Talks with the Secular Jew

Yesterday, I got involved in a conversation with a secular Jewish man who curiously was 'proud of his ancestors' but not happy with being 'labeled'. He also admitted that ideas of religion and G-d and antiquated folkways. Ay! Of course, these ideas are far from unique. They are almost accepted norms in this day and age; especially among Jews.

It was not a debate or butting of heads; my goal was not to convice but to have him ask himself why he thought of these things; why your college-educated based 'logic' is not purely objective. Human nature is to only find evidence which reinforces what you set out to look for; especially in subjects such as religion. If you you are an atheist - nothing you will come across in the plain text of the Torah will convice you of the existence of G-d. You must be open to see things that way.

Another 'novel idea' which was brought up is that G-d does not exist. That he is a 'mythical supernatural force' and he 'doesn't do anything'. I see Hashem do things every single day. When the sky clouds over to hide the sun and the night reveals itself to show the moon - science can explain what you see. But what is setting it into motion? Isn't is basic science that matter moves only if something initiated it in the first place? So the earth is moving - we have day and night. What started the earth moving? Oh the gravitiy of the sun. But how did the sun come into being - something caused that, true? In that approach, even something as simple as the changing from night to day cannot be explained in a finite manner through science. And supernatural? I asked him to define supernatural. "Something you cannot see or touch - that has not been proven to exist". Ok, have radio waves been proven to exist before people started 'believing' in them? You had devices which utilized these waves and would work because of these waves - yet they were not disputed to exist - although the technology to tangibly 'see' and 'feel' these waves did not exist. And until this day, there are diseases that we know exist; but we do not 'see' or 'know' the cause; yet we see the effect. To me, every day I 'see' the effect of the existence of Hashem.

The lost potential is so sad. As much as modern people like to think that we have true freedom of thought and logic it is obvious that the fatal flaw is ignoring any influence of the divine in the role of the nature of life; if anything working to disprove it. I wonder why individuals are so adamant to deny the existence of a higher power? Judaism should not come at odds with one who does not want to become 'religious' because Judaism does not ask all people to be 'religious' but simply moral by abiding by the Noahide Laws. With born Jews, you do have the issue of the guilt and negative feelings imparted from early on about their inherited status. But why the psychological stone wall put up between them and anything connected to Judaism?

He also asked me why deal with all the 'rules'; why make your life a sufferage? I equated the status of the Jew to that of a much more common entity - the woman. Do the majority of women sit back and lament about why they were born women - even though it is common knowledge that when you have children, it will be a painful and sacrificing experience? Sure you have women who want no part of having children. But you also have women who find joy and unspeakable satisfaction from motherhood. Why? Isn't being a mother 'hard'? Isn't it a more 'fun life' to constantly live with no one to worry about but yourself? Why make yourself 'suffer' unnecssarily? Obviously, there is something there that is worth it all. Just like there are some mother's who long for the days when they did not have children and life was 'easier'; you also have Orthodox Jews who lament about their lives.

It's all a matter of perspective. How we see things; as oppossed to how the world is. To the non-religious (and even some of the religous) the world they know of is only the sliver they see in their, oh let's say, 80 year life span. Only what they experience and only what knowledge know in our day is all that there is. What a loss! What a shame that they see the operations of this world and their existence in such a soul-less, mechanical nature. At least, this is what it seems like to me.

Our conversation actually was pretty amicable. I doubt I made inroad with him; but at least he could see that those who find value in religion; specifically Orthodox Jews, are not brainwashed, backward thinking kooks. Especially being that the ancestors he is 'so proud of' were Orthodox Jews themselves.