Q&A: A Doubtful Believer
A Doubtful Believer
Question
A person who examined philosophically whether, in his view, the Holy One, blessed be He, exists and truly gave the Torah, and came to the conclusion that he is not convinced of either side more than the other. That is, he is in complete doubt whether God exists or not, and in complete doubt whether the Torah is true; both sides seem roughly equally reasonable to him.
A. In your opinion, should such a person observe the commandments out of doubt?
B. Can such a person be counted toward a prayer quorum?
Answer
A. “Should” is not the question. He himself will decide whether he wants to observe them. The question is whether the commandments count for him in such a state. I think yes, as long as there is still a significant side of him that says yes.
B. I am inclined to think so.
Discussion on Answer
That is Pascal’s wager. In my view it has no value. See column 661.
I read what you wrote in column 661.
A. What about a person who believes on philosophical grounds? Meaning, it is not that half of him directly believes in God’s existence; rather, he weighed philosophical arguments, and on their basis thinks there is a 50% chance that God must exist. Seemingly, according to what you wrote in the column, such a person cannot be considered a believer.
B. What about a person who does have a direct intuition regarding God’s existence, except that his doubt is precisely about the validity of that intuition itself—whether it can be taken seriously, or whether it is, say, an evolutionary/cultural product or something like that?
A. I didn’t understand the question. As far as I recall, that column did not deal with such a person.
B. It is a doubt like any other doubt.
I’ll add to the question—
A similar person, who thinks the probability of God’s existence and the truth of the Torah is lower than the probability of atheism, but chooses to observe the commandments out of doubt and fear of punishment—do the commandments count for him, and does he join a prayer quorum?