What is the place of God in Humanistic Judaism?
Humanistic Judaism believes that each Jew has the right to create a meaningful Jewish lifestyle free from supernatural authority and imposed tradition. We do not tell people what to believe, but our philosophy and liturgy is people-centered, rather than God-centered. Since we have no empirical proof that God exists or doesn’t exist, God does not play a central role in our congregational life. Many humanistic Jews are atheists. Just as many are agnostics (they don’t know if God exists) or ignostics (they don’t know if God exists, and God is irrelevant in their lives). We lead secular lives with an emphasis on our Jewish heritage, our connection to our ancestral roots, our history, culture, languages, ethics, rituals and traditions that can be expressed humanistically. Still others consider themselves “believers” – in a force or some greater power, but one that does not have personal control over their lives. They are comfortable with our approach to Jewish life, our liturgy and our comm
