Jewish Atheist

Secular humanistic Jews, like the tiny handful of secular Muslims, identify with the culture but don’t believe in any of the religious fantasies. Nothing in the Torah happened, though most Jews sort of pretend that it did. Jews in fact do have a rich and fascinating history, but the Torah is not it.

The future is far more elusive than prophecy. The Mayans didn’t have a clue, and neither do we.

As many wise people have observed, life must be lived forward — but understood backward. Yet, as many others have noted, the seeds of future events can be seen, if only one knows where to look. The 9/11 report makes it quite clear that the disaster could have been prevented, but too many government officials were criminally negligent.

Much of the New Age stuff is for people who want another, perhaps more exotic kind of religion. That’s fine. More than fine. As a friend has pointed out, New Age, however wacko, may represent a traditional stage between the violent, confrontational Western religions…and none at all (look at Europe, which as Bill Maher points out, has “grown up”: atheistic/agnostic numbers are around 50% and rising).

There’s no Batman and no Savior. We’ve got to do it all ourselves, whether it’s fighting crime or repenting of our sinfulness, or, in the spirit of the season, practicing peace and good will. The bracing cold of winter reminds us of the reality that no amount of prayer will solve our problems. Spring will come when it comes.

One choice we can make is to let go of the past by looking back on it all and acknowledging how little we actually had responsibility for. This is one of the building-blocks of Moving Forward.