Overall, I believe that Judaism is a religion. Although it could be constituted as a culture, Judaism’s roots come from a religious interaction with God. Religion is defined as “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects”.[1] This definition correlates with the traditional definition of a culture, stating that religion has a large role in many Jewish people’s culture and beliefs. Judaism is a religion because it was formed when God spoke and made a covenant with Abraham; preaching that Abraham and his people shall worship God as the one and only God.
Fundamentally, Judaism is a religion and should not be called a race because the Jews as their own specific race are never mentioned in the Torah, and has nothing to do with the covenant between God and Abraham. People are able to convert to Judaism without being born a Jew, which furthers the support of Judaism being a religion. The confusing aspect of Judaism though is the fact that some born Jews do not address the religious practices or cultural activities but are still considered of essence, Jewish. I personally believe that there should be no precedent and that if a person practices Judaism then they should be called Jewish, but if they are clearly atheist then they shouldn’t be labeled as Jewish. Judaism should be categorized as strictly a religion because originally, that is how it came into existence.
[1] www.dictionary.com
3 comments:
I agree with you Erin. I think that originally Judaism was formed as a religion with a community of people who all believed in the same thing - one god. I also agree with you, that over the centuries it has become confusing, as there is no fine line of what Judaism is categorized as. I don’t think that it needs to "strictly" be categorized as a religion, because I feel as if all the hard ships that the Jews have went through have made them seem more cultural or ethnic. The hard times have brought the Jews together allowing Judaism to be interpreted as having cultural aspects.
I agree with you about the fundamentally religious aspect of Judaism, and you quoted the definition and sounded really smart in your first paragraph! If, however, it doen't state about the race of jews in the torah, then wat about all jews being descendents of Abraham and Issac and company? Wouldn't that, in the tratitional sense, classify them as a race?
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