There’s a promising tagline about morality transcending religious belief. But then Lucia Hudson, former Jesuit-trained convert to Judaism, explains that in the debate between religion and atheism, it needn’t be the case that either side will win as such, and even if we can explain the universe entirely without God technically the model could still be wrong so we could still believe, and believing in God is like looking at a rainbow times a million (you definitely wouldn’t get it if you don’t believe) and if only people of all religions and beliefs could stop trying to outdo each other, because they’re all the same really, except that the Torah is better than any other book and Judaism is more alive and more timely than any other religion, and atheism might imply moral relativism which is bad.

The faultline is deepening between those who see themselves as having a faith and those who do not. And it is deepening in part because of a mistaken perception one side has of the other: that only one world view can prevail. We must challenge the assumption that one side has to be wrong for the other side to be right.

I converted to Judaism after being brought up a Catholic, educated by French Jesuits in Paris. My religion may have changed, but my faith in God has provided a fixed point, as has my faith in the power of reason and choice. I was not driven away from Roman Catholicism, but was drawn to Judaism, especially Liberal Judaism, its blend of tradition and modernity, its elegant mix of questing and questioning.

Far from seeing that it was a choice between the two, I spotted similarities, much to the surprise of my rabbinic board…

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/13/dont-let-dogma-divide-us