Q&A: Does God Play Dice
Does God Play Dice
Question
If we nevertheless accept the fact that God is the guiding hand behind evolution, why would He guide the world in such a way? Evolution is full of suffering and death just to reach some particular goal after billions of years of species that went extinct and died. Why would God choose such a path—God, who is supposedly so purposeful and good? It sounds to me like a more reasonable explanation is simply that there is no guiding hand. Doesn't the Rabbi think so?
Answer
No. I’ve already answered this more than once, both here on the site and in my books.
The physico-theological proof is based on the complexity of the world, and infers that it was created by someone. Even if that complexity involves suffering, the probabilistic question still stands. As in Paley’s watch analogy, even if you saw a watch lying on the sand that was built in a non-optimal way, you would still conclude that it did not come into being by itself. At most, the “mind” of the watchmaker is different from yours. Therefore, the conclusion would be, at most, that God is not good—not that He does not exist.
And regarding this question as well, it depends on whether there is some other rigid system of laws that would lead the world to the same results without the accompanying suffering and evil. I very much doubt it, and in any case the burden of proof is on the one raising the objection.
Discussion on Answer
David, have you seen videos of predatory animals in nature? They’re deterministic, so you could say they are the Creator’s direct will (because why didn’t He create things differently?). I think you ought to watch those videos, so you can return to nature itself, if you’ve ever been there, and understand how far this lack of concern goes. You’ll see horrors to which that God is completely indifferent, and what’s being written here isn’t meant as provocation but in complete sincerity. By the way, you can also see this—though on a lesser level—in human actions in the industries of our time, where the choices of those human beings are the outcomes and responsibility of that same Creator.
So of course you place responsibility for the failures of your choices on the Holy One, blessed be He. Do you also give the "credit" for your successes to the Holy One, blessed be He, or do you attribute the successes to yourself?
Best regards, Shatz
Of course I place it on the Holy One, blessed be He (assuming He is that one god out of all those thousands of gods and goddesses)—who else would I place it on? After all, the causes are not in my control. My choice (assuming there is such a thing) is confined to a tiny space of 2% conscious (98% unconscious), in which I have to choose amid the whole flood of stimuli and causes. As for success, I don’t know what you define as success. It may be that I succeed at something and that very thing will bring about the opposite in the long run.
Meaning, according to your view, if a person sets himself a goal, his chances of success are made up of 98% pseudo-random variables and only 2% that can theoretically be controlled?
You are indeed 2% conscious. The tip of an iceberg above the sea, with a mountain of ice below.
Those are not equivalent things. Not everything you’re unaware of is relevant to your success. A person determines far more than 2% of his chances of success (on average, certainly in simple tasks), otherwise it would be impossible to live a normal life.
With God’s help, 13 Tishrei 5781
To A. — greetings,
And with two percent of free choice, one can move forward. You choose the good, and the situation improves somewhat. Then the margin of choice expands somewhat, and those two percent of free choice are already at a higher level. And so, step by step, a person improves and elevates his condition. As explained in the "Essay on Free Choice" by Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (in Michtav MeEliyahu).
With the blessing: "Get out of the victim mentality and self-pity. Start living!", Shatz
Shatz, your words are words of wisdom. I’ll just sum up the discussion here in general: "If what you desire is peace of mind and happiness—believe; if what you seek is truth—investigate" (Human, All Too Human). I choose the good, but I seek truth no less.
With God’s help, 13 Tishrei, halfway between Yom Kippur and Sukkot
To A., greetings,
Peace and happiness are what the religions of the East offer, inviting a person to focus on himself in order to reach "nirvana." Your "truth" too, which sees the world as sheer randomness, gives peace of mind. Why make an effort? In any case, at some stage there will come a "mighty hand, deliberate and confident," and destroy everything.
Judaism offers the exact opposite. It does not let the believer live at ease. He is constantly required to do better, improve, and repair. At the end of the story of creation it says: "which God created to do." He left the world imperfect in order to place upon man the responsibility to improve the world.
A believing person is aware that his life, however long it may be, will be cut off in the middle before he finishes the task of repairing the world. He is not the one who will "complete the work," but he is called upon not to despair, and to do everything in his power to leave behind a world a little better and more beautiful.
Best regards, Shatz
See Professor Benjamin (Beno) Gross’s book, "An Imperfect World — Toward Responsible Freedom"
Ah, sure—I wasn’t arguing against God’s existence in general, but it really does seem more convincing to me that maybe He just doesn’t care about us the way Judaism says He does…