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October 1st, 2013
09:52 AM ET
Study: American Jews losing their religionBy Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-editor [twitter-follow screen_name='BurkeCNN'] (CNN) - The number of nonreligious Jews is rising in the United States, with more than one in five saying they are not affiliated with any faith, according to a new survey. While similar trends affect almost every American religion, Jewish leaders say the new survey spotlights several unique obstacles for the future of their faith. According to the survey, conducted by Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, non-religious Jews are less likely to care deeply about Israel, donate to Jewish charities, marry Jewish spouses and join Jewish organizations. Pew says their study sought to explore the question, "What does being Jewish in America mean today?" The answer is quite complicated. Just 15% of American Jews say that being Jewish is mainly a religious matter, according to Pew's survey. By contrast, more than six in 10 say Jewishness is about culture, ancestry and identity. The most essential parts of being Jewish, according to American Jews, are remembering the Holocaust (73%), leading an ethical life (69%) and working for social justice and peace (56%). Almost as many American Jews say that having good sense of humor (42%) is as important to their Jewish identity as caring about Israel (43%). Even among religious Jews, most say it's not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish, and less than one in three say religion is very important to their lives. Nearly all American Jews - religious and secular - say they are proud to be Jewish. "The fact that many Jews tell us that religion is not particularly important to them doesn't mean that being Jewish is not important to them," said Greg Smith, director of religious surveys for the Pew Research Center. The most essential parts of being Jewish, according to the survey, are remembering the Holocaust (73%), leading an ethical life (69%) and working for social justice and peace (56%). Overall, the majority of Jews (78%) call themselves religious, but the survey showed much lower rates of religious affiliation among millennials, one of several trends that trouble Jewish leaders. Nearly a third of American Jews born after 2000 answered "none" when asked about their religious affiliation, suggesting that Jewish "nones" are not only a large group, they're growing, Smith said. The rise of Jewish "nones" tracks with wider trends in the American population, where about a third of millennials don't affiliate with organized religion.
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center says its survey is the most comprehensive since the National Jewish Population Survey in 2000-2001. Pew surveyed 3,475 Jews from across the country from February 20 to June 13, with a margin of error for the full sample of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The study declines to offer a definitive estimate of the size of the American Jewish population, a matter of heated debate in recent years. Instead, Pew offered several tallies of American Jews, depending on different definitions of Jewish identity. Approximately 4.2 million American adults - 1.8% of the overall population - identify as Jewish by religion. In the 1950s, the percentage of religious Jews in the United States was nearly twice as high, according to Pew. Meanwhile, about 1.2 million adult Americans now identify as secular or cultural Jews - they were raised Jewish, had a Jewish parent and still consider themselves Jewish, even though they don't practice the religion, according to Pew. Secular Jews are much more likely to marry outside the faith, according to Pew, a trend that has worried Jewish leaders in recent years. Nearly 60% of American Jews who have married since 2000 have a non-Jewish spouse, according to Pew. Intermarried Jews, like secular Jews, are much less likely to raise their children in the Jewish faith and have weaker ties to the Jewish community, says Pew's report. But, in a silver lining for Jewish leaders, intermarriage rates have leveled off, Smith said, holding steady at 60% since the mid-1990s. Jane Eisner, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Daily Forward, said she is not surprised that the study found relatively low interest in Jewish religious beliefs. "We are a people very much defined by what we do, rather than what we believe," she said. But Eisner said she is concerned that millennials are less likely to donate to Jewish charities, care strongly about Israel or belong to Jewish groups. "It's great that these non-religious Jews feel pride in being Jewish," Eisner said. "What worries me is their tenuous ties to the community."
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Only for the new visitors to this blog:
As the number of Jews who no longer believe in their religion increases, there will be less emphasis on preserving Israel for religious reasons. With that in mind, we should establish a program where the Jews of Israel emigrate to the USA and the Muslims of the USA emigrate to Israel. This would dramatically reduce the political/religious tensions in the Middle East.
I think they should get along as is!
America did NOT want the jews after WWII and we do not want them now!
That's racist!
Speak for yourself. This American wants all people of different nationalities in my country. Americans of that background include Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger, Steven Spielberg, and Louis Brandeis.
That was directed toward Theadore Realist
Of course it's racist. If you had seen any of the postings during the Zimmerman trial you would have no doubt.
_____
The judeo-christian-islamic ... http://www.GODisIMAGINARY.com
and THANK GOODNESS because ...
... he emanates from the ... http://www.EVILbible.com
_____
Didn’t any of you all feel that there is something more out there?
Didn’t any of you feel there was a purpose to life and an afterlife?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Roger Waters
What do you mean by that?
