Q&A: God
God
Question
Rabbi, hello. I’m a confused yeshiva student.
I read that you write that if one reaches the conclusion that there is a God, and that He created the world, then presumably He has some kind of purpose or will in the world He created.
But is knowing how God thinks not something completely inaccessible to us?
And in general, doesn’t that contradict the accepted view that “God’s ways are hidden”?
I would appreciate some help.
Answer
The accepted view does not really interest me. What matters is the correct view, not the accepted one. In the correct view, the simple assumption is that if something created a thing, it has a reason or purpose for doing so. And it makes no difference whether the creator is a human being, an animal, or something else. If evidence is brought that God creates things without a reason, then one can accept that and say that in this respect He is different from human beings. But the burden of proof is on whoever makes that claim.
Discussion on Answer
You don’t need to know anything. If anything of any kind does something, the assumption is that it has a reason or purpose for it.
Why? It seems to me that the burden of proof is on the one who projects human thinking onto a supernatural being that can create something from nothing. I’m not saying that it does not act voluntarily; I’m arguing why assume that it does? After all, we know nothing about it except that it is supernatural and created a world.