There is an interesting post today on Existential Angst. XGH tells us:
“I have made it my business over the past year or so to ask frum people why they believe in God. I have asked Modern Orthodox people and I have asked Chareidi people. I have asked young people and I have asked old people. I have asked laymen and I have asked Rabbis. And not just any old Rabbis, but Rabbis with phds from Ivy League schools.”
His results so far are the following:
"EVERY SINGLE PERSON, UNDER PERSISTENT QUESTIONING, TURNS OUT TO HAVE NO GOOD BASIS FOR THEIR BELIEF."
That led me to try and present my own and current perspective on this question. In stating it, I do not really intend to get into a debate with atheists or agnostics. It is a “no win” proposition. Many atheists are very bright and well read and many of their questions do not have answers that will satisfy them. In most cases they demand proof. And proof is impossible. All they see is evidence to the contrary.
As an aside, from a believing perpsective, our Mesorah tells us that proof of God’s existence would eliminate Bechira Chofshis, the freedom to choose belief or non belief... right from wrong etc. We must be given such freedom in order to be able to live up to God’s “test”. This means that God put us on this earth and gave us free will in order to see if we will do His bidding. Without that free will, it would not be a test and there would be no purpose for our existence.
Why He did that? ...Why did He create us in order to test us? I don’t think man can know the answer to that question. Perhaps the Baalei Machshava, Jewish thinkers and philosophers, can help us here.
But in any case, I thought it might be helpful to state my perspective to those who are grappling with this issue who are on the so called fence about belief in God. There are some individuals who want to believe... but cannot think of any reason to. To those people, I present my perspective.
There is one caveat with this post. I will reject any attempt to promote Kefira, or Atheism, in the comments section. While I encourage any atheist who wishes to comment to do so, I will not entertain any attempts by them to convince others of the legitimacy of their position of denying God’s existence. This blog does not allow that. This is an Emunah blog, as the name suggests, not a Kefira blog. With that in mind, I present the following which is more or less off the top of my head.
Why do I believe? It has nothing to do with proof and everything to do with logic and probabilities.
1) Existence of the physical universe cannot have logically self generated. It is intellectually unsatisfying to say that matter was just 'always there'. It is much more logical to say that it was created. There must be a First Cause. That First Cause is the Creator. (Call Him by any name.) To ask the question always heard from atheists "Well,who caused (or created) God then?" is silly. If 'God' was caused (created) by an "Earlier Cause" then he isn't God. His Creator is. At some point there has to be a First Cause. That is who God is.
And since we cannot detect him with any of the 5 physical senses, He must be outside the physical universe. Once you deduce that there must be a Creator and that by definition He must be in another universe (for lack of a better definition, let us call it the spiritual universe) it becomes clearer and more rational to comprehend how the physical universe came into being and why we can’t prove a Creator’s existence.
2) The near infinite unlikelihood of the random development of the entire physical universe in all its radiant glory, majesty, and complexity, including and especially the biological species with man as the most complex.
3) Even if one isn't sure, since God cannot be proven or disproven, why not err on the side of caution? What if He does exist?
These 3 points do not tell us the validity of Judaism over any other religion. And the last point only suggests that if God exists, He probably had a purpose for creation. And this in turn suggests that He wants us to follow His will. And flowing from this is that following His will has consequences... good ones if we do and bad ones if we don’t. By erring on the side of caution, we do His bidding and avoid the possible negative consequences of not doing His bidding.
What does God want from man? That is the subject of every religion that believes in a Creator that cares about His creations.
Judaism believes that the word of God is contained in scripture as dictated to Moses at Sinai and written in the Torah, the five books of Moses. Other faith communities have their own understanding of God’s will.
Why do I believe in the Torah over what others believe? That is beyond the scope of this essay. But it is clear to me that: 1) There is a God . 2)He is actively involved in our lives. And 3)He wants us to follow His will.