Sorry, it's from a Pink Floyd album that may have been before your time. It is natural enough for some people to feel terror and loneliness, at 3 or 4 in the morning, say. They ask questions like you have asked. They are unhappy with the answers they come up with and sometimes turn to religion.
Thanks for the explanations.
_____
No, because the judeo-christian-islamic ... http://www.GODisIMAGINARY.com
and THANK GOODNESS because he emanates from the ... http://www.EVILbible.com
_____
You NEVER thought there was a chance God exists?
To which of the many possible gods are you referring?
Just because a person may have considered something possible at some point doesn't change whether or not that thing exists.
Everybody wonders these things.
That's why there have been so many religions, gods and afterlives
Doc, it is interesting that nearly every society has embraced the existence of some Supreme Being at one level or another. I don't know if there are any societies that don't make room for this sort of belief. It seems to be built into our DNA. It is part of being human to look into the question, although some try to suppress the inquiry.
There is something about humanity that is different from the rest of, dare I say, creation. That is why, perhaps, we almost universally revere human life, even deeply-flawed human life. I have made the introspective search, and I have concluded that God exists. I understand others disagree, or don't (yet) believe. There are countless people, over many centuries, who believe as I do. Some are far more intelligent than I, some not so bright.
Whether God exists or not may not be provable, but it seems to me to be a question worthy of more consideration than is often given to it on these boards.
b
There is something more out there, a vast cosmos even bigger than what we can see with our best instruments. Could there be gods out there? Sure, but that does nothing to support the various claims being made of gods actually being real. The time to start believing in actual gods is when there is solid evidence to support that belief, at least if you are looking at it rationally.
It's up to the individual to find purpose in their lives. Why would anyone want to be told by someone else what that "purpose" is? It goes against the idea that we have free will, doesn't it?
Regarding the supposed "afterlife", why limit it to just one then? Why not dream of a life after serving God in heaven for a few billion years? I can't imagine any thinking person remaining happy in a place while knowing that good people are being tortured just because of what they couldn't make themselves believe in. Therefore, heaven cannot be "perfection", and some other level ought to exist above that one.
Ben, you raise good questions. On the question of rational consideration of God's existence, I differ a bit. Humans are generally rational creatures, but we are not SOLELY rational. We have feelings, intuition, emotions, etc. As posted in response to Doc Vestibule:
There is something about humanity that is different from the rest of, dare I say, creation. That is why, perhaps, we almost universally revere human life, even deeply-flawed human life. I have made the introspective search, and I have concluded that God exists. I understand others disagree, or don't (yet) believe. There are countless people, over many centuries, who believe as I do. Some are far more intelligent than I, some not so bright.
Whether God exists or not may not be provable, but it seems to me to be a question worthy of more consideration than is often given to it on these boards.
nclaw441
Few people regret any rational decisions they have ever made, even ones that turned out to be the incorrect ones. No, the decisions that people end up regretting are the irrational ones, like marrying the first person you ever fell in love with, even though you knew that you two didn't share the same values; buying a house you knew you couldn't really afford; or investing in a scheme that you knew sounded too good to actually be true.
From my own experience I regret once believing in a God that I knew there wasn't any rational reason to believe existed. I feel like I was conned into selfishly wanting something to be true that I knew, deep down, was actually too good to be true. I ignored my better judgement for a long time, and those are years that I regret. They cost me a lot of friendships, and led me to believe in some ridiculous and even bigoted things. It's clear to me now that I was acting irrationally back then.
Whether God exists may not seem provable to you, but most definitions of the Christian God being omni-everything, allowing free will, but not doing anything about evil are just too illogical to be true. If something so irrational were to still somehow exist then I cannot see how any rational being would blame me for not believing in it. If God turns out to be real, and irrational enough to still punish people for not believing in something as irrational as him, then he wasn't worthy of worship in the first place, and I would be OK with my decision not to toady to such a tyrant.
Lol
Where did religion come from?[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88GTUXvp-50&w=640&h=390]
I already rebutted this on page 12. Reposting the video isn't going to automatically make it right. The video is complete conjecture based on ignorance of the facts.
All forms of false worship began in Genesis 10:1-11:1-9 at the Tower of Babel… The city of Babylon was founded by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah: (NoahHamCushNimrod, Genesis 10:1-8). There, he established false worship in the form of polytheism that corrupted his subjects’ original faith in the God in Genesis.
