We can't be judged by the words from prayers that few of us are aware of in English. Most of us eat Chinese and pizza. Without our business, the fancy USA restaurants would close.

We are essentially descendants of Semitic tribes whom Rabbis and priests tried unsuccessfully to dominate and take money from.

So we believe in ONE God. So what.

Most of us are more devoted to our work, children, and earning a living.

There is a spectrum of religious belief -- from Chasidic to Orthodox to atheist to hating religionists of all stripes.

Here, some kind of journo is making a Federal case about Kol Nidre as if most Jews really give it more thought than Star Spangled Banner. By most I mean 80%.

And we certainly don't believe the stories of Adam or Noah or Jonah. Few of us believe any Jewish lore from before 1914.

The journo here makes believe that we're all worked up about our theological words.

Stop it already.

But yes -- we DON"T believe anything of the stories of Jesus. Neither I think do most non-Muslim Asians.

So we had ancestors who gave us a big cultural heritage. Big deal. The high-class world has moved on. Get with it.

Tolerate!

The laws in USA are for everybody.

If some Jews want to also follow laws from Rabbi Menashe of Mogilev-Podolsk, or from Rambam -- LET THEM!

Come to think of it, we could use a complete new theology. Admit that dinosaurs existed. And the Poodle Room at the Fontainebleau. And Meyer Lansky's shul on 5th Street. And get rid of those ridiculous teichels. Abbe Lane! Esther Willams!

Join the crowd.

Most of us Christians aren't either.

That's all just fine and dandy. You're basically just like everyone else ---- till it comes to the issue of Israel. Then you're right back to the Bronze age, convoluting all modern moral principles to support a rogue ang fraudulently conceived state at very dear expense to the U. S.

Pretty hard (read: impossible) for me to believe there is no supreme creator of life. Life is far too inscrutable, ordered and amazing for it to have just happened by an infinite number of molecular chance meetings.

Given the above, equally hard for me to believe this god has not a divine purpose for our existence on earth. And that he would not communicate in many ways what that is.

But you… you are content to think it matters not and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. And also to think that death holds nothing for our rational, incredible lives. No consequences for our words and actions.

Unthinkable.

To go it alone… how sad and hopeless.

"To go it alone… how sad and hopeless."

JV, how do you explain the inscrutable "happy atheists"?

"They just THINK they're happy."?

Reptilicus:

"To go it alone… how sad and hopeless."

JV, how do you explain the inscrutable "happy atheists"?

"They just THINK they're happy."?

There are millions like her. The sadness rests in me, not her.

Based on what I am certain of (not what you believe), the wages of sin are eternally profound and also understood, once dead. To go it alone, to reject any god and stop searching, is denying oneself immeasurable graces and mercy. I am no one's judge. I just know this trial here on earth is all that matters.

Pretty arrogant to believe that one can't have a belief in God unless they share your particular religion.

Your religion is not the first nor the only one out there.

God may have created the earth and every creature that inhabits the earth, but God didn't create your religion.

From Wikipedia (preface: the same article, earlier, puts the total Jewish (by birth) population of the United States at between 6 and 7 million, and says that "roughly half of American Jews are considered religious"):

Jewish religious practice in America is quite varied. Among the 4.3 million American Jews described as "strongly connected" to Judaism, over 80% report some sort of active engagement with Judaism, ranging from attendance at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum to as little as attendance Passover Seders or lighting Hanukkah candles on the other.

The survey[citation needed] found that of the 4.3 million strongly connected Jews, 46% belong to a synagogue. Among those who belong to a synagogue, 38% are members of Reform synagogues, 33% Conservative, 22% Orthodox, 2% Reconstructionist, and 5% other types. Traditionally, Sephardic and Mizrahis do not have different branches (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, etc) but usually remain observant and religious. The survey discovered that Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West. Reflecting a trend also observed among other religious groups, Jews in the Northwestern United States are typically the least observant.

A 2003 Harris Poll found that 16% of American Jews go to the synagogue at least once a month, 42% go less frequently but at least once a year, and 42% go less frequently than once a year. The poll also found that 48% of American Jews believe in God, 19% believe there is no God, and 33% are not sure whether or not there is a God.[18]

In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of secular American Jews returning to a more religious, in most cases, Orthodox, style of observance. Such Jews are called baalei teshuva ("returners", see also Repentance in Judaism). It is uncertain how widespread or demographically important this movement is at present.

