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Pariah said:
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Darknight613 said:
As a religious moderate, I'd like to offer some insight regarding your comments here (keep in mind I'm only speaking for myself here).



What's a "religous moderate"?



Well, I can't speak for other religious moderates, but here's the way I interpret it just for myself.

I take my religion seriously, I'm proud of my Jewish affiliation, and I make an honest attempt to play by the rules as best I can, without being fanatical or overzealous beyond the point of reason. It also means that I question and reason, and really try and think about why Judaism feels right as opposed to giving in to blind faith or indoctrination. I've put a lot of thought about whether Judaism feels right to me, and it does, and therefore I follow it as best I can. I'm also open to various interpretations of Jewish law (of which rabbinic scholars themselves give us a wide variety of, and in Jewish schools we study various POVs on the Torah and Talmud.)

It also refers to my attitude towards people of other faiths - mostly indifferent, somewhat curious as to what they do and why they do it, and not in the least hostile to their faith. I don't consider people who practice other religions to be evil or misguided. I look at it as looking at the same thing in a different way.

(Remember, Judaism itself says that only Jews are required to obey the rules of Judaism. Non-Jews were never obligated to follow the Torah, and whether you're Jewish or not has nothing to do with whether G-d thinks you're a good or bad person. In the "Pirkei Avot," the Ethics Of Our Fathers, it is stated that all the nations of the world have a share in the World To Come. So non-Jews don't bother us, as long as they're not persecuting us, trying to convert us, or trying to ban our faith.)

If you ask other people who consider themselves religious moderates (if they do), you'll probably get a different answer. But this is my interpretation of what it means to be a moderate. And you'll most likely get different attitudes about what I've just written about from other Jews, because we can never agree on anything.

Last edited by Darknight613; 2005-12-13 11:00 PM.
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