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Religion and Physics

שו”תReligion and Physics
asked 7 years ago

In honor of Rabbi Doctor Michael Avraham .
Hello.
We corresponded by email last night, and at your request I’m continuing the discussion here. I’ll briefly recap the main points:
I presented my position that physics and religion are two essentially contradictory approaches to the question of how the world works, and that they cannot be reconciled in any way.
Your answer was that you do agree, but precisely because of this it is wrong to identify a religious view with an alternative explanation for reality. You wrote: “In several places on my website I have maintained that the scientific view of reality suggests that the world operates in a deterministic manner according to the laws of nature (perhaps with the exception of sporadic exceptions whose existence cannot be ruled out). Therefore, religiosity today should focus on observing and studying Halacha, and not on interacting with God through reality.”
First, thank you for your clear and sharp response.
But let me disagree with you.
In my opinion, it is impossible to base a religious concept solely on the observance and study of halakha in isolation from the physical worldview. Because the question immediately arises as to why halakha is binding? If there is nothing more here than a system of laws and morality, there is no reason for me to subject myself to this system in particular. It makes more sense for me to formulate halakha as I see fit, according to my morality.
As is known, at the beginning of the Book of the Khazari, the Jewish sage presents Judaism to the Khazarian king as a religion that is based primarily on specific miracles that happened to our ancestors. He explains to the king that only in this way can the religion be established. In fact, even the king initially argued that the religion should be established on faith in the Creator who rules the world. In other words, it is clear that religion cannot be solely a law; if it is not accompanied by a certain perception of the physical world, then there is no reason for law to have a more special status than any other system of laws.
According to your approach, Judaism (at least during this period) is nothing more than a set of values, in which case you will not be able to present a convincing argument as to why I should hold to this set of values.
I would love to hear your opinion.

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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 7 years ago

See a proposal in my fifth notebook here on the site that deals with such a foundation.

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