Q&A: Question Following the Reading of the Book ‘Truth and Not Stable’
Question Following the Reading of the Book ‘Truth and Not Stable’
Question
Dear Rabbi,
I read the book eagerly, and I have to say that I found myself a rabbi in the area of thought that has been troubling me for quite a long time.
Precisely out of identifying with the entire line of argument of the book, a question came up for me.
The claim that develops throughout the book is that a person understands that a certain claim is true to the extent that he confirms it and it appears reasonable to him. One can reach reasonableness at certain levels, but there is no possibility of reaching certainty regarding any claim. This is fundamentalism.
Based on this, I ask myself whether a person really ought to live with the awareness that it is probable that the sun will rise tomorrow, probable that my children love me, probable that God watches over the Jewish people.
In my humble opinion, people do not live with such a perception, and there is something unreasonable about it.
I will try to elaborate. Newton formulated the laws of motion and the force of gravity. These laws were found to be incorrect at high energies, high speeds, and near enormous masses. But is there not certainty that a given body will obey the force of gravity as Newton formulated it under the simple conditions that prevail on Earth? Of course there is. There is no reason for a person to live with the awareness that ‘it is probable that the pen will fall onto the table.’
In the same way, there is no reason for a person to live with the perception that ‘it is probable that my children love me.’ That does not mean there is no possibility otherwise, but in any normal situation the recognition that children love their parents is beyond mere probability.
And likewise regarding faith. Above I chose divine providence over the Jewish people. The world has conducted itself since the days of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in such a way that there is special providence over the Jewish people, and therefore the Jewish people succeeded in places where no nation succeeded (return to the land, revival of the language, etc.), and therefore there is certainty in this claim. If a different reality is ever revealed, that certainty will be undermined, but as long as this is how the world is conducted, there is certainty here. True, there are no proofs for this, but this is reality. When the world conducts itself differently, we will be forced to think differently, but until then there is certainty.
To sum up: although with respect to the overwhelming majority of claims about the world one can speak only of probability, is there not some space of claims regarding which there is certainty even though there is no logical proof? Is there no possibility of ‘returning’ to the definition in the Book of Principles that faith is certain knowledge that I cannot prove?
Does a person who boards an airplane on the basis of trusting the engineers who built it and science, etc., not live with certainty (or something close to certainty) in the laws of science?
I hope I managed to make myself clear
Answer
Hello,
You are conflating the question of whether there is certainty with the question of what I feel or with what kind of consciousness I am supposed to live. Those are two different things. I have no problem with you living with a consciousness of certainty, as long as you understand that things may turn out to be wrong. A consciousness of certainty is not certainty. You do not need to live with the feeling that everything is shaky, but you do need to understand that this is the situation.
As for providence, I do not agree with your comparison between that and the laws of nature. There is no comparison between the levels of certainty in the two cases. Providence is something you can never see, and therefore the conclusion that there is such a thing is far from justifying even a feeling of certainty. Of course, if you want to delude yourself—be my guest.