# Little help with semantics here. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-help-with-semantics-here/578763 "2011-04-17T22:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-help-with-semantics-here/578763/6 "2011-04-18T00:24:14Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Wrong reply - you should have said\* > Obviously you can’t read.\* 😛 But I’m serious! If I quote someone and say their ideas are stupid, is that a direct insult? If I don’t quote someone, am I okay? This dude more or less called us liars after 26,000 rounds of us trying to explain how you could be Jewish and atheist. The OP’s question, was, of course, a vaguely anti-Semitic one at that, but whatever. > [@why do jews get a pass when it comes to racism?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jews-get-a-pass-when-it-comes-to-racism/577370/317): > > Of _course_ that’s the case. But, when people in this thread postulate that the rule is “_works are paramount, not belief, that’s why atheists can be considered religious Jews_” and I show that the “works are paramount, not belief” \*\*should lead to the acceptance of people who believe in other gods, as long as they fulfill the works part of the Jewish religion, \*\*and then people say, “well, _we_ make the rules”, all I can deduce logically is that “works are paramount, not belief” is _not_ the rule you have in place. > > The rule you have in place is more like “you either believe in God or are an atheist, and you do the works”. > > So belief does play a role, which is why all the hand-wringing that “NONE, not one, of the 613 commandments in Judaism requires affirming that G-d exists or requires Jews to believe in anything” is clearly false (in terms of explaining who can be accepted as a religious Jew) > > Yes, you (the general you) of course can make up your own rules. **But when you explain them to others, make sure you explain them accurately and don’t make up rules that you are clearly not using.** So we try a few more times to explain, and he keeps arguing that we’re wrong! > [@why do jews get a pass when it comes to racism?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jews-get-a-pass-when-it-comes-to-racism/577370/331): > > I’m pretty sure that if someone wanted to include atheists into Catholicism, they could do some very **fine semantic parsing that enables it** , just like the semantic parsing of the first commandment “I am the Lord your God” and the fourth commandment “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me” that seems to make it OK for atheist Jews to be considered part of the Jewish religion. Finally, after rounds and rounds, I said, rather exasperated, since he didn’t seem to get 1.) What qualifies you to be Jewish and 2.) that he can’t dictate another religion’s law: > [@why do jews get a pass when it comes to racism?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jews-get-a-pass-when-it-comes-to-racism/577370/335): > > > [@why do jews get a pass when it comes to racism?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jews-get-a-pass-when-it-comes-to-racism/577370/335): > > > > Do you know what we call a Jew who believes in Jesus? > > > > A Christian. > > > > Do you know what we call a Jew who practices Budhhism? > > > > A Jewish Buddhist, or JewBu. > > > > Do you know what we call a Jew who believes in God? > > > > A Jew. > > > > Do you know what we call a Jew who doesn’t believe in any god? > > > > A Jew. > > > > Do you know what we call a person who just respects Judaism and likes matzoh ball soup but has not converted nor has been born of Jewish parents? > > > > A Gentile. > > \*\* > > What kind of sanctimonious a-hole presumes to tell thirteen million people that they are _wrong_ about their concepts of religion, culture, ethnicity, or nationhood?\*\* And then I was Warned. :smack: I can’t go tell a Buddhist that they don’t follow a religion because they aren’t theistic! I can’t go tell a Muslim that their religion is completely invalid on the grounds that it employs a caste system. HELLO. That’s now how religions work. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-help-with-semantics-here/578763)._