Q&A: The Importance of Philosophy in the Question of Why We Believe
The Importance of Philosophy in the Question of Why We Believe
Question
Hello Rabbi,
The Rabbi has dealt extensively with proving the existence of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the giving of the Torah. The question is: what importance does that have?
On the one hand, if we say that a person needs to believe דווקא for the right reason and therefore it is important to know why we believe, what are we to say about Maimonides and the rabbis of the Middle Ages, who believed on the basis of philosophical proofs that today seem to us mistaken, or at least not very precise? What are we to say about the Sages, who apparently hardly dealt at all with the philosophical basis for faith?
On the other hand, if we say that this question has no importance from the standpoint of faith itself, what is the importance of explaining philosophically why we believe in the Holy One, blessed be He? Is it merely a persuasive tool for people who have doubts about faith?
Answer
There is no value at all in a person being a believer. Belief is a factual claim, and knowing facts in itself has no value. There is value in the striving for knowledge, and there is value in the question of what one does with the facts.
Discussion on Answer
What is “Avocado Sandwich”?
Don’t you have a nicer name?
If it is a demonstrable error, then maybe that has some significance. But usually faith is not based on proofs, but on an intuition that the proofs support.
If so, given two people who both keep the commandments out of accepting the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, exists, but the first accepted it on the basis of correct facts and the second on the basis of incorrect facts, is there really no practical difference between them?