Nimrod’s wife was named Semiramis, and because Nimrod founded all of these false religions, she was deified, and became the high priestess of them all. The Tower that they built there in Babel was the first idol ever formed, and it became the object of men's worship: the very point of their pride. From there spawned a complex system of weird, strange religions, many of which are still continually practiced in our world today. All of these false cults we now know collectively as the Babylonian Mystery Religions. (Revelation 17:5)
The deified Semiramis became known in Assyria and Nineveh as Ishtar. In Phoenicia she was called Ashteroth, in Egypt, Isis, in Greece, Aphrodite and in Rome she was called Venus. (The different names due to God separating the languages there at Babel) According to their beliefs, Semiramis was born of a fish-goddess and raised by doves; she was therefore given the status of virgin birth. Later, Nimrod was killed and she being pregnant with his child at the time, later gave birth to a son and named him Tammuz, but since her husband was dead, she said that he had no human father and that he was instead implanted by a sunbeam – this was an effort to fulfill the “seed” prophecy in Genesis. (Genesis 3:15) Thus, Tammuz was virgin born, and Semiramis was a perpetual virgin.
When Tammuz was grown, he was attacked and killed by a wild boar, and Semiramis went into deep mourning for 40 days; she prayed and wept and denied herself, and on the 40th day, Tammuz arose from the dead. This 40 day period of fasting and mourning for Tammuz later became known as Lent. (“Lent” comes from the Old English word “lencten,” and “lengten” which literally means to lengthen, referring to the spring season and the lengthening of the daylight hours) and was so named due to the season that the ritual mourning took place.
When God scattered all of the people from Babel by confusing all of their languages, (Genesis 11:1-9) they took this false worship with them, which is why versions of it can be found all over the world. It stayed in Rome until Christianity finally reached there and the two systems were mixed.
The form of religion there in Rome would eventually become a combination of pagan Babylonian cultism and the New Testament. In order to conciliate the pagans and to draw them into nominal Christianity, the Roman church amalgamated the festivals of Christianity with pagan festivals; and since the church celebrated the resurrection around April and May, and the pagan Lent was celebrated in May or June in Egypt, and in April in Britain, it fit well with the resurrection; and so they brought it together to marry the pagans with the church; and the Council of Orillia in 519 AD decreed that Lent should solemnly be attached to the resurrection and kept before its celebration.
Because Lent originates from the pagan practice of the 40 days of weeping and self-denial for the resurrection of Tammuz, it has absolutely no connection with Jesus Christ or the New Testament whatsoever. In Ezekiel 8:13-14, we see this practice where women are weeping for Tammuz, and it is called an abomination to the LORD.
In this story we have the basis of all false religions all over the world. Tammuz went by many names after all of the languages were introduced; in Samaria, he was known as Gilgamesh, in Phoenicia, his name was Baal, in Egypt, Osiris, in Greece, Eros, (also Adonis), in Rome, Cupid. It's all the same mother/child cult that's been going on through the systems of religion since Genesis 10. And, strangely enough, when God brought the reality of Mary and Jesus, the whole pagan system got tangled up in it and produced what we now know as Roman Catholicism.
And you would never consider that possibility that any of that is fiction? Actually, Lawrence, I'm curious. Would God ever inspire a story that isn't literal truth – divinely inspired fiction that serves it some purpose, but that it doesn't want or expect people to take as relating true events?
Tom, we discussed this in our Sunday School class a little last week. It certainly COULD be literal truth, but my own take is that it may be illustrative to explain to an audience that still believed the earth was flat and very limited geographically, an audience that lacked any level of education, in response to a question about all of the races and languages on earth. When your 5 year old asks you where babies come from, you point to Mommy's tummy and say they come from there. This is usually enough for some time.
Whether the story is literally true or not, it contains great truths, not unlike Christ's parables, or even Mark Twain's story of Tom Sawyer white-washing the fence.
LofA
If only 8 people survived the Noah flood story, how many could of possibly have populated Babel? How long after the flood myth did the tower of Babel myth happen? Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah as you stated so how many offspring would there be in such a short time period. Topher ducked this line of questions yesterday, give it a try Lof A.
I won't duck the question, but I won't presume to know exactly what the population was either, and here's why...
What people tend to do when studying events like this is to assume that events that occurred in the past must have occurred in the same way that they do today. Can we even make that assumption? After all, God commanded both Adam and Eve, and Noah and his family to "fill the earth," so I don't think that we can restrict them to 2.7 kids and a dog. They knew that their survival depended upon God's command to fill the earth, so their population could have taken off in a "J" curve. But who knows for sure what the population was?
More importantly, who knows for sure if any god exists?
You got to be a NimRod to believe it.
Because the existence of creation demands the existence of a creator. Why "something" exists rather than "nothing" is proof of God's existence.
What qualifies as the "creation" that might imply God?
