pba: Trust me, I’m sure the people in all of these sects of different religions feel EXACTLY the same way.
No, I think it’s different. At least most of the different sects of Christianity think they are practicing Christianity. And both shiite and sunni think they are practicing Islam.
But the premise of all the other jewish sects (YCT, reform, reconstructionist) is that judaism is not obligatory–they don’t think they are practicing any religion. YCT people think that all religion is just a silliness, but it has nice cultural meaning so it’s nice to do the parts you like. You can’t compare that to a protestant who believes in a god and believes that there are things incumbent on him as a result.
So maybe to be more accurate, I should have said “there are some jews who still practice a religion and some who don’t”.
(Aside: Another great article by a YCT type guy today. I read it and said ??? ?????? YCT; this is who you worship.)