In the late '70's, "Roots" had everyone talking and asking about ethnic background. I would answer "Jewish", because that is my heritage; but I hardly knew a thing about Judaism beyond that. Research led to a decade-long honest attempt to "be" a Jew. I finally had to admit that all the praying and god-talk didn't ring true. I was acting out a belief in things that I knew inside were imaginary. Honesty forced me to abandon my pretend religiosity, although by that time I had a Jewish wife and son. My restless mind returned to my first intellectual love, biology. Beginning with the basics - "Microbiology of the Cell" - I have read Dawkins, Darwin, Gould, Mayer, Wilson, and many others, including Lewontin and Rose, who I consider "the loyal opposition". Most of the material is high-end popular science, with the occasional technical book thrown in for flavor. I understand the world, including myself, from a biological point of view; biology informs my philosophy of self in much the same way, I suppose, as scripture informs the world view of a theist. The central character in Joanne Greenberg, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" calls herself a "Newtonian" when she gives up religion. I picked up "Godless Jew" from Peter Gay, probability from quantum theory, and refer to myself as "Stochastic Newtonian Godless Jew" - an expression of what I do believe, rather than "atheist", which, although accurate, refers only to what I don't.

HR and IT

Biology, Psychology