{"id":378,"date":"2012-06-01T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/06\/reform-judaism-leads-to-atheism.html"},"modified":"2012-06-01T17:06:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T17:06:00","slug":"reform-judaism-leads-to-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/06\/reform-judaism-leads-to-atheism.html","title":{"rendered":"Reform Judaism Leads To Atheism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s supposed break with Judaism has inspired a chest-beating column by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan<\/a> in The Forward:<\/p>\n

\u2026If\u2026he has lost interest in Judaism, it is much more a reflection on us than it is on him. For those in the Reform movement\u2026we need\u2026to take an accounting of our accomplishments and, as in this case, our failings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I could not find any direct quotes in which Zuckerberg disavows the God of Israel, either the omnipotent, omnipresent version or even the \u201cstill small voice within us\u201d humanistic variant, he reportedly labeled his religious beliefs on his Facebook profile as atheist.<\/p>\n

Maybe Kaplan doesn\u2019t understand atheism.\u00a0 I would think that it is obvious that it is a disavowal of all the gods, including Israel\u2019s, without regard to the bigness or smallness of their imaginary voices.<\/p>\n

He goes on to note that Zuckerberg\u2019s family was involved in a temple, went to Israel, and so on.\u00a0 Then he offers his analysis:<\/p>\n

We need to have a clear religious faith that we can convey to our young people in a way that is compelling and convincing. I have always believed that a liberal theology that overemphasizes personal autonomy is a recipe for disaster. So, too, is an exclusive focus on Jewish ethnic identity at the expense of Jewish religious belief.<\/p>\n

We failed Zuckerberg and will continue to fail young people like him because the pluralistic theologies of Reform Judaism\u2026make it difficult to grasp what we Reform Jews believe on any given issue. Our faith is too amorphous. Math and science nerds, in particular, may be the type most likely to bolt. This is ironic because one of the raisons d\u2019\u00eatre of Reform Judaism was to create an approach to Judaism that would be scholarly and scientific\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2026A bright young man like Mark Zuckerberg, raised in a serious Reform synagogue, should be a devoted Jew today. We need to ask ourselves why he is apparently not committed to the God of his ancestors, and to take drastic steps to rebuild our religious ecosystem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s Kaplan\u2019s take-away?!\u00a0 That less pluralism would have led Zuckerberg to be \u201ca devoted Jew\u201d?!<\/p>\n

Kaplan has written elsewhere about Reform\u2019s need for a unified theology and more religious observance.\u00a0 This debate has being going on in the liberal Jewish movements since their inception and it no longer interests me.<\/p>\n

What is of interest to me is that Kaplan, who has a doctorate in Jewish history, has so little understanding of atheism and its attraction to \u201cmath and science nerds\u201d or anyone else for that matter.\u00a0 If he thinks that more traditionalism and a more consistent theology is going to somehow produce more \u201cdevoted\u201d Jews among our \u201cbright young\u201d people, he is completely out of touch with reality.<\/p>\n

Jews who are alienated from religious ideologies did not arrive at their conclusions because no one explained them to us clearly enough.\u00a0 Nor is it a result of Reform Judaism\u2019s lack of unity or skimpy religious demands.<\/p>\n

We Jewish atheists arrived at our position because we are heirs to a skeptical and analytical educational tradition.\u00a0 When we abandon or reject theologies \u2013 no matter how supposedly progressive \u2013 it is a natural outcome of our education.\u00a0 What Kaplan prescribes is the opposite of education.\u00a0 He wants more indoctrination.<\/p>\n

I am not an atheist because I reject my Jewish heritage.\u00a0 While I can\u2019t speak for him, Zuckerberg clearly feels some connection to it.\u00a0 He was a member of a Jewish fraternity.\u00a0 He just personally signed up Shimon Peres for a Facebook account.<\/a>\u00a0 These are not the acts of someone turning his back on the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

We former Reform Jews who have become atheists are not an example of the failure of Reform Judaism.\u00a0 We are examples of its success.\u00a0 As Kaplan himself writes, \u201cOne of the raisons d\u2019\u00eatre of Reform Judaism was to create an approach to Judaism that would be scholarly and scientific.\u201d<\/p>\n

We simply took the scholarship and science to their practical and inevitable conclusions.<\/p>\n

Were we not supposed to do that?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s supposed break with Judaism has inspired a chest-beating column by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan in The Forward: \u2026If\u2026he has lost interest in Judaism, it is much more a reflection on us than it is on him. For those in the Reform movement\u2026we need\u2026to take an accounting of our accomplishments and, as in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,24,25],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies"],"yoast_head":"\nReform Judaism Leads To Atheism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s supposed break with Judaism has inspired a chest-beating column by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan in The Forward: ...If...he has lost interest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/06\/reform-judaism-leads-to-atheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reform Judaism Leads To Atheism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s supposed break with Judaism has inspired a chest-beating column by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan in The Forward: ...If...he has lost interest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/06\/reform-judaism-leads-to-atheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-01T17:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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