sam2 is defending a straw man. Literally – he is defending the old man in a straw hat who sits in the corner of his conservative tembel because he can’t sell the shoe store his father started in Yehupitzville, his real estate is not quite ready for him to sell to a developer (or he’s waiting for his sons to finish their law degrees or MBA’s so he can leave it to them to develop) and Chabad hasn’t sent a shaliach yet. There must be 20 minyonim of such people in the whole US.
The con-servative belief, as I learned in in Solomon Schechted for 5 years is:
The Torah conflicts with what modern science and history have determined is true. We prefer modern science and history because we don’t know much about Torah and don’t want to learn, so it’s easier to learn “higher biblical criticism.” We also don’t want to be too Jewish, you know, or to put Torah ahead of enjoying life and left-wing politics, so we’ll bend it just about until it breaks chas vesholom. We’re really deformed, but with just enough tradition to fool people who at least want to feel Jewish once a week in the morning and on holidays before they go to the mall.”
If anything, it is worse than deformed. A child knows deformed is not Judaism, but a tinok shenishba can truly be conned by con-servative.