{"id":461,"date":"2011-09-15T00:58:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html"},"modified":"2011-09-15T00:58:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T00:58:00","slug":"warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html","title":{"rendered":"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual\u2026.<\/i><\/p>\n

Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade<\/a>: Finding Your 21st-Century Spirituality in Judaism\u2019s 5,000-Year-Old Tradition.\u201d\u00a0 Korngold, who is also known as\u00a0 \u201cThe Adventure Rabbi<\/a>,\u201d puts forth a theology of a non-interventionist God who is basically just an experience, and certainly not a being of any kind.\u00a0 In this she is typical of many of the liberal rabbis whom I know.\u00a0 They do not believe in a theistic deity, but they still claim a relationship with God.\u00a0 Ask them what they mean and they give non-sensical answers such as this one in the book:<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not pray to God when I pray,\u201d I explained [to a participant in one of her seminars].\u00a0 \u201cI experience <\/i>God through my prayers [emphasis in original].\u00a0 Through my voice and yours joining together, and through the timeless echoes of those who came before me, I imagine my prayers joining those of my ancestors as I speak the same words they did, layer upon layer.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does this work?\u00a0 Sometimes prayer is like a meditation.\u00a0 I repeat a Hebrew phrase over and over and suddenly find myself descending below the tumult of my life\u2026.<\/p>\n

Other times I experience God through the communal encounter.\u00a0 \u2026The shared language of prayer even (or perhaps especially) saying words in a language we do not understand, enables us to connect with each other in a unique way.\u00a0 Saying the same exact words that I know my grandmother said when she lit the Shabbat candles\u2026is another type of God experience. (pp. 108-109)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such attempts to salvage God for modern Jewish purposes are responsible for the absurdity of most current Jewish theology.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to say that you \u201cdo not pray to God\u201d when you\u2019re praying to God?\u00a0 What is it you\u2019re doing when every utterance is addressed to God?\u00a0 Every siddur (prayer book) is filled with prayers that were written by pre-modern people.\u00a0 It is true that attempts have been made by liberals to remove the most extreme irrelevancies.\u00a0 In early prayer books, the Reconstructionists whittled away references to the chosen-ness of Israel.\u00a0 Reform Jews put an end to praising God\u2019s power to resurrect and to petitions for restoration of sacrifices.\u00a0 However, today\u2019s Reconstructionist siddur has reinstated the Jews as God\u2019s chosen.\u00a0 The new Reform book has revived prayers for the\u00a0 resurrection of the dead (though translated poetically).\u00a0 Everywhere you look, liberal Jews are returning to traditional language and behavior.<\/p>\n

As for \u201csaying the same exact words that I know my grandmother said,\u201d Korngold\u2019s rationalist approach flies out the window every time she states, \u201cPraised are you, Lord our God, sovereign of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to light Shabbat candles.\u201d\u00a0 If she\u2019s not talking to God, to whom is she talking?\u00a0 Herself?\u00a0 Then why recite this formula?\u00a0 Why say things that she doesn\u2019t mean?<\/p>\n

I suppose it\u2019s related to her parenthetical comment that it may be \u201cespecially\u201d good to say prayers in a language we don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 As a lover of Hebrew, I\u2019m a little irritated that killing it off might be the key to true prayer.\u00a0 What would she say to Israelis who can\u2019t unlearn their mother tongue?\u00a0 Perhaps they could recite their non-prayers to the un-god in some ancient forgotten language so they can be like the lucky Hebrew-illiterate diaspora Jews who really experience<\/i> God.\u00a0 She is on to something, of course.\u00a0 The more people understand these prayers, the less they are interested in reciting them.<\/p>\n

Korngold also addresses the doubts we have that anything is out there at all.\u00a0 Ultimately, she believes in the experience of God, even if she can\u2019t say what the heck it is we\u2019re supposed to be experiencing.\u00a0 In one of the sillier passages in her book, she cites that great philosopher, Morgan Freeman, who hosted a Science Channel series about physics and cosmology:<\/p>\n

Having immersed himself in this world of scientific exploration and worked with hundreds of scientists, Freeman explains that scientists reach different conclusions about the origins of the universe.\u00a0 But there is one element in which they are consistent; when the scientists reach the part of cosmology that they don\u2019t understand and that is beyond their knowledge, they credit the hand of God. (p. 47)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, Morgan Freeman is one hell of an actor, but this statement proves nothing.\u00a0 The \u201cGod of the gaps\u201d theory is nonsensical whether it comes from a scientist, a theologian or an actor.\u00a0 Based upon the scientists I am familiar with, I also don\u2019t think his conclusion is accurate.\u00a0 We all should know by now that when Einstein said \u201cGod,\u201d he wasn\u2019t advocating prayer.<\/p>\n

