Q&A: The Disappearance of God from Our World
The Disappearance of God from Our World
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is it acceptable to you that there is a phenomenon of God disappearing from intervention in this world, and a shift over the generations to a transcendental mode of governance? These matters have been discussed repeatedly here on the site, and so as not to weary you, I’ll give examples only in broad outline:
In the time of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), there is interaction between the Creator and humanity, as in the story of the Flood, the generation of the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom, Nineveh, and more. There is also interaction with individuals—with prophets among the Jewish people, or among the nations of the world (Job, Balaam), and so on.
In our time, nature appears deterministic, and before it there is no distinction between righteous and wicked. Disasters strike entire populations and wipe out millions without discrimination (the Black Death, the slave trade from Africa to the USA, the world wars, and the like).
We seem to have two explanations for the phenomenon:
either God changed His mode of governance,
or the stories of intervention are nothing but myth.
In my opinion, the first explanation is less logical: why would God switch agendas over time? It sounds apologetic to me.
By contrast, the second explanation seems more understandable to me, since the disappearance of the Creator from our lives happens in the same proportion as the disappearance of supernatural forces from human thought. As the generations pass, humanity in the Western world believes less in such forces, and in the same proportion divine intervention also disappears.
By the way, there is a book called The Disappearance of God by Yosef Emanuel and Richard Elliott Friedman, which shows the trend of disappearance within the Hebrew Bible itself.
What do you think?
Answer
Hello.
If you accept the giving of the Torah at Sinai, then God’s involvement in the world is not a myth but a fact. So everything starts from there. A possible explanation for the difference in governance I gave in an article here:
Discussion on Answer
Those are already just impressions. My impression is different.
Thank you, Rabbi.
1. You wrote that if I accept the giving of the Torah, then God’s intervention in our world is a fact.
The issue is that the problem of His “changing His mode of governance” is what causes me not to accept the giving of the Torah.
2. You sent me to an article that explains the change in His mode of governance.
I know it’s possible to find various explanations for the change in His mode of governance in the world. It still doesn’t convince me, and it sounds apologetic to me.
I can add that even nowadays there is “intervention” in primitive societies (the book White Man, Black Gods was mentioned here on the site recently as dealing with this subject). Explanations can be found, but to my ear they don’t sound honest.
The correlation between primitiveness and miracles and revelations makes me think it’s all bullshit.
P.S.
Maybe I should clarify regarding the book. It was written by an Israeli psychiatrist who lived in a primitive society in Africa for several years. He tells there of miracles and wonders for which he does not know how to provide a scientific explanation.
The book shook my belief in the giving of the Torah to a certain degree. If our ancestors looked like those Africans, then what wonder is it that they accepted and believed in such supernatural myths?