I disagree. The religion informs everything else. The reason it's an ethnic group is from the religion. The religion, the culture, the nationality, all of it is defined by the religion.
If the rules of Judaism were to simply vanish overnight, so would jewry and jews. Without Judaism, jews can not exist.
If that were true all atheists would be the same, including a lot of Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. Clearly that's not the case. The Chinese slave laborer is different than me for example.
The reason it's an ethnic group is from the religion.
Genetics -> race -> culture <->>> religion.
While culture and religion influence each other, culture affects religion way more. Culture is an extension of the collective being of a given population, manifesting itself in tradition, behaviors, legal systems, government, economic systems, level of technology, religion, language and more. It's not about art exhibits in museums.
all of it is defined by the religion.
Then why are Europeans different even though they have similar religions? And why are Christian Africans WAY different than European Christians? Why are South Americans different than North Americans even though they share the same religion?
Religion is clearly not the reason. It's culture. And culture derives from race. And race derives from genetics.
Without Judaism, jews can not exist.
That doesn't apply to any other ethnic group on the planet though, and if true (which isn't), it would be unique to jews. Which would be weird because there were and are many atheist jews. And atheists tend towards leftist ideologies. There are atheists from all countries, and I don't see many similarities between them all over the world.
Religions come and go, culture is way more consistent and slow-changing.
I'm not saying religion informs it generically. I'm saying that Judaism specifically informs everything else for jews. All their cultures, traditions, values, and everything else come from their religion.
You're relationship between genetics and race is out of wack in regards to culture. Genetics can inform general patterns, but it doesn't tell anyone whether Christmas will be celebrated in January or December. Most of the genetic differences between human groups are too mild to account for most cultural differences, such as the cultural differences between the east and west Germans is clearly coming from decades of Communist rule on one side and not the other.
African Christians and Europeans Christians actually have similar cultures due to Christianity making their cultures similar. Whereas an African Muslim and a European Christian have effectively nothing in common.
For Judaism specifically, again, the religion is the sole defining feature of everything else. Particularly because of the mandatory nature of traditions, marriage laws, and conversion laws, Judaism is a more reclusive religion that wields outside influence over it's demography than Islam or Christianity ever would.
It's not unique to all other ethnic groups, just most of them because most religions aren't as particularly reclusive, and none of the other major religions are. Contrast that with the Cult Of Ashur, which is what created the Assyrian Empire, and defined what it meant to be an Assyrian, and this particular tribal religion has oversized weight on everything else. When the Assyrian Empire died, so did the cult, and so did the ethnic group. The people we refer to as "Assyrian Christians" have basically nothing in common with the people who worshiped Ashur, even genetically at this point. Tribal religions do tend to operate this way, especially if those religions are cults.
I also have disagree on the speed of cultural change, it's the fastest possible form of social change. I know Boomers who barely recognize American culture, and they are still alive. Culture can change quite violently, and can be heavily based on external factors.
All their cultures, traditions, values, and everything else come from their religion.
Well, ok. That's quite a big claim, and it's also big matter of criticism, along with the idea that the deity they worship is Moloch, known as the Christian Satan, which represents essentially evil ("Synagogue of Satan"). Given that, the culture that emerges from that would be... not particularly nice.
Most of the genetic differences between human groups are too mild to account for most cultural differences
Here's a map of the average IQ by country. This is actually by far the biggest factor where genetics (particularly intelligence) determine culture.
For example blacks in Africa (IQ 60-65): Cannibalism, high brutality, a culture of rape being normal, never having invented the wheel or written language, having tribal wars, culture of near-zero work ethics, no planning into the future, shamanistic or plain insane belief systems.
Gypsies in Hungary (IQ ~71): Education generally stops around 8th class, common thievery and fraud, extreme littering, their yards look like shitholes, basically nowhere near sophisticated professions or jobs (lawyers, judges, bookkeeping, banking, healthcare). I haven't even seen a single gypsy cashier even.
In India (IQ ~77) there are practices which involve feces, like eating it, bathing in it, throwing it around in festivals. And notorious defecating in the open, and absolutely nauseating practices in food creation. Then there are the scam centers, the incompetent programmers ("foreign talent"), Bollywood.
In Japan (IQ ~106) work ethics are extraordinary and the code of honor valued to an extreme, unhealthy extent, even in corporate areas which makes it hard for employees to quit their jobs. Crime rate is also extremely low, and it's clearly distinct from the rest.
