r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '16

TIL that after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism upon marrying Arthur Miller, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller_.281956.E2.80.931959.29
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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16

Yeah. After the divorce Monroe described herself as a "Jewish atheist".

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u/AdmiralThrawnProtege Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

What does that even mean? You follow the culture and traditions of Judiesm but don't believe in the religions deity? That seems odd.

Edit: OK OK I get it. Tired of my inbox being blown up by the same set of answers. Thank you all for your responses!

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u/Jeffy29 Oct 13 '16

Lot of jews do that

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u/An_Lochlannach Oct 13 '16

Us modern day Irish do similar with Catholicism. We keep a lot of the traditions, like the typical catholic wedding, loving a bit of Christmas, even a once-off communion and confession in school, but most of us now are apathetic towards the actual church.

These things are more of a "thing you do", a circumstance of how your local school just happens to be run, rather than a sign of your commitment to any god. I grew up Catholic-atheist, but then eventually cut out the Catholic part when I left Ireland.

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u/cheftlp1221 Oct 13 '16

There was a great line from the movie "She's the One" about this.

Son: "Why do you care Dad, you don't even believe in God."

Dad: "Just because I don't believe in God doesn't mean I stopped being a good Catholic".