Rabbi Moshe Rat’s Approach to Atheism

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asked 2 years ago

Hello Rabbi, did the Rabbi get to read Rabbi Moshe Rat’s book and simply believe? If so, what do you think of the book’s conclusion, according to which a rational person can only be either religious or agnostic?
He argues this on the basis that (in a very concise way) there are no arguments that God does not exist, only counter-arguments to the claims that God exists (although it could be said that the burden of proof is on the one who claims the absence of God) and therefore the rational person must either believe in the existence of God or believe in our inability to know about his existence.

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מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago

I read it a long time ago. It distinguishes between knowledge and certainty. It is impossible to prove that God does not exist, but it is possible to conclude that he does not exist. Even the proofs that he does exist are based on assumptions that cannot be proven. Therefore, if his intention is to claim that there can be no certainty that God does not exist, that is of course true, and in fact trivial. There is also no certainty that he does exist. Incidentally, Dawkins himself writes that he cannot be certain that God does not exist. He places himself at level 6 out of 7 possible (level 7 is certainty that God does not exist).

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שילה replied 2 years ago

He also mentioned this in the book, but my question was more fundamental: is it really possible to say that since there is no evidence against it, then the rational person will be at most an agnostic?

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

informative