In Mexico (IQ ~87) gang violence occurs, drug and human trafficking, quite some corruption, but none of the crazy things.
So clearly average intelligence by country (aka race) is the underlying pattern. Some variance exists (the Chinese are quite weird for IQ ~104), but there are no Whites or Orientals who gang rape or rape babies to cure AIDS for example. Calling these differences "mild" is quite an understatement, if the right word would be "extreme."
such as the cultural differences between the east and west Germans is clearly coming from decades of Communist rule on one side and not the other.
Sure. So are all countries in Europe different from each other to varying degrees. The difference between any European country and India however are still extreme.
African Christians and Europeans Christians actually have similar cultures due to Christianity making their cultures similar.
Essentially Christianity is a perversion of what it actually is in Africa. They simply rebound to voodoo and shamanism again, and use Christianity as a veneer. The same applies with Islam too of course. So no, minimal similarities.
it's the fastest possible form of social change.
Well, that's debatable, but not too relevant. In essence religion is an extension of a culture, and it follows the goals of that culture. The Christian God doesn't not demand human sacrifices because of luck, but because Whites do not want to have human sacrifice rituals. Christianity uncoincidentally demands its followers to do what Whites already did or know they should do. This goes for all other religions as well.
You cannot swap Christianity with Islam while keeping the cultures (and therefore populations) for example, because neither of these cultures' populations would want it. It simply goes against their collective wills.
Voodoo fits blacks in Africa, just as Christianity fits Whites, or Greek/Roman belief systems fit them 2+ millennia ago, or Hinduism fits Indians, or Judaism fits Jews. Religion has always been a reflection of the culture that inhabited it - and if it doesn't fit well enough, it could branch off and create sub-versions of it like Protestants, Evangelicals, Amish, Catholics, Orthodox, etc. Historically it's not a smooth, fluent process of course.
The people we refer to as "Assyrian Christians" have basically nothing in common with the people who worshiped Ashur, even genetically at this point
Well, that's quite reasonable. If the people cease to exist who have religion X, religion X also ceases to exist.
Culture can change quite violently, and can be heavily based on external factors.
True, communism is one example. But communism basically abolished Christianity in the Soviet Union and replaced it with a worship of "Socialism" and "Equality." Sure, that was slower, but the cultural change was so rapid (basically like a tyrannical foreign occupation) that it took time for religion to follow. That's an anomaly, and I am talking about generalities.
I disagree. The religion informs everything else. The reason it's an ethnic group is from the religion. The religion, the culture, the nationality, all of it is defined by the religion.
If the rules of Judaism were to simply vanish overnight, so would jewry and jews. Without Judaism, jews can not exist.
I am glad I figured out the misunderstanding.
If that were true all atheists would be the same, including a lot of Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. Clearly that's not the case. The Chinese slave laborer is different than me for example.
Genetics -> race -> culture <->>> religion.
While culture and religion influence each other, culture affects religion way more. Culture is an extension of the collective being of a given population, manifesting itself in tradition, behaviors, legal systems, government, economic systems, level of technology, religion, language and more. It's not about art exhibits in museums.
Then why are Europeans different even though they have similar religions? And why are Christian Africans WAY different than European Christians? Why are South Americans different than North Americans even though they share the same religion?
Religion is clearly not the reason. It's culture. And culture derives from race. And race derives from genetics.
That doesn't apply to any other ethnic group on the planet though, and if true (which isn't), it would be unique to jews. Which would be weird because there were and are many atheist jews. And atheists tend towards leftist ideologies. There are atheists from all countries, and I don't see many similarities between them all over the world.
Religions come and go, culture is way more consistent and slow-changing.
I'm not saying religion informs it generically. I'm saying that Judaism specifically informs everything else for jews. All their cultures, traditions, values, and everything else come from their religion.
You're relationship between genetics and race is out of wack in regards to culture. Genetics can inform general patterns, but it doesn't tell anyone whether Christmas will be celebrated in January or December. Most of the genetic differences between human groups are too mild to account for most cultural differences, such as the cultural differences between the east and west Germans is clearly coming from decades of Communist rule on one side and not the other.
African Christians and Europeans Christians actually have similar cultures due to Christianity making their cultures similar. Whereas an African Muslim and a European Christian have effectively nothing in common.
