From: shimoff@umbc4.umbc.edu (Eliot Shimoff)
Subject: Re: Why I became an Athiest (was: frustrations with christianity)
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 13:43:03 GMT

In article <RLK.92Dec18182618@underprize.think.com> rlk@underprize.think.com (Robert Krawitz) writes:

>
>In article <1992Dec18.162650.20	051@umbc3.umbc.edu> shimoff@umbc4.umbc.edu (Eliot Shimoff) writes:
>
>   Maddi's initial posting suggested that the reason she adopted atheism
>   was that she found her family's practice of Judaism unsatisfactory.
>
>This doesn't strike me as too different from one who becomes religious
>because she feels that there "has to be something out there".

I agree.  

>
>   Maddi's statement was, however, less compelling.  She did not (so
>   far as I can tell) study Judaism intensely.  Instead, she adopted
>   atheism based primarily on very limited exposure to serious Judaism.
>   Using that as a rationale for atheism does a disservice to atheism
>   as well as to Judaism. 
>
>Perhaps.  In my case, I simply found religious observance unappealing,
>then as I thought about it more I decided that there was less and less
>reason to believe in a god.  And religious practice without belief
>struck me as pointless.
>
>That's not so for everyone -- my immediate family is fairly to very
>observant, and one very interesting fellow that I had the pleasure to
>meet was an Orthodox rabbi (at the time), yet was also a skeptic.  So
>it's quite possible to start from very similar initial information and
>come to entirely different conclusions.  Many of the regulars on
>alt.atheism do come from religious backgrounds (and very few are of
>Jewish background -- as near as I can tell, Maddi and I are the only
>"regulars" on that newsgroup who are), and most of them lost their
>belief only after a lot of consideration.  Indeed, many of them can
>quote the bible as well as the regular evangelical invaders (which we've
>recently had the distinct displeasure of meeting here).

Sorry.  Evangelical Christians pop into scj regularly too.  We only
welcome evangelical Jews. :-)

>
>   Imagine what convinced atheists would say if I entered alt.atheism
>   with some weak arguments against it based on what had happened to
>   me when I was 6 or 10 or 15 years old; they would -- with justification --
>   tell me to go back and study atheism first.  (Read the alt.atheism
>   FAQ; that is exactly what they assert.)
>
>Quite true, and personally I was surprised to see Maddi's original post
>here.  I didn't think it was either necessary or a terribly good idea,
>for exactly that reason.  However, I did find the posting interesting,
>and I think that the reasons she gave were solid ones.  No one can study
>everything in depth; one has to form impressions based on limited data,
>and the data that Maddi gathered seem sufficient for someone with a
>certain world view to give up religion (or not to assume it in the first
>place).  Then again, others have no problem with the things that Maddi
>(or I) do have problems with.

Are you suggesting that the choice between religion and atheism
is fundamentally emotional, and that emotion guides the intellect?



-- 
Eliot Shimoff                  |    n   n   n
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