Perilous Reflection #1: A Cultural Christian?
I have a friend who tells me he is a Jew. He is a determined atheist in the mode of someone who is angrily opposed to the idea of the God in which he does not believe. I have always thought of this as "first stage atheism."
My own atheism is of a quieter sort. I am not interested in fighting any God exists/doesn’t exist battles. I am not angry about God, although I do tend to get snapish with religious fundamentalists of all stripes. I simply live quietly with the notion of a universe that is marvelous on its own grounds, but devoid of Spirit, either transcendent or immanent.
Others are free to believe otherwise.
To return to my friend, I once asked "Harry, how can you be an atheist and a Jew?" His answer was Talmudic: "I am a cultural Jew."
"Well then," I replied, "I am a cultural Christian."
"Don’t be silly," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "Christians don’t have a culture. They buy their bread in supermarkets. Jews buy their bread in delicatessens!"
With that exchange we moved on to other topics.
