1Cynfelyn
There is an interesting review of David Baddiel's new book, The god desire in today's Observer, at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/09/the-god-desire-by-david-baddiel-re..., including:
"Baddiel is 'moved by Jewish survival' over the centuries and knows that earlier generations of Jews 'survived because of their tenacity, their closed-community systems, their ability to move geographically when they needed to. But the expression of their survival was the religion… If I am moved by Jewish survival, I am moved by Judaism. There’s no getting round it.' . . . As a result, he finds it problematic when gung-ho fellow atheists 'don't grasp how intertwined religion is with ethnicity, which is also a key component of many people's identity, as well as their sense of vulnerability'."
I suppose what he is talking about is being a "cultural Jew". Which might be a slightly problematic label in the UK at least, as I seem to remember EDL-leaning white xenophobes were calling themselves "cultural Christians" only a few years ago.
Putting them firmly to one side, the only other purported ethnicity/religion mash-up that comes immediately to mind is Sikhism. Is it possible to be an atheist and a Sikh, a "cultural Sikh", or is the only Sikh a practising Sikh?
"Baddiel is 'moved by Jewish survival' over the centuries and knows that earlier generations of Jews 'survived because of their tenacity, their closed-community systems, their ability to move geographically when they needed to. But the expression of their survival was the religion… If I am moved by Jewish survival, I am moved by Judaism. There’s no getting round it.' . . . As a result, he finds it problematic when gung-ho fellow atheists 'don't grasp how intertwined religion is with ethnicity, which is also a key component of many people's identity, as well as their sense of vulnerability'."
I suppose what he is talking about is being a "cultural Jew". Which might be a slightly problematic label in the UK at least, as I seem to remember EDL-leaning white xenophobes were calling themselves "cultural Christians" only a few years ago.
Putting them firmly to one side, the only other purported ethnicity/religion mash-up that comes immediately to mind is Sikhism. Is it possible to be an atheist and a Sikh, a "cultural Sikh", or is the only Sikh a practising Sikh?
