I said "would I, a non-Jewish [person, sic], be accepted as Jewish merely by adopting Jewish cultural practices?" That is totally perpendicular to converting or marrying into Judaism. The answer remains the same. No, I would not be accepted as a Jew merely for adopting Jewish cultural practices. So we have the situation that there are such things as "cultural Jews" and "religious Jews" but a gentile cannot become a Jew by adopting only the cultural practice. What links "cultural" Jews and "religious" Jews? Ethnicity, by and by.
There's actually some disputes within religious Judaism about who can convert and how. Not surprisingly, the Orthodox are very strict and the reform much less so. A relative of my mine married into conservative Judaism and had to spend several years studying Hebrew. Another acquaintance converted to reform and spent about a week learning a few Hebrew phrases.
I doh't know why you have your dander up here, but I don't see a lot of "crying" going on. Noam Chomsky and Isaac Asimov may be many things, but "retards" they are not. Your arguments are not well-served by the hysterics.
You are the one conflating religion and ethnicity. Saying “Jewish” is a culture is as redundant as saying it is an ethnicity, and I have repeatedly proven there have been millions of Jews who chose to leave and disavow Judaism. This does not Change their ethnicity, they are still Ashkenazi, not Jewish. Anyone who says they are culturally “Jewish” mean they are ashkenazi, they simply use the term Jew because Ashkenazi is, by far, the dominant heritage of Jews worldwide. If all Catholics were Iberian then and some left Catholicism you wouldn’t keep calling them Catholic, but you would keep calling them Iberian. If they chose to still refer to themselves as Catholic then they probably still associate with the religion.
That's pretty much the exact point I've been making. Christianity is NOT an ethnicity. Christian is conceived as a universal religion. Judaism is not and was not. Jews are "the chosen people" and they have always conceived of themselves as separate and different. The difference is that the term Jewish acts as a proxy for both an ethnicity and as a religion. That's completely distinct from Christianity or Islam. Your example of Catholic/Iberian is very apt.
Sure, Jews can cease practicing Judaism. They can convert to Christianity or whatever. One of my childhood best friend's mom is a convert and actually became a pastor. I think she was slightly active with Jews for Jesus, but that's getting far afield. Her children who are neither Jewish by upbringing nor Jewish by religion nor Jewish by culture are not Jewish. They no longer have that ethnic connection.
I said "would I, a non-Jewish [person, sic], be accepted as Jewish merely by adopting Jewish cultural practices?" That is totally perpendicular to converting or marrying into Judaism. The answer remains the same. No, I would not be accepted as a Jew merely for adopting Jewish cultural practices. So we have the situation that there are such things as "cultural Jews" and "religious Jews" but a gentile cannot become a Jew by adopting only the cultural practice. What links "cultural" Jews and "religious" Jews? Ethnicity, by and by.
There's actually some disputes within religious Judaism about who can convert and how. Not surprisingly, the Orthodox are very strict and the reform much less so. A relative of my mine married into conservative Judaism and had to spend several years studying Hebrew. Another acquaintance converted to reform and spent about a week learning a few Hebrew phrases.
I doh't know why you have your dander up here, but I don't see a lot of "crying" going on. Noam Chomsky and Isaac Asimov may be many things, but "retards" they are not. Your arguments are not well-served by the hysterics.
You are the one conflating religion and ethnicity. Saying “Jewish” is a culture is as redundant as saying it is an ethnicity, and I have repeatedly proven there have been millions of Jews who chose to leave and disavow Judaism. This does not Change their ethnicity, they are still Ashkenazi, not Jewish. Anyone who says they are culturally “Jewish” mean they are ashkenazi, they simply use the term Jew because Ashkenazi is, by far, the dominant heritage of Jews worldwide. If all Catholics were Iberian then and some left Catholicism you wouldn’t keep calling them Catholic, but you would keep calling them Iberian. If they chose to still refer to themselves as Catholic then they probably still associate with the religion.
That's pretty much the exact point I've been making. Christianity is NOT an ethnicity. Christian is conceived as a universal religion. Judaism is not and was not. Jews are "the chosen people" and they have always conceived of themselves as separate and different. The difference is that the term Jewish acts as a proxy for both an ethnicity and as a religion. That's completely distinct from Christianity or Islam. Your example of Catholic/Iberian is very apt.
Sure, Jews can cease practicing Judaism. They can convert to Christianity or whatever. One of my childhood best friend's mom is a convert and actually became a pastor. I think she was slightly active with Jews for Jesus, but that's getting far afield. Her children who are neither Jewish by upbringing nor Jewish by religion nor Jewish by culture are not Jewish. They no longer have that ethnic connection.