topic of God, please join me tonight for our first in a three part series entitled: OMG (Oh My God) where we will discuss the Jewish understandings of God, begin learning how to talk about God, and explore the role that God might play in our daily lives. Minyan is at 7:00 and our class will begin at 7:30 in the social hall. Bring your questions and feel free to bring a friend!