Tom,
Creation is time, space, and matter.
OKfine,
I guess the question that needs to be asked is how many people are needed to build a ziggurat? Because that's what it was, a building designed to be a spiritual path to the heavens – an idol of false worship. And it may not even have been very large. Could a few dozen people have built it? Probably quite easily...
So how did God come into existence, Larry?
Doris,
God is "from everlasting to everlasting" to quote scripture. God always was, and was not created.
Our universe isn't eternal, since it displays many qualities of mutability, therefore, something that is eternal and outside the boundaries of our universe must exist in order to be its source.
Lawrence Krauss ("Atom" and "A Universe from Nothing") can explain the formation of the universe from just after the Big Bang better than the crap in The Babble, with no gods required.
it seems like the standard christian schtick goes something like this
"something created us, therefore jeebus died for your sins"
not even evel knievel would attempt to jump that logical chasm
LofA, what support (evidence, proof, not just more words) do you have for your claims? I don't think you have any. You are just clinging to crap that you need to make your god delusion work.
Why would you think what men wrote about thousands of years ago about the characteristics of a creator would be reasonable, given all the other crazy things people thought back then – even crazy things about concepts much closer to our existence?
Oh sorry, that last question was for Larry.
LofA
So apparently these "humans" were breeding like rabbits with their close relatives, siblings and cousins to cause a J curve. of population growth. Of course the whole book of genesis is unbelievable. For example a descendant of Shem, about 8 generations, Abram goes on a walk about and finds civilizations in Canaan, then goes into Egypt where there is a Pharaoh as head of the country. There is no logical way to explain the ridiculousness of the stories and timelines other the the god did it line. Wow can you expect educates people to believe such nonsense?
Hot Air,
If at any point in time, absolutely nothing existed, then nothing would ever exist. Out of nothing, nothing comes.
To say that something could come from nothing is complete conjecture – no experiment ever devised could ever demonstrate that something can come from nothing because once you have something, you can't get nothing, even a vacuum and space is something...
OKfine,
Because you're assuming again... How many people does it take to form a civilization?A million? A thousand? A hundred? If a group of people are separated by language and geographic region, why wouldn't you call them a civilization?
LofA, you and I both agree that the universe we observe came from some "thing" else. What recquires that "thing" to be your God?
Have you listened to or read Krauss? Get back to us when you have. Or more importantly, publish a scholarly article proving that he is wrong and that some god did it. Or provide a single reference to an article in a reputable scientific journal that successfully concludes with "some god did it.". We're waiting. Please don't disappoint again.
Larry – what would be your proof that, going backward, there was a point beyond which time did not exist?
Actually, for the context of my last question, instead of "beyond which time did not exist", instead use "beyond which the passing of time was not as it is now".
Larry doesn't need any proof because Larry doesn't have any proof, for any of the insanity he thinks is true. I expect he will go silent soon.
HotAir,
If I go silent it's because I have to work.
And I'm sorry, but Krausse must suspend logic and reason in order to posit that something can come from nothing. (ex nihilo, nihil fit is an axiom) Further, there is no test for any of his ideas since you can't create a "nothing" scenario out of which "something" is to come, outside of math that is, and math doesn't prove anything unless it aligns with observable reality.
I'll take a crack.
First, let's define our timeline –
I'm going to use the Masoretic indicatior "AM" instead of "CE" or "BCE" – this way we count up from "Creation" instead of counting backwards from the current year. We will define a "generation" as 40 years for the purposes of this exercise.
If you add up the begats in Genesis, you'll find that Noah was borns 126 years after Adam's death at age 930.
Gen 7:6 tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came, which brings us to the year 1656.
If we assume that Genesis is being told in Chronological order, the Babel incident happened before Abraham came onto the scene in 1948AM – Gen 11 starts with Babel and ends with Abraham.
So there you have it!
1948 – 1656 = 292
The Bible says that Noah didn't have any more kids after the flood, so that leaves us 3 breeding pairs of humans.
For the next part of this we need to make a few more assumptions – chalk it up to God's magic if you like.
a) Infant mortality is a non-issue b) inbreeding isn't a problem c) women start squirting out pups at age 13 d) everybody lives a really, really long time (remember, Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened) e) a generous estimated population growth rate of 3%
So, we need to calculate growth based on initial population ( P ), growth rate ( R ), and number of years ( Y ).
The formula looks like this: ((1+R) ^ Y) * P
Plug in our numbers:
((1+0.03) ^292)*6 = 33622
So there you go.
When God has His hissy fit and wrecked the Tower of Babel, He sowed the seeds of confusion and strife amongst human beings forever more by splitting those 35000 or so people into all the different cultures and races we see now, a mere few thousand years later.
