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I agree. I was wondering whether anyone would ask me how it's possible to be both Jewish and an atheist. If you fit that description do you want to take a crack at explaining it?

Mine's pretty much the same as NJ in the first sentence of post #4. In addition, I find that I'm learning from others while strengthening my own beliefs. Putting something in writing clarifies one's thinking. It's like being in school (which I mostly enjoyed.) In addition, I hope I'm giving...

Thomas, I responded to you in another post that disappeared. I'm going to assume that it will show up eventually as it did the last time this happened. If it doesn't I'll repost. I'm not sure what's happened. It seems that whenever I press some unknown wrong key everything I've...

Yes, I'm a humanist, too but I'm also an existentialist (in so far as I know what that means.) I don't believe the universe holds any inherent meaning for us. My only answer to "why are we here," is "There is no reason. The best we can do is find meaning in our own ways." Oh yeah, and you call...

VoiceofWood, Yes, abundant love sounds better than ascetic love to me but I doubt that it is what Thomas means. Merriam Webster online: Ascetic: practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline Abundance: a large amount of something Ascetic love...

I believe there is no God. To my understanding, an agnostic claims you can't know whether there is a God or not*. True, you can't know anything, with absolute certainty. I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again. I could be wrong about God, but I don't think so. My non-belief is 99.9%, so I...

GK, you could be right but animal behaviorists are beginning to think that some other species have a rudimentary form of morality, like the ability to show empathy. That's why I said "far exceed." But I haven't looked it up recently so I can't say for sure. OK. Now I've looked it up. If you...

Hi Brian, It's me again. This is embarrassing but please delete post #25 in the "How do you fine love" thread. It's in "Belief and Spirituality." Something weird happened and I thought it was deleted before I got a chance to post it. So I rewrote and improved upon it and posted it again. Now...

Re: How do you define love? This is embarrassing but please disregard my previous post #25. Something weird happened and it seemed to be deleted before I got a chance to post it. I'm quite sure it wasn't here when last checked the thread a few minutes ago. So I rewrote and improved upon it. I'm...

I think I mostly understand you, Thomas. Here's a brief summary of what I think you were saying, with some questions, in red. You defined four Greek words which can roughly be translated as love. I can see why it must be difficult to understand religious love when one word can be used in so...

Even if Adam and Eve didn't exist it's more than a silly tale. You can think of it as a myth, like Pandora's box, that tries to explain why the world is in such a mess. The answers may not be literally true but the questions are universal: Why do men and women have to work so hard to survive...

Can you clean it up and repost it? I had to do it once.

With good reason. Would the God you believe in tell you to do something that He's already defined as sin? Would He not expect you to think carefully before you act: to consider whether you are maybe hallucinating, having a bad dream, or unduly influenced by evil companions? I think your...

Who knows? Nobody, as far as I'm concerned, or only God, as others would say. There are many different interpretations to choose from. Amica cited one which claims it was Satan, not God, who appeared in Abraham's dream. I like the one which describes Abraham as confused about what God really...

Apparently Jewish/Hindu marriages are so common in my area that there is a Hindu wedding house which specializes in hosting these interfaith weddings.

There was a reality show on TLC a few years back called All American Muslim. One of the women was married to a Christian. The marriage seemed to be going fine until she had trouble conceiving and decided that she was being punished by God for not being observant enough. I don't know how things...

Amica, When you say the Qur'an is not a historical account do you mean that it is not written like a history in chronological order or the stories were told to impart moral lessons and did not necessarily happen? I suspect you mean the first, but my understanding of the words "not a...

That doesn't sound like they thought out their marriages very well.

Jewish women are allowed to marry outside the faith. They may be excluded from the strictest Orthodox communities but elsewhere in the U.S. it's a pretty common occurrence. I think the identity of your hypothetical child would depend on how the parents planned to raise him/her and eventually...

Amica, As you say, Abraham lived in a time when human sacrifice was common. People were superstitious and probably thought it would help the crops grow and make their armies victorious in battle. Once they got the idea in their heads, they needed to do it for their peace of mind. Old...