Category talk:Converts to Judaism from atheism or agnosticism

Problematic category
Two of the people in this category (Will Herberg and David P. Goldman) were born into secular Jewish families, were atheists for a while, and become more religious later in life. I assume Eliyahu Rips has a similar story. Being "brought up in a secular Jewish family," which is how Herberg's article describes him, isn't synonymous with being "brought up as an atheist"; it's not unlikely that these people observed Judaism to some extent as children. To me it doesn't make sense to describe someone as a "convert" if they didn't go through a formal conversion process but are just returning to their childhood religion. As for Christian B. Anfinsen and Mary Doria Russell, those articles don't say anything about their former religious beliefs, so I don't see how this category can be applied.Prezbo (talk) 05:32, 4 January 2010 (UTC)


 * By the same token Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is the only article in Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from atheism or agnosticism; but he was raised Russian Orthodox. Maybe there's nothing better to call these people but they aren't exactly converts.Prezbo (talk) 05:48, 4 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Articles here are often rather incomplete on religious issues. Augustin-Louis Cauchy's didn't mention his Catholicism until I mentioned and his religious or political views are important to understanding certain events in his life. Anyway Profile of Anfinsen and Biography of Russell. That being said I'd be okay with all the subcategory of "former atheists and agnostics" being upmerged. I just created this one because if we're not going to upmerge than this seemed like a missing sub-category. Although I'd be okay with it being renamed "converts and reverts to Judaism" yotta yotta. In the case of Russell she is just "from atheism" as she was raised Catholic, but was atheist for decades before her conversion.--T. Anthony (talk) 06:09, 4 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Forget it, I don't have a solution so I guess I shouldn't have waded into this. Maybe I'll CFD these categories at some point.  I'm sorry for bringing up Anfinsen and Russell because those kinds of cases aren't really the issue.Prezbo (talk) 06:31, 4 January 2010 (UTC)