POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
A combination of statements, questions, and suggestions for developing possible answers, presented as a basis for stimulating discussion within a SEED partnership.
Key to symbols:- (S) Statements,
(Q) Questions,
(PA) Possible Answers.
In keeping with all our Discussion Point titles, this is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, only suggested guidelines for the partnership to develop.
1. INTRODUCTION
"Can one prove that G-d exists?"
We have to bear in mind that the biggest question in history surely demands a bit of effort.
Axiomatically, G-d is an Infinite Being. Studying something infinite may take time.
Mayer Schiller, in "The Road Back", (Feldheim), lists 25 classical angles taken by various thinkers to "prove" that G-d exists. We do not intend going that far, but both partners are recommended to read his book at some stage.
We supply a few lines to follow and a few ideas for further development.
2. Atta Horesa Lada'as
IT WAS SHOWN TO YOU THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT HASHEM IS G-D. (Deut. 4 35)
(S) The value in one person "proving" the existence of G-d to another could be questioned.
The line we shall follow is, that where questioners genuinely want to find the answer, we can direct them to it. The verse quoted indicates that once a person finds out for himself/herself, the knowledge will be meaningful and valuable.
(Q) Is the knowledge we are talking about here comparable to, say, mathematical knowledge, or can we see any difference between the two types of knowledge.
(PA) "Knowledge" of G-d, and for that matter knowledge of Torah, is not like the knowledge of a secular discipline. It is not simply an intellectual exercise. It is an acquisition of, and an attachment to, a deep, meaningful, emotional, experiential awareness, an awareness which has a meaning to the person experiencing it but not necessarily the same meaning to anyone else. Of course there has to be an empirical basis to it. The information has to be supported by intellectually and logically watertight proofs. But at the same time there is an extra dimension to the knowledge beyond the coldly intellectual.
meChochmah le'Binoh, umiBinoh le'Da'as. "Da'as, zeh hamakir es Bore'o". Bamidbar Rabbah resh perek yud.
(Q) What difference is there between the human capacity to absorb and accept information about G-d's existence, to information about, say, mathematics?
(Q) What options are there available to us to help us arrive at an awareness of the Creator?
AN INTRODUCTORY PARABLE.
(S) You are Chinese and cannot recognise a single Latin character. You ask me how to get to the next town. I explain to you how to get there and you set out in your car. You trust me and you believe me and set out according to my instructions. As you drive along you see road signs but they are meaningless. Maybe you are on the wrong track! Maybe I misled you! But you believe me and carry on. When you arrive in the next town you manage to inquire and you find out that you have indeed arrived at your destination. Till now you had to believe that I told you the truth. Now that you are there, you know I told you the truth. You get to know the way to the town, and next time you wish to get there you do not need to believe me, because now you know.
So it is with anything we might be told about G-d. We will need to believe what we are told only in so far as being guided in the direction we seek to go. But we have no way of knowing whether we are being told the truth or not. We will only know when we know for ourselves; when we "get there".
There is emes, truth, and there is emunah, belief. We know some ideas to be emes, true. Other ideas we have heard but not yet grasped. We believe them with emunah, with trust, till we understand them to be emes, true. Emunah is only necessary where we have not yet reached the emes. (Rav Tzadok HaKohen. Machshebot Charutz.) As we climb the ladder of truth, the rungs behind us are emes, the rungs ahead are still emunah.
Please note, then, the difference between "knowing" and "believing".
3. SOME FACTORS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT BY ANYONE WISHING TO PROVE TO ONESELF THE EXISTENCE OF G-D. (BRIEFLY.)
A. Subjective.
B. Objective.
C. Historical.
D. Blockages.
A. THE SUBJECTIVE FACTOR
(S) A human, by virtue of his finite, physical nature, is very different to the infinite, transcendent G-d. This difference makes it difficult for the human to grasp the Creator. It is like being on a different wavelength, like trying to catch a television picture on a radio receiver. The resolution to this difficulty lies in the human trying to move onto the correct wavelength. The more different the human, the more difficult the vision. The more similar the human to the Creator, the easier the vision. When the Torah tells us that humans were created in "the image of G-d", the Torah is telling us that the human has the potential to become similar to G-d. By saying this, the Torah is also telling us that one can get near to G-d. In this case similarity and nearness are synonymous. The more similar one is to G-d, the nearer one is, and the nearer one is, the easier it is to "see" G-d.
For example, the person who practices kindness is "nearer" to G-d than a cruel person, and is, therefore, the more capable of relating to G-d. One way to get to "see" G-d is to practice those actions which will make us similar. These are spelled out in the Torah. (Mitzvos; although not all fit precisely into this category.)
A perusal of Mitzvah No. 16 in Sefer HaHinnuch, (in English, The Book of Mitzvah Education, translated by Rabbi Charles Wengrov, Feldheim Publishers), will provide original source material which elaborates on parts of this scheme.
Another way of drawing "nearer" to G-d is to study Torah. This has the effect of making our thought-patterns "similar" to G-d's. However, Torah without Mitzvos will not get us to our goal.
B. AN OBJECTIVE PROOF
(Q) Is there any logical proof of G-d's existence?
(Q) If there is, why do so many people not accept the fact of G-d's existence.
(PA) Possibly the most famous "proof" of the existence of G-d available to us is illustrated by the conversation between an atheist and Rabbi Akiva.
