I'd be the last person in the world to deny that there are many people for whom faith is - can be a great sustaining force. Susan Jacoby More Quotes by Susan Jacoby More Quotes From Susan Jacoby More than half of Americans have changed religions at least once in their adult lifetime. This is - the rate of religious conversion here is much, much higher than it is anywhere in Europe, for example. Susan Jacoby adults religious europe If you chose a particular religion, you were siding with the government religion of whatever region you were in. That's never been true in America, but also, the United States also has so many more immigrant groups which also tends to imply more religious diversity right away. Susan Jacoby government religious america People think that, that conversion to Judaism is just a modern phenomenon. But there was an era in the late Roman Empire Judaism was not a proselytizing religion. It didn't go out looking for converts, but it accepted converts. Susan Jacoby empires people thinking One of the interesting things is is that Judaism was very attractive to the Roman aristocracy. Susan Jacoby aristocracy attractive interesting The Roman Empire was fairly tolerant of religious choice as long as you made a point not of thumbing your nose in public at the Roman gods. Susan Jacoby choices religious long If you believe in what I do, which is secular humanism, I would find it extremely difficult to live with someone - not to love someone - but to live with somebody and build a life of someone who disagreed with me on something so fundamental. Susan Jacoby difficult fundamentals believe I completely can't understand people of different faiths who say that their children will choose when they grow up. I think that if you believe in a religion, most people believe that it's right. Susan Jacoby growing-up believe children I believe that whether one believes in God or not is - it's very central to who I am. Susan Jacoby i-believe who-i-am believe I still do find the prayers of the Kaddish quite moving, and I just substitute in my mind nature, although that's what the founders did in a lot of their documents, too. They substituted nature or providence for God. I think that's what I do in my head with Jewish God. Susan Jacoby prayer moving thinking I feel culturally Jewish because of the way that I have lived my adult life. Susan Jacoby adults feels way I no more believe in the God of the Jews than I believe in any God. Susan Jacoby i-believe-in i-believe believe I don't see why any president has to talk about his belief in God. Susan Jacoby belief-in-god president belief A person can be religious and still respect secular values and not talk about Jesus all the time as though every American believed in Jesus. Susan Jacoby secular religious jesus I wanted to know how much of conversion was forced - that is, forced in the sense that the Inquisition forced people to choose - forced Jews, let's say, and Muslims to choose conversion to Christianity or death. I wanted to see how much of conversion historically was forced in that way and how much of it was really a kind of persuasion. Susan Jacoby kind people way