Pretty arrogant to believe that one can't have a belief in God unless they share your particular religion.

I did not attack the top poster so much as issued a challenge. If he believes in any kind of god at all, he surely made it clear to me it meant nothing to him even if he did. So where is the arrogance on my part?

Here are some of his quotes.

So we believe in ONE God. So what….And we certainly don't believe the stories of Adam or Noah or Jonah. Few of us believe any Jewish lore from before 1914….The journo here makes believe that we're all worked up about our theological words. Stop it already….But yes -- we DON"T believe anything of the stories of Jesus….So we had ancestors who gave us a big cultural heritage. Big deal. The high-class world has moved on. Get with it….Come to think of it, we could use a complete new theology.

.

God may have created the earth and every creature that inhabits the earth, but God didn't create your religion.

Yes, and you have given me every reason to believe Jesus is a phony.

A lot of words to say simply that you are a descendant of the Hebrews and not of the Jewish Religion.

It seems that YOU are not religious by any stretch and that is fine, but I think that speaking for 80% of the Jews in America is pushing it.

I am a member of the Reform movement. I attend shul almost every week and keep Shabbas (although I am not shomer Shabbas). I work in a synagogue, volunteer there and most of my friends are from my faith community.

That said, I don't presume to speak for the other members of my own community let alone Jews everywhere. I do know though that many Jews, regardless of their level of observation are interested in their history, culture and liturgy. Kol Nidre is a very misunderstood prayer both within and without the Jewish faith. I am always interested in reading more about how our liturgy came about.

I was also a bit bemused by "the high-class world has moved on" because it clearly assumes that only culturally challenged losers would follow any level of Jewish practice and that enlightened Jews are supposed to ignore liturgy entirely. It's a form of self hatred that's a little sad, but not entirely unknown.

I wish you an easy fast and be well.

Having no faith in religion does not equal having no faith in God.

Most of us from solid old religions don't need to be religious, its a bit like leaving home, you take with you what you need and the rest leave it in childhood. We are solid people or not, that nothing what so ever to do with our religion.

"Pretty hard (read: impossible) for me to believe there is no supreme creator of life. Life is far too inscrutable, ordered and amazing for it to have just happened by an infinite number of molecular chance meetings."

>>This is an argument from personal incredulity, a known rhetorical fallacy. But it does beg the question of who or what created the "supreme creator" you believe is repsonsible for life. I mean, that supreme creator must be even more inscrutable ordered and amazing itself than life is, right? No way it could 'just have happened', if life couldn't 'just have happened'.

"Given the above, equally hard for me to believe this god has not a divine purpose for our existence on earth."

>>Well, yes, I can see that. Once you elect to believe in a supernatural entity for whose existence no real evidence exists it's a trivial embellishment to invest it with an imagined purpose as well.

"And that he would not communicate in many ways what that is."

>>Why then is he not communicating with us, let alone in many ways? One would think that an entity capable of creating life would be capable of effectively communicating the fact of its existence to its creation.

"But you… you are content to think it matters not and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise."

>>I think it matters, but your correct that there isn't any actual evidence which supports the existence of a god or gods--scriptural texts, unexplained events, anecdotal testimony, yes--but evidence? None.

"And also to think that death holds nothing for our rational, incredible lives. No consequences for our words and actions."

>>Clearly there are consewquences for our words and actions--here and now, in the real world. There's no evidence for the continuance of our existance beyond the death of our physical bodies, however, and therefore no reason to presume we'd face consequences for words and actions after our death.

Israel brings out our Jewish-nation emotions. While most of us are etremely
loyal and almost worshipful American citizens, Israel reminds us of the paranoid subconscious belief and rational observation that murdering Jews was actually one of the prominent elements of world history during the most recent 125 years.

In that time-span, mankind advanced unprecedentedly in science and technology. But killing Jews was a major league sport.

A neighbor of mine "joked" last week that "the financial crisis could mean that we Jews should get ready to be thrown out of America."

Re Israel, it DOES give us those "willies" (fears). And we empathize more closely than non-Jews with the fear of mass murder in Israel. And we fear that we too are threatened as Israel hears of aims to murder its people. No doubt, evolution has given us new improved paranoia.

Then we hear from America's Israel-haters and wonder if they would let in the Israelis.

Or WHAT??

It seems that this God of ours worshipped in shul by Jesus and Paul won't let anyone escape pre-civilized "murder-think" for long.