What do athiests think of Judaism?

It's my favorite of the abrahamic faiths, but that's not saying much.

It has it's own share of pros and cons. The sadistic scriptures are a major flaw, but modern judaism is rather dormant, which is good. Unlike islam and christianity, judaism generally minds its own business and doesn't belly ache over everything. I respect that.

I, er, don't really know anything about it...

>_>

I personally don't have much background in Judaism (which I hope to change soon), but from what I know about most Jews is that they are taught to be tolerant of other people's religions and to also be very humble. Unlike fundamentalist groups in Christianity and Islam that teach that they are the "only right one," Judaism seems very open and accepting of everyone. Plus, the concepts of God, even to orthodox Jews, are incredibly vague and undefined... leaving very little to actually debate about.

Hell, I was learning today in my Death, Dying and Bereavement cIass that Reform Jews view remembrance by the survivors as "immortality" and don't even believe in either a bodily or spiritual resurrection after death.
foxhound_fox

 You should read the works of Maimonides. He had interesting ideas about the concepts of God.

I'm don't like the Hebrew Bible, but it seems that most Jews must not really practice all that's commanded of God in the Torah, which comes as a surprise to me. Christians are the same way though when it comes to the New Testament.Genetic_Code

Just curious, what do you not like in the Torah? The only thing that comes to mind is that it's really disrespectful towards non-Jews (or "goyim", Hebrew for "cattle"). But seems to be an okay book.

Just curious, what do you not like in the Torah? The only thing that comes to mind is that it's really disrespectful towards non-Jews (or "goyim", Hebrew for "cattle"). But seems to be an okay book.ghoklebutter

I don't like how so many laws promote the death penalty as a consequence for breaking the law. Homosexuality, witchcraft, being disrespectful to parents, and a lot of things except pedophilia is condemnable by death. The only law that should be punishable by death when broken would be "Thou shalt not kill".

Judaism is the basis for the silliness of many other religions. What about the documentary (Wellhausen) hypothesis? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis 

Hmm?

I live in a "Jewish" area (or strip) of London. I don't think these areas are majority Jewish, but there are noticeable communities of Jews where I live. There are some Orthodox Jews, who obviously stick out a mile in public with their hats, but most Jewish faithful are "Reform Jews - to various degrees. Recently - an "eruv" - or boundary marking wire was erected encircling a large area of London. It enables Jewish people to do things they ordinarily shouldn't on the Sabbath... 

I was slightly jealous of Judaism when I was growing up. Many friends I was at school with were Jewish and I was invited to a few Bahmitzvahs. (In very rough terms, Bahmitzvahs celebrate a boy's coming of age and religious adulthood at the age of 13 or so.) The Synagogue ceremonies were really exciting, especially after my being bored to tears by Christian-oriented church activities. They had the "Bahmitzvah boy" reading stuff in Hebrew (seemingly backwards) from a big old scroll, lots of costume, ceremony and amazing choirs - not singing songs, but chanting and groaning in discordant harmony. The atmosphere was gripping! the huge parties afterwards were supposed to be riotous, with enforced smoking (cocktail cigarettes nand wine on every table), drinking, dancing, bands and merry-making all round.

My experience has been hugely coloured by meeting Jewish people: I remember the fist real time I was physically assaulted (nearly 30 years ago): I was riding my push-bike to see a friend one morning. All of a sudden, my path was blocked by two older black boys on their bikes. They just started punching me in the face really hard. As if by magic, a large Jewish man rode up on his bike, having seen what was going on, and stopped them hitting me. He then saw me on my way to my mates after checking I was OK. (He was wearing a "couple" on his head is how I know he was a Jew.) But I could also tell you about what I saw while working next to a kosher butchers - but I'm feeling queasy just thinking about that!

The Jewish community around me do seem quite exclusive. There have also been some recent incidents where I felt they have seemed to act in the interests of their own faith in opposition to the best interests of society in general. One was an issue over some concrete barriers and another issue over the building of a car park (trivial, I know!). More generally, I have noticed a tendency for Jewish "professions", like law, finance or media production - with the obvious implied nepotism.

This is the one area that really does bother me about the Jewish "tradition": News coverage of Palestine vs Israel does constantly seem biased from in the UK and particularly from the States. I do wonder if a partial pro-Zionist media controls our consumption of what happens in Israel and occupied territories. The nature of Israel as a Zionist state makes for a dangerous religious agenda, clashing with politics and diplomacy. 

From what I've learned about the Jewish I know, "having a good time" is acceptable, they don't seem bent on conversion (which is a nice change to Christianity). They mostly view their faith as allegorical - although many still use observation, ritual and symbolism in their daily lives. The London Jewish do value their religious separation, identities, politics, historical heritage and their tight communities. They are all still just people though, like us.

EDIT #5 OK - I give up. You win, links. :(