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Non-religious majority

שו”תCategory: faithNon-religious majority
asked 1 year ago

I’m pretty sure that most of the world is not religious/believes in God – isn’t it more likely that this majority is right?
If the answer is that we prefer to trust reason rather than the majority (or any other answer), what is the explanation(s) for why most of the world does not believe?
I would be happy to at least refer to the source (honestly, I didn’t have enough time and energy to check the website or your first book).
thanks


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מיכי Staff answered 2 months ago
And if the majority does believe, is that a reason for others to believe? I’m not at all sure that the majority doesn’t believe. On the contrary, I tend to think the opposite. But in my opinion, the majority really doesn’t matter. As he wrote in the book of education: Even if there are many ignorant people like the Egyptians who think something – why does it matter? What matters is the arguments, not the number of those arguing. See column 247-8 and several others.

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עט מלחמה replied 1 year ago

A reason for others, I think for some yes, thanks for the response.

אבי replied 1 year ago

I don't know if it matters, but your assumption is technically incorrect. The percentage of atheists in the world is a few percent, with estimates ranging from 3-9%. See here:
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%90%D7%99%D7%96%D7%9D

פתחתקוואי replied 1 year ago

The incident with Rabbi Yonatan Eybshitz is well known, when the priest asked him, "In your opinion, we follow the majority, so Christianity is the truth because we are the majority." Rabbi Yonatan replied, "Only in doubt do we follow the majority."

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

This is not the same question. The priest wanted to convince R’ Jonathan according to the law itself (what the law says to do). Here there is a philosophical question that deals with truth itself (who is right).

פתחתקוואי replied 1 year ago

But apparently it's the same logic. According to the halakha, when I don't have knowledge, I follow the majority, and when I do have knowledge, I can even go against the majority, since the majority has no intrinsic virtue, but rather a quantitative one. The same is true of the question of who is right. If I have an intrinsic reason to believe in one side, even if the other side is the majority, I have no reason to follow the majority.

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

It should be discussed and decided.

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