Larry, you clearly have not listened to or read Krauss. I don't think you have the guts nor the intellect to. Nor can you find a single credible scientist in a reputable scientific journal who successfully concludes that a god had anything to do with creating anything. You are completely without facts. Your entire argument is based on unproven supernatural crap in The Babble.
Goodness, doc. Now mama k's going to have to apply 2nd espresso directly to her forehead before reading that, lol. I'd still like my first question answered by Mr. Larry.
Larry doesn't answer questions. He merely flails away with The Babble.
Actually it was the second one I'd like Larry to answer – this one:
Why would you think what men wrote about thousands of years ago about the characteristics of a creator would be reasonable, given all the other crazy things people thought back then – even crazy things about concepts much closer to our existence?
The great problem is, however, that if you continue the trend for another 4,000 ish years, you wind up with a population of around 1.3 billion – much lower than our actual current population.
LofA: "God is "from everlasting to everlasting" to quote scripture." So your god has always been and always will be... because it says so in his book? Hardly persuasive. You realize any religion can "prove" their points the same way, right?
OKfine– This kind of question is not too different from the practical question about who Cain and Abel married. And where did Cain go after he left in shame following the murder of Abel? My take is that the Bible tells us lots of things, but not everything. There is very little about Jesus' upbringing and life from age 12 or so until the beginning of His ministry.
Well LofA when you Topher, L4H, et al use a line as you did above "conjecture base on the ignorance of the facts" then proceed to provide nothing but creationist christian apologetics based on ignoring or revising history and science, the hypocrisy is astounding.
@ Lawrence – It's unfortunate that alternative hypotheses upset you. Your response failed to persuade me differently on some of the most intriguing facts presented by the video. Christianity copied an ancient Egyptian myth – it makes sense to me. They're co-located, connected, and what's more, the Egyptian religion has been verified by numerous non-religious scholars...people who don't have skin in the game. Again, if the group of people that sat down to discuss and vote on the various stories to be included in the Bible could have seen the future, they would have done things differently, starting with leaving out the entire Old Testament. Open your mind, the truth shall set you free.
"When God scattered all of the people from Babel by confusing all of their languages, (Genesis 11:1-9) they took this false worship with them, which is why versions of it can be found all over the world."
It seems God didn't really think through the the possible results of his actions very well–or did he want this false worship spread all over the world?
You'd think that folk like Topher would be fighting tooth and nail against the proliferation of the Internet.
Instant, global communication is enabling us to rise above the "Curse of Babel".
Especially in the scientific community, people from all cultures and languages work together towards a common goal and we all know how much God hates that.
Google translate is the tool of Satan!
False religions started once, and would likely start again, irrespective of whether this particular false religion was transported along with the people.
Assuming that all religions worship one or more supernatural gods, they are all false because there is no evidence for even just one god.
Nclaw – Have you noticed in the Bible how quickly and easily these "false" religions spring up? Seems God didn't make his presence, purpose, power, or wishes very apparent even in the very early days; otherwise, why would anyone bother coming up with different false and powerless gods?
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES.
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
TORTURES SUITs SUB CONTRATED
I don't think you really mean what you're saying here. Unless maybe you are saying someone's making smores for some robots perhaps.
There was an episode of Northern Exposure that involved something like this. Perhaps it's a flashback.
A flashback.. oh I see, maybe they are not talking about a desert, but rather referencing a recipe method for sort of a robot-digestible version of baby-back ribs.
Could be.
FLASH FATBACK ONLY PLEASE . . .
HUMANS MELTED TO SATELITES WITH MICROOWAVES
Jesus, often imitated, never duplicated.
and likely never existed...
and yet our entire calendar, used by nearly everyone in the world, references His birth date.
Stop being disingenuous–you know why that is, right?
nclaw,
If you are talking about the A.D./B.C. deal:
The B.C./A.D. dating system was the brainchild of a monk named Dionysius in the 6th century. The Church was very, very powerful in those days and controlled many aspects of society, including politics, economics, literature and history-writing... still, his dating system took hundreds of years (nearly 1000) to be inst-ituted world-wide as a standard for convenience/clarity in communication. Many cultures still keep their ancient calendars going on the side.
nclaw,
Also, you should note:
Every week (52 times per year) in English-speaking places we have:
Tuesday = Tiu's day (Norse god)
Wednesday = Woden's day (Norse god)
Thursday = Thor's day (Norse god)
Friday = Frigga's day (Norse goddess)
Saturday = Saturn's day (Roman god)
Sunday and Monday = honor the Sun and the Moon
And every year:
January = in honor of Janus (Roman god)
February = Roman purification rite, februa
March = in honor of Mars (Roman god)
April = in honor of Aphrodite (Greek goddess)
May = in honor of Maia (Roman goddess)
June = in honor of Juno (Roman goddess)
The rest honor a couple of Roman Emperors or come from Roman numbers.
