Q&A: On Blind Faith and the Influence of Environment on Our Beliefs
On Blind Faith and the Influence of Environment on Our Beliefs
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Last week I caught a ride from the north to central Israel, 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 thoroughly formerly religious for many years, and denied every kind of belief. Out of the whole discussion, he asked me one question that really gave me a lot to think about.
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 data plan, etc. So now he will probably look for a new plan with another company. He will do a thorough market survey, compare prices, ask friends, and so on — all in order to find the most worthwhile and best plan for himself. All this he is willing to do just for ten shekels less or 50 more text messages per month.
Now suppose that same person is also religious, of whatever religion. Usually, you can observe a global statistic saying that most Muslims are Muslim because their father was Muslim, and most Christians likewise, and so on for every religion, belief, or lack of belief in the world — and of course in Judaism too. Religion affects every part of a person’s life. It costs him much more than ten shekels a month, restricts him in countless areas of life, and yet you do not see anyone “comparing prices.”
How can everyone believe so strongly that their path is the truth without having examined the other “true” religions? This seems like blind faith! The well-known saying goes, “A million Chinese can’t be wrong,” so how can one not examine their faith at all? Or any other faith?
I received a few postmodern answers on the matter (all religions are true, and each has its own special way of reaching the truth, so there is no point in switching, etc., etc.). I did not really accept that, and I assume the Rabbi would not either.
I would be glad to hear how the Rabbi understands and explains this reality.
Thank you!
Answer
A. First, secular people also do not examine their path. This is not the nature of religious man but human nature. A person tends to follow what he has become accustomed to. By the way, even with communication plans you will not find that many people making comparisons and so on. Many people (in my estimation, a very large majority) stay with Cellcom or with Clalit Health Services, regardless of what happens to them.
Secondly, I am entirely in favor of examining things, both for secular people and for religious people. I try to examine my beliefs all the time, and I also update them from time to time (to the dismay of many, as you can see on my site).
B. So much for your driver’s psychologistic claim. But perhaps he meant a substantive claim and not only a psychological one. He meant to argue that people do not really believe, since each person remains in the faith into which he was born. This is a logical claim, and it really is worth discussing.
But here there is a mistake. The fact that there are many opinions (and let us assume for the sake of discussion that none of them is compatible with all the others), say n, does not mean that everyone is right, nor that everyone is wrong. It means that n-1 are wrong 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 have returned to the previous section (the psychological one), which says that indeed we are obligated to examine ourselves. But after we have examined and reached a conclusion — that is the best we have. And the Torah was not given (if it was given at all) to ministering angels. The skeptical conclusion does not follow from this argument.
Especially since if indeed the overwhelming majority of people do not really examine, then the weight of the fact that they reach different conclusions is not very great. There are many fools with lots of conclusions in the world. So what? Does that mean that when I think and infer something I have necessarily made a mistake? I do not see how one reaches such a conclusion.
Dear H. and his driver,
If a million Chinese tell you that 1+1=3, does that make it true? Come on…
Truth is true in itself, not because of the majority saying it.
In fact, even if a million Chinese are not wrong, that does not mean a million were not misled, right?
A million Chinese bow to statues, so… they are not mistaken?
Your driver should have explained to you the substance of his being formerly religious — what moved him to the other side. His argument about switching to a different package is really smeared-on nonsense. So what package did he “choose” — atheism? If he chose it, then in what way is that package better? By the way, I did not understand in the comparison what “loss” he has in Judaism?