Q&A: Why Is There a Need to Seek an Explanation for the World?
Why Is There a Need to Seek an Explanation for the World?
Question
Hello,
After reading Notebooks on Faith 2–3, which argue that the world is complex and therefore apparently requires a component or that everything in the world has a cause, so the world too needs a cause, etc., they are very understandable.
But there is one basic thing I didn’t understand.
Why assume at all that we need to seek an explanation for the world? The world is the way it is because that’s the way it is.
After all, even when a scientist looks for an explanation for a certain phenomenon, he looks for it; if he finds one, wonderful, and if not, too bad.
But why look for a phenomenon that cannot be tested by an empirical test? There is no point in that. Isn’t that so?
Answer
You don’t have to look for anything. But if you do look, this is the most natural explanation. Clearly this does not stem from a scientific issue, but people are interested in non-scientific areas too. For example, afterward you can consider whether the God who gave the Torah connects with the God whose existence was proved by these arguments, and on the other hand the proofs strengthen faith in Him as a commanding God.