On blind faith and the influence of the environment on our faith
Hello Rabbi,
Last week I hitchhiked from the north to the center of the country, a trip of about three hours. During the conversation, the driver and I got into a long argument about politics, morality, and especially faith. The driver had been a strict atheist for many years, an apostate of any faith. Out of the whole discussion, he asked me one question that really gave me a lot to think about.
Let’s take for example a certain person who is a customer of one of the cellular companies. He is disappointed with their service, their prices, his browsing package, etc. Now he will probably look for a new package with another company. He will do a thorough market survey, compare prices, ask friends, etc., everything to find the most affordable and best package for him. He is willing to do all of this just for ten shekels less or 50 more text messages, per month.
Now, let’s assume that person is also religious (no matter what religion). Most often, you can see a global statistic that says that most Muslims are Muslim because their father was Muslim, and most Christians are too, and so on for every religion or belief or lack of belief in the world, and of course Judaism too. Religion affects all parts of a person’s life. It costs him much more than ten shekels a month, limits him in countless areas of life, and yet you won’t see anyone “comparing prices.”
How can everyone believe so much that their way is the truth without having checked the other “true” religions? This is seemingly blind faith! The well-known saying goes that “a million Chinese are not wrong” so how is it possible not to check their faith at all? Or any other faith?
I received some post-modern answers on the matter (all religions are true, and each of them has its own special way to reach the truth, so there’s no point in going through it, etc. etc.). I didn’t really accept that, and I guess the rabbi didn’t either.
I would love to hear how the rabbi understands and explains the reality.
thanks!
A. First, even secular people don’t examine their path. It’s not the nature of a believer, but human nature. He tends to follow what he’s used to. By the way, even in communication packages you won’t find that many who make comparisons, etc. Many (in my estimation, the very large majority) stay with Cellcom or the general Kofach, regardless of what happens to them.
Second, I am all for testing, both for the secular and the religious. I try to test my beliefs all the time, and also update them from time to time (much to the chagrin of many, as you can see on my website).
on. So much for your driver’s psychological argument. But perhaps he meant a substantive argument and not just a psychological one. He intended to argue that people don’t really believe, because everyone remains in the faith they were born with. This is a logical argument, and one that is indeed debatable.
But here there is an error. The fact that there are many opinions (and let’s assume for the sake of discussion that none of them are consistent with all the others), let’s say n, does not mean that everyone is right, nor that everyone is wrong. It says that there are n-1 wrong people and one is right. Now the question is who is right? Since I have no objective way to examine this, all I can do is examine it with my own mind. Therefore, we returned to the previous (psychological) section that says that indeed we should examine ourselves. But after we examined and reached a conclusion – this is the best we have. And the Torah was not given (if it was given at all) to the ministering angels. The skeptical conclusion is not required by this argument.
Especially if the vast majority of people really don’t check, then the weight of the fact that they come to different conclusions isn’t very high. There are a lot of fools with a lot of conclusions in the world. So what? Does that mean that when I think and conclude something I’m necessarily wrong? I don’t see how you come to such a conclusion.
Dear H’ and his driver
If a million Chinese tell you that 1+1=3 then it is true? Come on..
The truth is on its own side and not on the side of the majority that says it.
The truth, if a million Chinese are not wrong does not mean that a million were not deceived, right?
A million Chinese are buried in statues so…..they are not wrong?
Your driver should have explained to you the essence of being a Datl” what transferred him to the other side… your claim that there must be a different package Well, what package did he ”choose” If atheists, choose, then well, what package is better? By the way, I did not understand in comparison what “loss” he has in Judaism?
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