All in all, this book is yet another attempt by an unclear thinker to address the reasonable concerns of non-theists.\u00a0 She accomplishes it by patiently explaining that prayer isn\u2019t prayer and God isn\u2019t God.\u00a0 I understand this game because I played it very well for a long time.<\/p>\n

In preparing for my upcoming holiday talks, I went back to look at the sermons I delivered before I became a humanistic rabbi.\u00a0 I was pleasantly relieved to find that I had aggressively rejected supernaturalism.\u00a0 I was not at all surprised to see that I had engaged in the same game as Korngold.\u00a0 It was in those passages that I found myself most unconvincing.\u00a0 I bet those who heard me felt the same way.<\/p>\n

Here is my challenge to those rabbis who continue to bow and shuckle and praise and petition a god in whom they don\u2019t believe.\u00a0 Look into the idea of cognitive dissonance.\u00a0 Think about how we are affected by expressing (or chanting) ideas that we do not hold.\u00a0 Reconstructionist Judaism comes to mind.\u00a0 Founded by the brilliant non-supernaturalist Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, neither he nor his movement gave up theistic language.\u00a0 As a result, for all of the writing and teaching that he did, his own movement no longer shares his philosophy.\u00a0 If speech and conviction do not match, one or the other will take over.\u00a0 (I thank my colleague, Rabbi Eva Goldfinger, for that insight.)<\/p>\n

I appreciate that Korngold and others like her are trying to preserve a connection to Judaism.\u00a0 But they are going about it the wrong way.\u00a0 The key is not to say one thing while believing another.\u00a0 It is to say what we mean and to mean what we say.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t believe in a God who is an Actor in history, stop talking to and about him that way.<\/p>\n

I can also appreciate the desire to feel connected to our grandmothers when we light candles.\u00a0 It\u2019s a ritual that Jews have performed for a long time.\u00a0 But we can preserve the meaningful rituals without parroting fossilized statements and beliefs that accompanied them.\u00a0 Our grandparents believed many things that we now understand to be superstitious nonsense.\u00a0 We\u2019re advanced enough to know that no god commanded us to light candles.\u00a0 So let\u2019s stop saying blessings written by people who had not yet arrived at that realization.<\/p>\n

In closing, I ask you to imagine for a moment that you have an infection.\u00a0 You go to your doctor who prescribes antibiotics.\u00a0 But before you leave, your physician asks that you bare your arm so that she can perform the ritual bloodletting\u00a0cupping to balance your humors.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that she believes in it, but it\u2019s a 2,000 year old medical tradition, so she likes to do it.\u00a0 It makes her feel connected to Hippocrates.\u00a0 She says, \u201cThrough the timeless echoes of those who came before me, I imagine this act joining those of my ancestors as I do the same things they did, layer upon layer.\u201d<\/p>\n

How fast before you\u2019re out of the door?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual\u2026. Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade: Finding Your 21st-Century Spirituality in Judaism\u2019s 5,000-Year-Old Tradition.\u201d\u00a0 Korngold, who is also known as\u00a0 \u201cThe Adventure Rabbi,\u201d puts forth a theology of a non-interventionist God who is […]<\/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":[4,22,23,24,25,30,34,38],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-american-jews","tag-jewish-history","tag-jewish-holidays","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies","tag-non-theism","tag-post-theistic-religion","tag-science-and-reason"],"yoast_head":"\nWarning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:\" \/>\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\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html\",\"name\":\"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\"},\"description\":\"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/\",\"name\":\"The Atheist Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\"},\"description\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!","description":"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!","og_description":"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html","og_site_name":"The Atheist Rabbi","article_published_time":"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00","author":"Jeffrey L. Falick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey L. Falick","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html","name":"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-15T00:58:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372"},"description":"Here\u2019s a book review I\u2019ve been working on.\u00a0 The post is a little longer than usual.... Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold has written a book called \u201cThe God Upgrade:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/warning-this-religion-will-require-a-god-upgrade.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Warning! This Religion Will Require A God Upgrade!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/","name":"The Atheist Rabbi","description":"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372","name":"Jeffrey L. Falick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeffrey L. Falick"},"description":"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}