Q&A: Faith / Belief
Faith / Belief
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi,
I’m not a particularly smart person; I have an average IQ.
On the other hand, I don’t want to live a lie, and if there really is something in the world that obligates me to live my life in a certain way, I don’t want to miss it.
I can’t start examining this whole issue of faith / belief and religion—whether it’s true or not, and looking into the arguments for and against. I don’t know how to study philosophy, and certainly not science.
Is it enough for me to follow someone I trust as a wise person, like a rabbi who will explain the idea to me, and that’s it?
Or would that not count as truth, since I didn’t examine all the sides?
Should I go into this huge mess and try to formulate for myself a rational way of life, at the risk that I’ll come out confused and lose out?
Answer
As a rule, that should not be a problem. Everyone makes his own decisions as he sees fit. As for me personally, I don’t rely on anyone, however wise he may be, to make decisions for me. There are wise people in every group, every worldview, and every religion, so I don’t see how a person’s opinion can, for me, be a binding conclusion simply because he holds it or says it. A person should decide for himself, and of course it is good and proper to hear different opinions and be impressed by them.
Philosophy is not obligatory, and not everyone makes decisions on the basis of philosophy and philosophical considerations. There are intuitions, and I am not sure that decisions made with awareness of all the considerations are necessarily better and more correct than those based purely on intuition. Again, for myself, I do prefer to be aware of the considerations and to ground my position as much as I can. But that is a matter of taste and approach.
You ended by saying that you want to formulate a rational way of life. If so, then it seems to me that you do need to get into the thick of it, study, and weigh your positions and your path. Without that, you may perhaps be right, but it would not be rational decision-making. The risk that you will come out confused is indeed a risk, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised. I would not refrain from studying just because of the risk that it might confuse me. See Column 62:
https://mikyab.net/posts/3157
Discussion on Answer
It’s impossible to check everything. You do an initial sorting to see what is even worth considering in your view, and then you examine it.
Hello Rabbi, is the Rabbi trying to claim that he checked all the possible options and all the religions, and only then reached the conclusion that Judaism is the completely rational approach?