(Other languages run in similar veins)
What's this? American Jews are about to loose their religion on the world?
I think you have a lot to learn about life.
Look at the world around you. 95% of the world doesn't have as much money as you do. Are you saying that a person has to make more money that 95% of the world to be happy? What does that say about the world, that happiness is a hopeless prospect? That the rest of us are all doomed to misery?
Never, for one second, let yourself believe that what you do is any more significant than what the rest of the world is doing just because you wear a business suit and make more money. You're yet another cog in the giant Earth machine. Any and every cog is dispensable. You are a speck on the Earth, which in turn is less than a speck in the scope of the universe. We are all insignificant using this standard. So what does it make sense to do? Use your own scale. Evaluate what makes you happy, and follow it. For some, that means high-level executive. For some, it means bus driver. Find the courage to eschew what everyone tells you you must do, because if you look back on an unfulfilling life, you will not be able to blame anyone but yourself.
Me? I'm content. I work with people I like. I like the fact that I'm paid to be friendly to people, not selling someone out of their retirement benefits, or serving as a detriment to the quality of life of the people who work for me. Sure, there are times I wished I had more money. But then I realize that I'm even more glad that I am at least my own person who knows what I need to make myself happy.
I love my neighbor as myself. Thats all I need to be happy!
Wow, another "Group X" is losing their religion article from CNN. If you want news that slams or puts down religion, CNN is for you!
How is stating the facts a put down? How many "the current Pope-A-Dope is a great guy" articles have there been recently, despite the fact that he continues to protect criminal pedophile priests?
C'mon Ace! You know theists are not that fond of facts....
You are correct, but in addition to being open-minded and peaceful, I maintain hope that even the most delusional can escape their cult.
How is reporting a Pew Poll slamming anything at all?
_____
No, because the judeo-christian-islamic ... http://www.GODisIMAGINARY.com
and THANK GOODNESS because he emanates from the ... http://www.EVILbible.com
_____
My favorite religious systems include Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism! If I had to pick just one it would be so hard to choose because they're all so great!!!
Normally, I like buddhism, but at the moment I am partial to rastafari
stanky weed patches r 2 die 4
oh, look, the lawsuit troll
What is it that you like about Judaism?
What is it that you like about Christianity?
What is it that you like most about Buddhism?
People.
Open-mindedness.
Peacefulness.
Those characteristics might apply to one out of three, likely to the least delusional one.
Define "Peacefulness"
peacefulness – undisturbed by disagreements
Well that eliminates judaism and christianity.
Sadly, both Cambodia and Burma have a large Buddhist population and there is not an indication of peacefulness there.
never been there, never going
HotAirAce you have no place to comment on the matter of open mindedness and peacefulness
Wrong! I am completely open to facts and am very peaceful – never been in a serious fight or arrested for any violent acts. You on the other hand seem to spew inane generalities and don't seem to react well to criticism.
All those qualities are great, but people change all the time, 'open-mindedness' is a relative term . Religions are just labels and mean nothing intrinsically.The bigger question every being has to ask oneself is what happens to the "soul" on death?
Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism as religions cannot offer peacefulness, it comes from one source, the Prince of Peace!
Who is this Prince of Peace you speak of?
HotAirAce i am going to feed you your heart
===quote==
Pam
never been there, never going
==end===
"I'll just focus on the things I want to see as "beautiful and peaceful" and ignore the rest." << - Typical of the mentality of the ignorant.
One has to guess that "Wilson" is probably referring to Isaiah 9:6
Pam, I thought you valued open-mindedness and peacefulness. You are beginning to sound like a typical hypocritical believer, with limited writing skills.
Quit talking like a lil' biatch.
Perhaps Wilson means the Price of Peas.
Whats the best decade of all! I think it was the 1980's.
Hmm. What do you mean by that? Is 1980 possessive of something?
what?
Well, clearly your placement of an apostrophe in "1980's" indicates that it's possessive somehow. Perhaps you meant to say "1980s"?
No its the 1980's!
That would be the case if we referred to 1980 as "the 1980", and we were talking about that year being in possession of something. You dolt.
1980 STOLE MY TOOTHBRUSH
IT'S 1980'S TOOTHBRUSH NOW
Exactly. Perfect example, thank you.
You guys are stupid Jerks! Grammer isnt what matters!
