Atheism in Five Minutes - Teemu Taira
14. What Is the Relationship Between Judaism and Atheism?
Atheism in Five Minutes - Teemu Taira
Daniel Langton [+]
University of Manchester
Description
Jewish conceptions of, and attitudes towards, atheism have changed over time. Jewish biblical tradition tended to be concerned more about practical, rather than philosophical, atheism. In the Talmud, heretics were often condemned for atheistic tendencies, such the belief in God’s existence or unity, or for a loss of faith due to the problem evil as in the case of Acher. The great medieval authority Maimonides asserted that atheistic ideas could lead to loss of one’s place in the World to Come, even as his own naturalistic teachings on prophecy and miracles and God’s unknowability, prepared the ground for later Jewish scepticism. In the early-modern period it became possible for highly heterodox Jews such as Spinzoa to emerge; later non-believing Jews would be regarded as atheists for denying the authority of scripture, divine creation, divine providence, and even the divine origins of morality. In the modern period, non-Jewish Jews are commonplace, rejecting supernaturalism as part of the rejection of traditional religious authority and the idea that their Jewishness should be defined in terms of religion.