I think there are a lot of atheist Jews. I’d likely categorize myself as that if I had to put a label on my (lack of) religion.
Makes sense. You could also be an atheist and a follower of Jesus’ moral teachings.
This was also my go to when I was asked my religion in the Philippines. I would just say something about being a supporter of Jesus as a moral philosopher. People would look confused and leave me alone, but I would tend to pass the test.
I have come across some atheist Jews, but they don’t mean “Jews” as in someone who practices the Jewish religion. They mean that they are ethnically Jewish.
Isn’t it explicitly not religious?
This essentially treats Buddhism as an applied philosophy, rather than a religion
I think there is ethnically, culturally/morally, and religiously. I’d fall in to the first two but not the third.
I’m not sure if the bro I met uses wikipedia as his guide. He just claims to be atheist, since he doesn’t believe in God, but he also believes in the teachings of Buddha, so he identifes as Buddhist as well.
I’m an atheist Jew who rarely does/attends any kind of religious function, but I did know someone who was an atheist orthodox Jew who did all the religious functions.
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Also seems a bit weird to practice Buddhism but take out the bits you don’t like. Isn’t this just your own approach to life then? Call is cassette-ism imo.
Ok, I just don’t see where the religious part is coming from. I think that guy is confused if he said “I’m a religious atheist.”
Still not enough info to know what you mean. You could be Jewish in the sense that you still believe in the teaching of Judaism minus the God part. Or you could just be an atheist who completely rejects Judaism that happens to have completely Jewish ancestry.
I think it works well with Buddhism specifically because I don’t think there is any sort of God in Buddhism. So in a very literal sense, all Buddhists are atheist. But if we accept that Buddhism is a religion, then being a religious atheist is a needle that Buddhists can thread a lot easier than Jews (for example).
There are spiritual people who don’t participate in any sort of organized religion. And then you have people who are super active in organized religion, but don’t believe in or practice that religion’s central teachings. You know, like most (ok, many?) American Christians.
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We didn’t have a very deep conversation on the topic, but I think he’d tell you he isn’t taking any bits out.
I guess we need to define religion. I was taking a constitutive element to be a belief in theism, and it’s impossible to be an atheist theist, so it’s impossible to be religious and an atheist. But IDK.
I want to talk to this guy. The wikipedia page lead me astray.
I agree that when it comes to Buddhists it’s a semantic problem. In casual conversation, everyone thinks Buddhism is a religion, but I guess you could argue that it’s not really one (at least not in the same way as Christianity and most others).
I think that the problem you’re alluding to is much bigger when you have a religion with a God(s). For example there are also atheist Hindus. That’s harder for me to wrap my head around:
I’m not sure why you are calling these views religions. They seem to call themselves philosophies.
You can’t be an “orthodox” Jew and have it just be ancestry though. He practiced as an orthodox chassidic Jew, but didn’t believe. Why? Probably some mental illness and I mean that literally, not as a joke.
Mostly because they have recognized religions in the name.