And clearly spelling doesn't matter either. What are the chances Pam can add 1 + 1 and get the right answer.
but you know what im trying to say!!!!!
Are we having fun with a modified ad hominem fallacy tonight...attacking a person's gammar?
True. But if you walked up to me and asked me which decade was the best while wearing your underwear on your head, I wouldn't really care what you're trying to say. I'd smack your fat butt for wearing underwear on your head.
I reckon you done gots more gooder grammer then i has.
The eighties was the era of Falwell's "moral majority", Reaganomic deregulation that has enabled the ridiculous wealth iniquity with which we live, Aunt Nancy's "Just Say No" campaign, Tipper Gore and PMRC Posse, US interventions both covert and overt all over South America and the middle east to try and grab oil, and, lest we forget – the soulless lurching that was "The Safety Dance".
A being for which I have no proof just told me that believers are worse spellers than non-believers. There is plenty of evidence above but it would be improper to attack my deeply held beliefs given to me directly from my very own invisible friend.
Doc, I thinks "Come On, Eileen" was much, much worse. Other than that, you're spot on.
Actually, Australian rock music peaked in the 80s. Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Icehouse.....
I liked Ice House. Split Enz, also.
As long as we're weighing in on bad 80's music, look no further than We Built This City by Starship.
I guess grammar doesn't matter to you if you're a cretin who doesn't place priority on being respectful of the people you're talking to.
Akira, we have a bad habbit of misappropriating New Zealend achievements as our own and Split Enz is a good example. They were a NZ band. So is Russel Crowe. His brother played cricket for New Zealand.
Colin, apologies. Meant no disrespect. Still awesome, no matter what country they hail from.
Midwest rail: that's when Starship officially jumped the shark, IMO. (Shudders)
Was OMD in the 80s? I forget – I like them.
Oh – the Sundays
Simple Minds
Tears for Fears
the Pixies
Men at Work
Blondie
LOL! oh but there's so much more – that was a fun era.
I'll leave my 80's R&B and jazz off here or I'd be here all night. lol.
and the Tom Tom Club!
Oops – last one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGKTUtrDv-4
There should be more posts about grammar in this thread. It was getting all 14-year-old-girl-drama-y up in here.
True, Cpt. I would much rather be corrected than just keeping doing something over and over without realizing it.
Oh goodness. I lied. Just one more – I forgot my old pal Joe and Archie would smack me if he knew people were talking about music and I didn't include this. This one comes more from his "Steppin' Out" era:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awwz1IsCKeY
For some of us, the 80s WERE Metallica!!!!!
Dippy– the word "don't" contains an apostrophe. Is it possessive? You're just being silly (see the apostrophe? What is your problem? (See the lack of apostrophe?))
nclaw,
Apostrophes are used to designate possessive words and ALSO at other times to signify omitted letters.
The apostrophe in the word "don't" stands for the left-out letter "o" in "not". In the word "it's" the apostrophe stands for the missing letter "i" in "is" (or the missing "ha" in "has" - "It's been a long day."). In your example what would an apostrophe stand for in 1980's? 1980 is? 1980 has?
"They've come with something new. It's complicated and I don't know what to say."
"Did you pray about it?"
"Yes, and wherever I opened the Bible there wasn't anything I could use."
"OK, let's make something up up."
"Wouldn't that be like lying?"
"It could be except when you do it for Jesus it's not."
"What do you mean? Why not?"
"When go to think up something for Him, Jesus puts it in your mind. When that happens it's true no matter what."
"OK let's do it."
"For Jesus."
Wow, that was some of the biggest bs I've seen on here in quite a while.
Can you create other conversations about topics no one is talking about between you and yourself?
Jesus: Mom, I have no gods.
Mary: Now Jesus, if you want to have a God you have to be a God.
This article says that Jewish people are losing their religion but it doesn't say they stop believing in God.
don't use logic like that on atheists ... you'll only frighten them!
what did his comment have to do with atheism?
More likely give them a good laugh. After all, we've all lost our religion as well. 😉
Don't imply the obvious, you'll confuse the theists.
_____
No, because the judeo-christian-islamic ... http://www.GODisIMAGINARY.com
and THANK GOODNESS because he emanates from the ... http://www.EVILbible.com
_____
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkCkKK_tOfQ&feature=player_detailpage
Is this supposed to be a bad thing? People of all stripes are becoming less religious, because religion is folklore and mythology and there is no evidence that any religion is based in fact. If there's no evidence, it's false. Anyone who has lived in the real world for any length of time should understand that. It is not enough that it's been passed down through generations. The only reason people would believe in patently false things is because they are rationalizing, not rational.
