....because you brought up several points about which I have either opinions or perspective, or both....
First up, your point about western schooling and the hard sciences. I don't think all of western schooling DOES teach that there's only one answer. I think that the average American elementary-to-secondary "education" (if you can call it that) does, but I think that can be traced back to the founding of universal public education and the need for a cheap labor source to teach in those schools-- single women who could read and had done 1-2 years of "teachers college" were the norm; they were underpaid; their working conditions were stringent but still far better than factory or farm work. But the lack of respect for the teaching profession and the lack of investment in recruiting, training and retaining excellent teachers has resulted in a lot of less-than-qualified individuals going into teaching, and teaching from scripts where there IS only one right answer.
Also, as someone with a graduate degree in one of the "hard sciences" (although I know a lot of people don't think of math as one of them), beyond the 200 level in college, there's no one right answer either. In math and physics, you can prove or derive things more than one way, you consider cases and explore possibilities, and you postulate theories. There's a beauty and an art to problem solving that often results in long discussions about the relative merits of various approaches. In chemistry, there's usually more than one way to perform an organic synthesis.
I think it's telling that a lot of the wingnuts (for lack of a better word) are the same people who REJECT math and science as "not of God." At best, many often abridge the mathematical and scientific cannon to exclude areas they don't understand or that seem to conflict with what the Bible says. I think that it's BECAUSE the hard sciences start from the premise that there may be another way of looking at things that so many religious fundamentalists have a problem with them.
With regard to Judaism, I'm coming at it from the same place you are and have come to many of the same conclusions. I'll add a few things but I know you have several LJ-friends who are frum who can fill in our blanks.
I'm pretty sure traditional Judaism does believe that there is only one God and that God is IT-- but that non-Jews aren't bound by the same laws as Jews. In order to be considered righteous, Gentiles need only to adhere to the seven laws of Noah, which are fairly universal principles of decent, moral behavior, rather than the 613 mitzvot. I would imagine that more liberal Jewish denominations take an even more liberal approach to non-Jews.
As a liberal intellectual Christian myself, I've always admired the Jewish tradition of literacy. In Christianity, there's a long tradition of keeping the masses uninformed. Clergy in many denominations are called "pastors," leaving the congregation as the figurative "sheep." Until Vatican II, Catholic Masses were said in Latin with the celebrant's back to the congregation. The reformation was noteworthy because it made the Bible more accessible to the masses, but there was an accompanying message that nothing else needed to be studied. Compare that to the bar mitzvah ceremony, where a child becomes and adult by READING.
This may get long...
First up, your point about western schooling and the hard sciences. I don't think all of western schooling DOES teach that there's only one answer. I think that the average American elementary-to-secondary "education" (if you can call it that) does, but I think that can be traced back to the founding of universal public education and the need for a cheap labor source to teach in those schools-- single women who could read and had done 1-2 years of "teachers college" were the norm; they were underpaid; their working conditions were stringent but still far better than factory or farm work. But the lack of respect for the teaching profession and the lack of investment in recruiting, training and retaining excellent teachers has resulted in a lot of less-than-qualified individuals going into teaching, and teaching from scripts where there IS only one right answer.
Also, as someone with a graduate degree in one of the "hard sciences" (although I know a lot of people don't think of math as one of them), beyond the 200 level in college, there's no one right answer either. In math and physics, you can prove or derive things more than one way, you consider cases and explore possibilities, and you postulate theories. There's a beauty and an art to problem solving that often results in long discussions about the relative merits of various approaches. In chemistry, there's usually more than one way to perform an organic synthesis.
I think it's telling that a lot of the wingnuts (for lack of a better word) are the same people who REJECT math and science as "not of God." At best, many often abridge the mathematical and scientific cannon to exclude areas they don't understand or that seem to conflict with what the Bible says. I think that it's BECAUSE the hard sciences start from the premise that there may be another way of looking at things that so many religious fundamentalists have a problem with them.
With regard to Judaism, I'm coming at it from the same place you are and have come to many of the same conclusions. I'll add a few things but I know you have several LJ-friends who are frum who can fill in our blanks.
I'm pretty sure traditional Judaism does believe that there is only one God and that God is IT-- but that non-Jews aren't bound by the same laws as Jews. In order to be considered righteous, Gentiles need only to adhere to the seven laws of Noah, which are fairly universal principles of decent, moral behavior, rather than the 613 mitzvot. I would imagine that more liberal Jewish denominations take an even more liberal approach to non-Jews.
As a liberal intellectual Christian myself, I've always admired the Jewish tradition of literacy. In Christianity, there's a long tradition of keeping the masses uninformed. Clergy in many denominations are called "pastors," leaving the congregation as the figurative "sheep." Until Vatican II, Catholic Masses were said in Latin with the celebrant's back to the congregation. The reformation was noteworthy because it made the Bible more accessible to the masses, but there was an accompanying message that nothing else needed to be studied. Compare that to the bar mitzvah ceremony, where a child becomes and adult by READING.