Atheism: Is it good for the Jews?
Sunday, February 2nd, 2014 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manWhen I was young, it seemed to me I was living in a Christian country, for all that much of the populace wasn't particularly religious; in some ways the default assumptions that went with this seemed prejudicial to Jews such as myself, and I thought to myself how better it would be were the country not so Christian.
Well, you should be careful what you wish for. The country is now decidedly less Christian than when I grew up: the government has made various rulings contrary to at least traditional Christian values, but this hasn't worked out in the Jews' favour at all; a large swathe of the population—certainly the ones who write comments on any news article online—are now decidedly anti-religious, an observation of mine confirmed in this article, and I feel that certain religious practices—I am, of course, thinking primarily about shechita and circumcision—in this country are, if not under threat now, may possibly become so in the future. For all that the online commenters rant about the bad religion has led to, the intolerance they show to practices that don't exactly match their worldview doesn't exactly cast them in a good light either.
The only comfort to be drawn in this situation is that the government has always ignored such pedagogical sentiments (otherwise, to take one well-known example, we'd have never got rid of the death penalty).
Well, you should be careful what you wish for. The country is now decidedly less Christian than when I grew up: the government has made various rulings contrary to at least traditional Christian values, but this hasn't worked out in the Jews' favour at all; a large swathe of the population—certainly the ones who write comments on any news article online—are now decidedly anti-religious, an observation of mine confirmed in this article, and I feel that certain religious practices—I am, of course, thinking primarily about shechita and circumcision—in this country are, if not under threat now, may possibly become so in the future. For all that the online commenters rant about the bad religion has led to, the intolerance they show to practices that don't exactly match their worldview doesn't exactly cast them in a good light either.
The only comfort to be drawn in this situation is that the government has always ignored such pedagogical sentiments (otherwise, to take one well-known example, we'd have never got rid of the death penalty).
no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 04:46 pm (UTC)