Okay, this part cracked me up...
"Nearly a third of American Jews born after 2000 answered “none” when asked about their religious affiliation, suggesting that Jewish “nones” are not only a large group, they’re growing, Smith said."
Well, the oldest is 13...what do they expect?
'Nearly 100% of those born after 2010, when asked, said 'I want a cookie.'
LOL good.
I guess I will read the article now.
although it could be suggesting the parents of those born after 2000 are 'nones' since children are usually the religion of their parents. in other words, it seems logical to think a 13 year old that describes him/herself as non-religious has parents that describe themselves as non-religious and don't go to church/temple. so it really says something more about the household they are being raised in.
You need to look at the graphs, where 1980 seems to be the earliest birth date.
Sigh. I know; which is why I cracked up at the passage; apparently the author didn't bother to look.
The source survey says the parents were asked about how they were raising their children. Still a mistake by the author of this article.
Ok evangelicals – provide me your proof that the earth is 6000 years old.
christians are allergic to evidence and facts - you're asking too much.
Allergic? You are being too kind. More like terrified the way Dracula is terrified of sun light, but that's a whole other myth. Ok, I concede – there's more evidence for Dracula than for any god or a divine jesus.
dracula: rebirth through blood
christianity: rebirth through the blood of jesus
kind of amusing, if you think about it
The great phenomenom of our time is the general secularism.
What is its origin?
In the beginning of the dark age the Christian Church in the West had degenerated, and was than the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church prevailed up to the time of enlightenment in the 18th century (alone Luther's Reformation was not enough to dethrone the RCC). The Roman Catholic Church stressed extremly some outside rituals like praying a rosary, keeping some fasting days, making some pilgrimages, eating the host at Sunday, etc., but the RCC teached little about love and righteousness in daily life. The promoters of enlightenment realized that the worship of the Highest Being must be connectet with love of neighbour in daily life. This was probably the beginning of secularism. The ordinary people realized that the RCC, and even the most Protestant Churches did not lead them to love and righteousness but even worsened the relations between people (according to Franklin).
Nobody wants to be the friend of such a bigotted idot who is member of any sect, cult or false church, and this is valid even for the Jewish community.
As also Jewish people want to have non-Jewish friends they forsake their community or religion.
The perverse side of the whole matter is that especially Jesus was not bigotted. Jesus preached exactly what was preached by the leaders of enlightenment concerning the bahaviour against the neighbour, only that Jesus added on that we cannot be kind through our natural power but only through His power.
Conclusion: Dear Jews, keep your faith, only that you may realize your Redeemer Jesus who can help you to be a nonbigotted friend of people.
http://confessingchurch.wordpress.om
Mr. Breadline, do you live in gingerbread house far away from everyone? It sure sounds like it.
"only that Jesus added on that we cannot be kind through our natural power but only through His power." So, even though Jesus was entirely human, we can't be like him?
Rain and his blah blah blah trite hatred for the RCC.
Conclusion: your faith is no more or no less valid than any other person's faith; you are just using this to steal free advertising for your website.
"......to be a nonbigotted [sic] friend of people."
And yet your whole post reeks of your bigoted attitude against Catholics. Really, you should practice what you preach.
@Rainer Braendlein, If you are only referring the European dark ages (non-greek) and believe that history begins at 500 c.e., then I could see how you might draw your conclusion. However, I assure you that there was life before that period and there were secularists long before christ was ever created.
@Rainer Braendlein, If you are only referring the European dark ages (non-greek) and believe that history begins at 500 c.e., then I could see how you might draw your conclusion. However, I assure you that there was life before that period and there were secularists long before christ was ever created.
"Conclusion: Dear Jews, keep your faith, only that you may realize your Redeemer Jesus who can help you to be a nonbigotted friend of people."
+++ that made me laugh a little, considering the racist example of jesus' "compassion" in the bible. he makes a Canaanite woman call her race "dogs" before jesus will heal her. not exactly the prince of compassion:
Mathew 15:21-28
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
making a woman, who's daughter only you can help, call her entire race "dogs" before you will help is disgusting and inhumane. but of course once jesus hears the woman call herself a dog begging for scraps, he cures the little girl and tells the woman she is worthy. cruel.
jesus also approved of slavery and said to beat disobedient slaves "with many stripes." probably shouldn't hold him up as an example of good morals/ethics.
modern ethics > biblical morals
Hahahahahahahahahahahahhahah
Oh BF
you are the funniest Atheist on this forum!
Little Timmy might not be far off base...
Conclusion: You are delusional, Rainy, and more than a wee bit pompous
Jesus is waiting for you, what are you doing down here?