{"id":703,"date":"2010-09-28T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/its-not-me-it-really-is-them.html"},"modified":"2010-09-28T18:42:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T18:42:00","slug":"its-not-me-it-really-is-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/its-not-me-it-really-is-them.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not Me, It Really Is Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
The beginning of the end of my efforts to remain in the theistic fold came with the publication, in 1991, of Eugene Borowitz\u2019s book, Renewing the Covenant: A Theology for the Postmodern Jew<\/i>.\u00a0 I read it three times over the years and never really understood what the heck he was talking about.\u00a0 I used to blame myself for my inability to comprehend books like that.\u00a0 Then it began to slowly dawn on me that their propositions were mostly incoherent.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t me, it was them.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Borowitz and all the other \u201csophisticated\u201d theologians are desperately trying to re-create the idea of God.\u00a0 Mordecai Kaplan\u2019s attempt at this was at least clear \u2013 and even somewhat compelling \u2013 to me.\u00a0 He posited that all God-language was just the expression of a purely human process.\u00a0 Theologians like Borowitz assign a kind of reality to God while claiming that God is not supernatural.\u00a0 They propose that God is, instead, the \u201cground of our moral values,\u201d whatever that means.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
So with this background, and as a dues-paying member of the Center for Inquiry, I could not have been angrier at the article written on The Huffington Post by John Shook<\/span><\/a>, CFI\u2019s Director of Education and Senior Research Fellow:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Astonished that intellectual defenses of religion are still maintained, many prominent atheists disparage theology. They either dismiss the subject as irrelevant, or, if they do bother to acknowledge it, slim refutations of outdated arguments for a medieval God seem enough. Atheists cheer on such bold leadership, but what is really being learned? Challenging religion\u2019s immunity from criticism is one thing; perpetuating contempt for religion\u2019s intellectual side is another. Too many followers only mimic the contempt, forgetting that you won\u2019t effectively criticize what you would not understand. The \u201cknow-nothing\u201d wing of the so-called New Atheism really lives up to that label. Nonbelievers reveling in their ignorance are an embarrassing betrayal of the freethought legacy.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Speak for yourself, John.\u00a0 I had a good rabbinical education and over twenty subsequent years of study.\u00a0 The modern intellectual side of religion is worthy of contempt, or at least giggles.\u00a0 To paraphrase the Bard, modern sophisticated theology is a tale told by well-meaning-way-too-smart-for-their-own-good professors, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
In response to Shook\u2019s article, Sandwalk<\/span><\/a> has issued a challenge to theists to post their very best twenty-first century arguments for the existence of God.\u00a0 I will be watching closely.\u00a0 Maybe I should forward it to Rabbi Borowitz.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beginning of the end of my efforts to remain in the theistic fold came with the publication, in 1991, of Eugene Borowitz\u2019s book, Renewing the Covenant: A Theology for the Postmodern Jew.\u00a0 I read it three times over the years and never really understood what the heck he was talking about.\u00a0 I used to […]<\/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":[6,24,25,30,39],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies","tag-non-theism","tag-secular-humanistic-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's Not Me, It Really Is Them<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The beginning of the end of my efforts to remain in the theistic fold came with the publication, in 1991, of Eugene Borowitz\u2019s book, Renewing the\" \/>\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\/2010\/09\/its-not-me-it-really-is-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's Not Me, It Really Is Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The beginning of the end of my efforts to remain in the theistic fold came with the publication, in 1991, of Eugene Borowitz\u2019s book, Renewing the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/its-not-me-it-really-is-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-28T18:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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