A Letter to My Mother and Other Theists
I’m an agnostic/atheist. I don’t think it’s possible to know if there’s a god or not. But from the evidence my choice is atheist. But it’s not a fun place to be. So to anyone who’s faith is hurt by my writings on religious scholarship, I wrote this recently to my mother
I think if you want to believe in Judaism you should know what Judaism actually is, mostly from actually reading the bible. Same as if someone wants to be Christian they should know what’s in their bible, who wrote it and where it conflicts with other books.
I don’t think it’s possible to know if there is a god. I think the evidence weighs against it and have since I was 13 (freshman year I met my first atheist (XXXXX from cross country) and became an atheist shortly thereafter. He didn’t convert me, just I’d never heard anyone say they were one in real life and it appealed to me.
But I’d like to think there is some god, non denominational, who punishes selfish people and rewards kind people based on their conduct in life, not based on what candles they lit, words they said, or animals they sacrificed. Any Jewish person from the year 70 Ad or earlier (the Maccabees, David, Solomon, Ruth) would look at you like you were crazy if you tried to tell them you were Jewish and never sacrificed a goat or a lamb ;)
And I think it’s possible that such a god exists but people can’t see that clearly and make up their own version of religion to celebrate such being. Like the 3 blind men and the elephant. One says an elephant is like a snake when he touched the trunk, another said it was like a tree when he touched the leg etc.
I would like there to be an afterlife and I don’t want to dissuade you from believing in one. It’s not very fun being an atheist and don’t recommend it. But the old testament god is not the kind god who rewards kindness and punishes selfishness. Though the bible does say that the wisest man who ever lived had 300 wives and 900 concubines so it clearly onto something in a few places. And the part about not trusting any woman who tells you how to cut your hair…
