From: Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Again, that's not my experience.
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: EU thought crimes
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:21:43 -0600
Jon Gabriel wrote:
> If I were you, I wouldn't personally assume that many/most Jews are atheists
> unless I had more than anecdotal evidence to back it up. I don't mean this
> unkindly. I just think the blanket statement was inaccurate.
Many Jews are atheists, or agnostic. I wouldn't say "most" without some
harder evidence. ("Most" technically means "at least 50%. "Many" can mean
a whole host of things, depending on the situation or context.)
My personal anecdotal experience is that, of the Jews I've met, 30-40% were
atheist/agnostic and the rest practiced their religion to some degree or
another, some of them a lot less than others. But I've met only a very
small fraction of all the Jews in the world, so my anecdotal experience
probably isn't accurate; and the circumstances under which I met various
Jews may have skewed the sample one way or the other.
I can't remember off the top of my head if you and your family are still located in Austin, but....
There is a rather large and diverse Jewish population on UT Austin's campus. There is also a large Austin Jewish community there that is associated with the Austin JCC and several temples and the I know that the conservative Jewish youth organization USY has held conventions there. I'd be very surprised if all those people claimed to be atheists as well as Jews. Again, I'm not being sarcastic and I don't want you to think I'm being rude as that's not my intention -- I just think that assumptions made along these lines need to be backed up with facts. I'm singling out Austin, but the same can be said for many, if not most major cities in the US.
Jon
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