Not necessarily, which I believe is a politer way of saying, "who the hell are you to determine how another person defines themselves?". An atheist Jew might still not want to deny his or her Jewishness, whether you think there's "only one answer" they can give or not. Hell, you can BE an atheist and still be a practicing Jew--it's not a belief-based religion, like Christianity is.
Even if all atheist Jews agreed with your implacable logic about how they must define themselves, that would still result in an underreporting of the number of Jews in the US, which was my original point. Allen Esterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Surely it all depends on how the question is worded. If the survey asks what is the respondent's religion, then someone of Jewish descent who is an atheist has only one answer: Atheist. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Robin Abrahams www.boston.com/missconduct Notices at the bottom of this e-mail do not reflect the opinions of the sender. I do not "yahoo" that I am aware of. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