For Judaism specifically, again, the religion is the sole defining feature of everything else. Particularly because of the mandatory nature of traditions, marriage laws, and conversion laws, Judaism is a more reclusive religion that wields outside influence over it's demography than Islam or Christianity ever would.
It's not unique to all other ethnic groups, just most of them because most religions aren't as particularly reclusive, and none of the other major religions are. Contrast that with the Cult Of Ashur, which is what created the Assyrian Empire, and defined what it meant to be an Assyrian, and this particular tribal religion has oversized weight on everything else. When the Assyrian Empire died, so did the cult, and so did the ethnic group. The people we refer to as "Assyrian Christians" have basically nothing in common with the people who worshiped Ashur, even genetically at this point. Tribal religions do tend to operate this way, especially if those religions are cults.
I also have disagree on the speed of cultural change, it's the fastest possible form of social change. I know Boomers who barely recognize American culture, and they are still alive. Culture can change quite violently, and can be heavily based on external factors.
Well, ok. That's quite a big claim, and it's also big matter of criticism, along with the idea that the deity they worship is Moloch, known as the Christian Satan, which represents essentially evil ("Synagogue of Satan"). Given that, the culture that emerges from that would be... not particularly nice.
Here's a map of the average IQ by country. This is actually by far the biggest factor where genetics (particularly intelligence) determine culture.
For example blacks in Africa (IQ 60-65): Cannibalism, high brutality, a culture of rape being normal, never having invented the wheel or written language, having tribal wars, culture of near-zero work ethics, no planning into the future, shamanistic or plain insane belief systems.
Gypsies in Hungary (IQ ~71): Education generally stops around 8th class, common thievery and fraud, extreme littering, their yards look like shitholes, basically nowhere near sophisticated professions or jobs (lawyers, judges, bookkeeping, banking, healthcare). I haven't even seen a single gypsy cashier even.
In India (IQ ~77) there are practices which involve feces, like eating it, bathing in it, throwing it around in festivals. And notorious defecating in the open, and absolutely nauseating practices in food creation. Then there are the scam centers, the incompetent programmers ("foreign talent"), Bollywood.
In Japan (IQ ~106) work ethics are extraordinary and the code of honor valued to an extreme, unhealthy extent, even in corporate areas which makes it hard for employees to quit their jobs. Crime rate is also extremely low, and it's clearly distinct from the rest.
In Mexico (IQ ~87) gang violence occurs, drug and human trafficking, quite some corruption, but none of the crazy things.
So clearly average intelligence by country (aka race) is the underlying pattern. Some variance exists (the Chinese are quite weird for IQ ~104), but there are no Whites or Orientals who gang rape or rape babies to cure AIDS for example. Calling these differences "mild" is quite an understatement, if the right word would be "extreme."
Sure. So are all countries in Europe different from each other to varying degrees. The difference between any European country and India however are still extreme.
Essentially Christianity is a perversion of what it actually is in Africa. They simply rebound to voodoo and shamanism again, and use Christianity as a veneer. The same applies with Islam too of course. So no, minimal similarities.
Well, that's debatable, but not too relevant. In essence religion is an extension of a culture, and it follows the goals of that culture. The Christian God doesn't not demand human sacrifices because of luck, but because Whites do not want to have human sacrifice rituals. Christianity uncoincidentally demands its followers to do what Whites already did or know they should do. This goes for all other religions as well.
You cannot swap Christianity with Islam while keeping the cultures (and therefore populations) for example, because neither of these cultures' populations would want it. It simply goes against their collective wills.
Voodoo fits blacks in Africa, just as Christianity fits Whites, or Greek/Roman belief systems fit them 2+ millennia ago, or Hinduism fits Indians, or Judaism fits Jews. Religion has always been a reflection of the culture that inhabited it - and if it doesn't fit well enough, it could branch off and create sub-versions of it like Protestants, Evangelicals, Amish, Catholics, Orthodox, etc. Historically it's not a smooth, fluent process of course.
Well, that's quite reasonable. If the people cease to exist who have religion X, religion X also ceases to exist.
True, communism is one example. But communism basically abolished Christianity in the Soviet Union and replaced it with a worship of "Socialism" and "Equality." Sure, that was slower, but the cultural change was so rapid (basically like a tyrannical foreign occupation) that it took time for religion to follow. That's an anomaly, and I am talking about generalities.