Q&A: Nature Is Impressive, But
Nature Is Impressive, But
Question
Why did the Creator need to create an impressive platform like the laws of nature, which results in an enormous number of galaxies in which there does not seem to be anything relevant to the crown of creation (planet Earth)?
Why, for example, did He not create a platform that would allow our solar system to exist within something much more modest?
How does one answer something like this?
Answer
I do not see any way to answer such a question, but I also do not see any need to. Why do you assume that I can and should understand the Holy One’s policy? You decided that the entire universe has no purpose, but I do not see what that is based on. I do not even see why you think planet Earth is the crown of creation. With a crown like that, there is no need for a crown of thorns.
Discussion on Answer
I did not understand something in the answer.
Isn’t the Creator’s purpose us?
In your opinion, are there other spiritual beings in the universe that the Creator is interested in?
From what I understand from Judaism, everything was created for us. Is it not necessary that this be so?
If the human being is not the purpose of creation, then what is?
And how do so many galaxies serve that purpose (assuming it is not man)?
I am not claiming that you know the answers with certainty. Clearly you do not.
I would just be happy to hear what you think, just as an opinion.
I wrote that I have no idea. You have to ask Him. I also do not know what “Judaism” you are learning such things from. Since I have no information and no way to obtain it, I have neither an opinion nor even just a random opinion on such matters. The question is not whether I have certainty, but the lack of value in the speculations I might offer you.
For example, regarding evolution a similar question arises: why was so much “waste” needed along the way in order to create man? I have no idea, but I also do not know whether there is a shorter way within the framework of rigid laws of nature. The facts say that apparently He wants it this way.
A,
What I wrote elsewhere is that apparently He had a purpose. I also assumed that part of the purpose had to include creatures with free choice. But I do not know why everything else was created, and whether it has an independent purpose or serves creatures with free choice, and in what way it serves them. But I have no idea what the purpose is or who His target audience is. Beyond that, my suggestions in these areas are usually suggestions meant to offer an alternative to a difficulty. But I do not positively stand behind them. And finally, even when I try to understand such things, it is in light of facts (for example, that we have free choice, that there was a revelation, etc.). Baseless speculations do not help us understand anything.
Why was waste needed in order to build man, and is there a shorter way within the framework of rigid laws?
If I remember correctly, you wrote that within the framework of rigid laws this is the best there is until someone proves otherwise.
So He apparently did not want this; rather, all of it is just waste.
The thing is that, unlike various vestigial organs in man, which can be defined as waste, saying that about entire galaxies and suns seems completely different.
Who said there is a shorter way?
I do not see why there is a difference between galaxies and organs in a human being. Relative to the Holy One, it is all a blip. And even if not—that is His consideration.
I want to explain, based on my experience, what the difference is between a vestigial organ in the human body and galaxies—
why the first is acceptable, whereas the second is a bit stranger.
From my experience, if you open a piece of code written by a programmer, you can see all sorts of old functionality that has been put in comments. It has no meaning at all, but apparently at some stage in developing the code it served the programmer.
A vestigial organ in the human body is similar to that code example, because it is one more thing you can accept as having been part of the process of human development. So let us say that can be accepted. And let us also say that I can accept that all the animals that were created along the way until we got to Homo sapiens are also part of the process—also fine, because that serves the process of creating man.
But if man and planet Earth really are the crown of creation (a completely reasonable assumption), why was there still a need to create, within the platform called the “laws of nature,” all sorts of galaxies, suns, and so on, if they do not seem to be connected to man at all and do not serve him in any way?
That is, I can understand theists who get confused by this issue, or atheists for whom this gives some justification to their feeling.
I do not know what was unclear here. There are laws of nature of physics and chemistry and biology that produce an evolutionary process. They are also responsible for the formation of inanimate matter in the universe. As part of those laws, stars and galaxies are formed. That is a consequence of those laws. It is exactly like unnecessary organs in man.
Why here do you assume that you cannot and need not understand policy,
whereas elsewhere you assign various probabilities to His policy (“religious” motives that make the revelation at Mount Sinai plausible)