Posted by julia from dhcp100049.res-hall.northwestern.edu (199.74.100.49) on Friday, June 07, 2002 at 2:27PM :
In Reply to: Re: from aina posted by panch from ? (204.120.48.3) on Friday, June 07, 2002 at 8:24AM :
: Anyone who isn't Christian, can be Assyrian...since Assyrians were never Christians.
===> I would qualify it to say 'Anyone who isn't Christian can be Assyrian (if you take Assyrian to mean an interest in Assyria, or ethnically from blah blah blah...) ...but a large number of Assyrians consider themselves Christian.
There is no static past condition that "Assyrians were Christians." Hypothetically all Assyrians could believe in the god Parhad tomorrow, and still stay Assyrian because I don't believe being Christian is a necessary precondition for being Assyrian. There is a high correlation of Assyrians who are Christian, but it is illogical to make the correlation of those two variables (being Assyrian and Being Christian)the necessary defintion of an Assyrian.
It's like saying, a large number of assyrians have a big nose. Therefore being Assyrian necessarily means having a big nose. That of course is not true.
Any Jew who switches allegence to another god is no longer a Jew...am I right?
Yes and no -
I know plenty of Jews who are atheists, but they still consider themselves Jewish. To them being jewish is having some cultural proclivities which does not necessarily mean a faith in Judaism.
-- julia
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