Atheist: "Who created the world?"
Rabbi Akiva: "G-d created the world."
Atheist: "Show me clear proof."
Rabbi Akiva: "Who wove the clothes you are wearing?"
Atheist: "A weaver of course."
Said Rabbi Akiva, "The same as cloth testifies to a weaver, a door to a carpenter and a house to a builder, so the world testifies to a Creator."
This is known as "The argument from design." (Teleological) It is elaborated upon by various writers, amongst Jews by, for example, Rabbenu Bachya ibn Pakudah in "Chovos HaLevavos".
"The Obvious Proof" by M. Goldenson and G. Robinson elaborates on this proof.
Lawrence Kelemen's "Permission to Believe", Targum/Feldheim, is highly recommended to questioners. It deals with this proof in one of its chapters.
Please obtain copies of these books and read the relevant parts.
C. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
(Q) Is there any proof from History of the existence of the Creator?
(PA) Historical proof is one associated with Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi in his famous "Kuzari". (This takes a central position in SEED "Challenge" Seminars.)
Why do the ten commandments open with G-d's description of Himself as the one who took us out of Egypt, rather than as the Creator of the World?
No one witnessed the creation, says Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi. The Exodus, on the other hand, was witnessed by 1 200 000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 60, apart from those over 60 and those under 20, a total of some three to four (or five?) million people.
This information has been passed down through the generations along a massively broad front, for example in the uninterrupted tradition of the Pesach Seder. Year after year, every Jewish family has gathered together at the family Seder to transmit this vital historical testimony. Daily we refer to it in the Shema.
Subsequent to the Exodus, the same number of people were witnesses to the Revelation of G-d at Sinai. They all heard Him speaking to them. They knew He was there and what He was.
The Torah (Deut. 4. 32/33) challenges humanity to find another such claim to mass Revelation, anywhere in history. There will never ever be such a claim, for the simple reason that such a claim cannot possibly be invented. One cannot fool large numbers of people and tell them they saw what they did not see and heard what they did not hear. The existence of such a claim amongst a complete nation, transmitted unchallenged by hundreds of thousands of people for thousands of years, is a historical testimony to the truth of the claim.
D. BLOCKAGES
(Q) Why do so many people not accept the evidence available pointing to G-d's existence?
(PA) Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, one of the most powerful Jewish thinkers of the pre-WW2 years, wrote a very concise, terse, even aggressive, "Essay on Faith" (Printed in the pamphlet, Epoch of the Messiah.)
This is not gentle instruction to the uninitiated. This is strong language for the believer faced by atheists.
In no-nonsense style he states very emphatically that the truth of G-d's existence is so obvious from the existence and complexity of Creation that it is only due to the following that so many do not recognise Him.
The forbidden pleasures of life act as a blinding bribe to the mind, blocking recognition of the obvious. Bribed by our passions and weaknesses, our minds are rendered incapable of objective observation. Bribery will affect any human mind, even the mind of a Moshe Rabbenu, and create blockages.
The biggest blockage to a recognition of the Creator is the threat that the information will force us to admit our previous mistake and to change our lifestyle.
In psychology, this is known as "cognitive dissonance". We do not wish to accept any information which will cause us discomfort.
STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH.
The famous scientist and philosopher, Aldous Huxley, wrote the following towards the end of his life;
I had reasons not to want the world to have meaning, and as a result I assumed the world had no meaning, and I was readily able to find satisfactory grounds for this assumption. ....for me, as it undoubtedly was for most of my generation,, the philosophy of meaninglessness was an instrument of liberation from a certain moral system. We were opposed to morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.Rav Elchonon's line is a more powerful, more "negative", version of our section A. Generally speaking, this position cannot be recognised by someone who is caught in it. (Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Mesilas Yeshorim).It is only when the influence of the "bribe" has been shaken off that one can "see" this clearly. (It happened to Huxley in his old age for obvious reasons.)Confessions of a Professional Free-Thinker, 1966.
4. CONCLUSION.
We are by no way suggesting that this information, or ten times as much information, should make us so presumptive as to assume that we can "prove" the existence of G-d to ourselves or someone else.
We repeat our original position:-
IN A NUTSHELL.
There is only one person who can prove the existence of G-d to a questioner, and that is the questioner himself.
Someone else can only indicate the direction to follow.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Reading matter on this subject;
PERMISSION TO BELIEVE. by Lawrence Kelemen.
Chapter 4 deals with the "Argument from Design", utilising DNA as the leading example, and picks massive holes in neo-Darwinism. Chapter 3 deals with the Cosmological approach. Both these chapters are recommended to inquirers with a capacity to read simple scientific information.
His other chapters deal with the "Moral Approach" and a Historical proof.
THE ROAD BACK by Mayer Schiller.
The whole of the first part of this book will be of use. His excellent overview of modern western European history is of great help in putting matters into perspective.
THE OBVIOUS PROOF by M. Goldenson and G. Robinson.
Tapes on this subject;
EVIDENCE OF G-D'S EXISTENCE. by Rabbi Noach Weinberg.
four tapes, WN781 A-D; Rabbi Weinberg's warm personality makes this an enjoyable tape for both partners. Please make a point of getting hold of a copy.
Rabbi Abraham Hassan can be contacted on 0161 740 0906, or write at abraham@seed2.demon.co.uk