Originally posted by PsychoPawn
Good question. The thing is, according to Judaism you are still Jewish even if you don't follow the rules so according to Judaism, Jesus was jewish until his dying day.
I don't think there is an objective line.
I still consider myself to be Jewish culturally at least, even though I don't believe in god. I wouldn't say I'm religiously Jewish or anything for that matter.
There is an objective line. If you were born of a Jewish mother you are Jewish, like it or not. Somehow, however, your father doesn't factor into this. If your mother wasn't Jewish and your father was, you are not automatically Jewish.
Like any other religion, not every tenet or bit of dogma makes sense to us now; it may have done when the rule was created.
And in Judaism, I'm not aware there is any rule that is not subject to endless debate and disagreement or interpretation or commentary, or whatever.
For every two Jews there may be, statistically speaking, at least three political parties or religious sects.
A lone Jewish man was castaway on a desert island and was marooned there for half a decade. When finally he was discovered by a passing ship, the crew found the man had made entirely of native materials two perfectly magnificant synagogues at opposite ends of the island.
When the Captain remarked to the man that it appeared the castaway had done this out of a need to keep busy, the castaway contradicted the Captain, saying, "Not at all. I made two because the one on the north end of the island, that's the temple I go to. The one ont h south side, that's the one I don't go to."