Ask Secularbeliever

[Secularbeliever]

I feel vain as this post implies people care about my opinion but if anyone would like to discuss any topic with me feel free.

[Historical Truth]

Okay, I'll bite:

        Why do you call yourself Secular Believer?

[Moshe92]

I saw in your first or second post that you said you were in the JDL. During what decade was that?

[Secularbeliever]

Historical Truth, I am a believer in things that make sense and that I can see.  I believe very strongly in the uniqueness and destiny of the Jewish people.  Thousands of years of an amazing history shows me that we are more than just another ethnic group or even just another nation.  I do not believe in things I cannot see or understand.  So while I have great respect for Orthodox Jews (and believe it is extemely important and very feasible for the two groups to work together) I don't follow all the rules of Orthodox Judaism.  a couple of years ago I had dinner at the home of the local Chabad Rabbi.  He stated that he believes that the Earth is literally only a few thousand years old as the Bible says.  I gave him multiple opportunities to reconsider what I considered an absurd view.  I asked him if the six days in which the Earth was created might represent six geological eras (an idea presented by a high school science teacher I had).  He bluntly said no, that he believed in the Torah and he wasn't going to change his mind just because science disagreed.

That is the point at which I part philosophical company with religious people.  I trust what is proven and what is demonstrable over that which someone else tells me.  I believe in G-d but I have no idea what G-d is like or what to expect from G-d.  I believe there is some unique relationship between G-d and the Jewish people but I don't know where it leads.  Jews who say Israel cannot be destroyed because of G-d's support overlook the fact that Israel has been destroyed before and that many calamities, with the worst being the Holocaust, have befallen the Jewish people.

I have no idea if there is life after death, although I kind of doubt there is.  For awhile I was impressed by the stoies of near death experiences although I met someone who had clinically died and he told me it was nothing like that for him.  I don't rule out life after death but have no particular reason to believe in it.  If there is life after death in which we can remember our lives, why is there no life before birth that we can remember?  Why would conception or birth be the beginning of everything and death not be the end of everything?

[Secularbeliever]

Moshe 92, that was in 1971 and 1972, my last two years of high school.  I went to demonstrations, went to confrontations with Blacks and Puerto Ricans.  One time we went to a presumed confrontation with Nazis.  When we got to the spot where we expected them to be, we saw two late teenages with blonde crew cuts and army fatigues.  We assumed they were the Nazis and one of our guys started pushing them and swearing at them.  They seemed totally confused by the whole thing.  Finally one of them asked "Why are you picking on us, because we are in the Army"?  Our leader said "G-d forbid, what other groups are you with"?  They said they were just new recruits at Fort Dix (I believe that was it but perhaps I am getting the name wrong, it was a base in New Jersey) and this was their first leave.  We all apologized to them and shook hands with them.  Obviously there were much more serious events.  I was in JDL when the bombing of Sol Hurok's office killed his young Jewish secretary.  That was sort of the beginning of the end of my JDL experience.   

[Moshe92]

Why else did you leave the JDL?

[Secularbeliever]

Moshe, I never totally "left" but I went away to school and just drifted away from it.  I was out of New York City (while there was a Jewish population where I went, there was no JDL) and developed other interests.