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Steelmanning Judaism - by Bentham's Bulldog

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A fact that is surprising to no one, with the possible exception of a few deranged college debaters who accused me of antisemitism: I’m Jewish. I come from a Jewish family, had a Bar Mitzvah, and spent the first many years of my life going to Hebrew school. To this day, when I’m home with my family, I say prayers on Shabbat and eat challah! I come from a family of conservative Jews, where most of the rest of my extended family is reform. Conservative Jews tend to take Judaism seriously but not literally—reform Jews, um, not sure if there’s a nice way to say this, tend not to take it either very seriously or literally, doing little with regards to Judaism beyond going to temple perhaps once a year and making their kids go to Hebrew school and have a Bar Mitzvah. In the reform and conservative circles in which I hang, no one really advocates for the truth of Judaism. Occasionally, people argue for the existence of God, but often while using wildly revisionary definitions of God—saying th

"The Lord's our shepherd, " says the psalm, But just in case, we better get a bomb! —Tom Lehrer A fact that is surprising to no one, with the possible exception of a few deranged college debaters who accused me of antisemitism: I’m Jewish. I come from a Jewish family, had a Bar Mitzvah, and spent the first many years of my life going to Hebrew school. To this day, when I’m home with my family, I say prayers on Shabbat and eat challah! I come from a family of conservative Jews, where most of the rest of my extended family is reform. Conservative Jews tend to take Judaism seriously but not…

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