Re: Excuses/Reward & Punishment
Yashrus20, I know you mean well. However I grew up frum. I went to schools that taught me a lot of Torah. I understand Judaism very well. What you need to understand is that if you have to be a Believer in order to be frum, that ended long before I stopped keeping shabbos. However I stopped playing along because frum society was making me miserable. If I had been content I would not have gone to the trouble of changing my lifestyle. It was not as if I wanted to eat cheeseburgers so I decided not to believe. That would be ridiculous.
Another thing: The idea of heaven and hell just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t believe in God or an afterlife. This is something that I have done some heavy thinking about. I am a philosophy minor so I have read the views of dozens of very smart people on the subject. I have discovered a worldview that is a combination of all the wisdom I have read. And I have to say that after all that, I am more sure than ever that heaven and hell were made up to pacify the masses and keep them in line at the same time.
havesomeseichel,
I’ve been out of town. However, I have to say that responses like yours frustrate me a lot. What does it say that when a lot of frum Jews get together they create a culture that is so unappealing to intelligent, free thinking people? Your argument is that frum Jews are okay in small groups. Well fine, but excuse me if that’s not good enough for me. I am now part of a group of people that is wonderful to live among – whether the community is large or small.