You have an excellent grasp of the situation!
Thank you!
Im a pretty staunch atheist.
I find ALL abrahamic religions to being corrosive to society. We should be been colonizing space already with vastly superior societies and medical care as compared to now. Religion holds us back and creates an atmosphere of conflict, magical thinking, and willful ignorance. I hope we are currently living thru a change in attitude where people abandon this nonsense and create meaning and community free from ancient tombs of superstitious nonsense. People should just be a loving community without an imaginary man in the sky forcing them to be nice to one another under punishment of eternal hell fire or a reward of paradise. Just done be an asshle and treat others as you want to be treated. no need for 10 commandments. You just need one - don't be an asshole.
you are correct in stating that the more moderate voices are disappearing and the older more conservative and hard line faithful are the only ones left. This is a problem, but i think that once most of the boomers drop dead that will change. Thy are holding on to the dead value systems and wont let go until you pry it from their cold dead hands.
You currently have and entire generation that watched live on TV, as children, as mega religious assholes crashed planes into skyscrapers and killed 3000 people in the name of god. They also watched the middle east goes up in flames and turns into a religious civil war with no borders. Millennials are utterly disgusted with religion and want nothing to do with it. That generations children will probably want nothing to do with it either, even more so.
That being said, since i have experienced a reform judaism first hand, its pretty laid back and chill. I like the focus on "community" and "mitzvah". The torah babble is nonsense and some of the messages are extremely disturbing, like any abrahamic religion. Thankfully they discuss this stuff and talk through the nonsense to get to the core message.
I personally find the whole "israel" situation to be an inevitable disaster. Some crazy asshole, probably a jihadi, is going to do something terrible there and kill an ungodly amount of people at some point i believe... then WW3 starts, with a religious undertone. I dont think it will end well for israel, sadly. It will be tragic beyond words.
Overall i find reformed judaism to be pretty laid back and more "sane" than other religions. Purnim is a BLAST! And the music is amazing!
I have never been treated so kindly by an employer in my life. They are amazing at the temple i work at. Its really like a family - even for an atheist.
Shabbat Shalom!