Celebrity Atheist: Paul Giamatti

I’m confused… why be fine with raising a kid Jewish if you don’t believe in any of it?

But he still believes in Narfs.

Also, I’ve discovered that many Jews are culturally Jewish as opposed to spiritually Jewish.

@Larry

Being Jewish (and to some extent, being Catholic) is as much an ethnic/cultural identification as it is a religious one. There’s some discussion of this in previous posts.

http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/07/09/ask-richard-the-odd-couple-at-odds/

http://friendlyatheist.com/2011/03/28/non-serious-catholics-are-more-tolerant-than-you-think/

I’ve read another interview where he talks about this and it essentially comes down to letting his wife introduce what she believes, and he figures introducing atheism in the teenage years (when we discovered) it will work better.

Generally, I think this is a horrible idea. It will probably turn out okay for Giamatti because being a secular Jew is well accepted. There are tons of Jewish atheists. However, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that atheists let their theist partners indoctrinate their children and wait until said children are teenagers (when their brains have already developed and the god-concept firmly implanted) before introducing them to atheism. Honestly, I think it’s about the worst thing you could do. Children aren’t born theists. They become theists when parents, teachers, and the surrounding culture insert the idea of a single male deity into their brains. If you wait until the teenage years even to mention atheism, what’s the chance that those children will suddenly be able to conceive of a purely materialistic universe?

FWIW, I didn’t “discover” atheism in my teenage years. I was born an atheist and have remained one all my life. If my parents had chosen to indoctrinate me into a religion instead, who knows if I would be an atheist today? There’s a very strong chance that I would not. Although it’s hard to imagine myself as a believer, my life could certainly have taken a different path. There’s every possibility that I could have become a faithful Catholic or Mormon or Baptist. If those religions had gotten to me early enough, anything might have happened. I wouldn’t underestimate the power of indoctrination.

A secular or atheist Jew is one who is not observant of the religious elements but who recognizes their Jewish heritage. Judaism places practice over belief, especially in Reformist synagogues. Although Judaism at its core places a god on the throne, you can be a secular Jew by not invoking God in ceremonies and festivals in order to feel part of a greater Jewish community. These holidays are always historical or nature-focused, such as Hannukah and Sukkot. Historically, this has been very important, as Jews have been long isolated and ill-received.

The bottom line: practice over belief.

Interesting. So who is Paul Giamatti? Besides an actor. Little details… 🙂

what is a ‘Narf?’

It was a reference to Giamatti’s role in the movie Lady in the Water, where Bryce Howard played a magical sea nymph known as a Narf.

“Celebrities! Is there anything they don’t know?!” — H. Simpson

I’m a goy, an atheist, and a member of a Jewish community organization. I don’t detect much snobbery. Protectiveness of the culture, sure, but not in a way that devalues other cultures. I can see how refusal to give up an identity could come off as snobbish. I think it’s more stubbornness than anything else, and I’ve come to find it appealing in a local culture that otherwise tends toward homogeneity.