Comments on: A (Weak) Critique of my Godless Jews Series

By: Yakira

Yakira — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:25:57 +0000

Terry, you make me laugh!!!..so funny, this one and don’t worry Roi, I take the cake on being weird.

By: godlessjew

godlessjew — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:28:04 +0000

Nice comments Terry. And Yakira, yes, I am a weird agnostic.

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:14:18 +0000

“Secularism is one thing, but trumpeting atheism so determinedly seems a little too triumphalistic.”

Well, first of all, you don’t even play the trumpet. Second, noting the atheistic/agnostic tendencies of a handful of Jewish intellectuals hardly qualifies as triumphalistic. Third, if you were in fact acting triumphalistically, then by all means you should blow a trumpet because brass instruments are awfully well-suited to triumphant events.

“Like so many in literary and academic circles these days, Ben-Yehuda seems to overstate his case out of a need to counteract the seeming triumphs of the opposition.”

Again with the triumphs?

Seriously though, the opposition doesn’t have any triumphs. They have thousands of years of insinuating themselves and their beliefs into people’s lives. Agnostics are playing catch-up now in the literary world and overstatement of their case is only expected. Overstatement has worked well for religious zealots for centuries.

So, Ben-Yehuda, in the interest of “counteracting the seeming triumphs of the opposition” go ahead and blow that trumpet. We’re listening.

By: gabsybabsu

gabsybabsu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:02:54 +0000

I hope Rober Leiter will read your smart response to his not smart comments. Assuming that you are atheist because you write about atheists? who is missing in the list as he said so? aggressiveness where? I think he should explain himself more fully.

By: Yakira

Yakira — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:40:28 +0000

ag·nos·tic / Pronunciation[ag-nos-tik] Pronunciation Key
–noun 1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
–adjective 3. of or pertaining to agnostics or agnosticism.
4. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.
[Origin: < Gk ágnōst(os), var. of ágnōtos not known, incapable of being known (a- a-6 + gnōtós known, adj. deriv. from base of gignskein to know) + -ic, after gnostic; said to have been coined by T.H. Huxley in 1869]

You are a unique agnostic, as you pray and meditate at the wall, keeping religious traditions, but some traditions we keep because they were born within us, some we keep from familiarity, but a wise person knows which traditions to reject from instinct. Shabbat Shalom

By: R

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:22:41 +0000

Love it – you’re too “aggressive” but this guy gets to take centuries of intellectual history and determine who is “smart enough”. Ay carumba.