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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (256826)	2/17/2008 5:26:19 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Religion is very simple. Say you are not a member of an organized religion, and you aren't, voila. First, that's not true. What happens to a Muslim in Dubai who declares he isn't a Muslim? Either he is ignored or he becomes liable for the crime of apostasy. Good point. I guess the smart Muslim would move to Australia prior to making that declaration. Second, Jewish is not a religion as you keep insisting in a simple-minded way. It's an ethnic identity with an attached religion. That's why you can be a Jewish atheist. It is not so simple to disown your ethnic identity, which your mother certainly has a lot to do with. Ask anybody who was born African-American but decided to 'pass' for white. I'm not convinced that Jewishness is an ethnic identity anywhere outside of some tribal areas of the world. In areas of the world where people only mix with "their own kind", perhaps that categorization makes some sense. In the modern world, where Jewish people live amongst everyone else and intermarry and attend the same schools and Jewish kids play with non-Jewish kids all the time, it's a religion, no more, no less. My friend born of a Jewish mother has never done diddly squat religious in his life as far as I know, so what would make him a part of any Jewish ethnic group? Birth certainly doesn't do it. Someone born to African American parents isn't white because he or she is black (<- see that clear logic, and I went to college!). What is different between an atheist Jew and an atheist child of atheist parents?