Q&A: Belief in God
Belief in God
Question
Hi,
If I claim that I believe in God because only that way do I manage to understand the world and make sense of it, is that a pragmatic claim? And if so, how could I improve it?
Do you think the question depends on whether I want an orderly world and therefore invent God, or alternatively whether I see and am convinced that there is order in the world, and consequently there is God?
Thanks
Answer
You phrased it very well at the end. If you think that an orderly world means there is someone who created it, then you believe. If you want order and therefore assume there is God, that is pragmatism. If you do not know which of the two applies to you, that is a question for a psychologist.
Discussion on Answer
Then go to another psychologist. This is a question in psychology.
You could say that you believe that if you want something, then that desire does not just exist for no reason, and at some point it is supposed to be fulfilled in some way (that is, desires do not just exist for nothing, and they have some connection to external reality). Then the two formulations come together, and you believe in God and are not a pragmatist.
But the psychologist will surely answer that it is opium for the masses. So the question really is meant for a rabbi.