Q&A: Can an Atheist Be Punished?
Can an Atheist Be Punished?
Question
Hello to His Eminence the Rebbe, may he live long. A question occurred to me: will the Holy One, blessed be He, punish an atheist on the Day of Judgment? After all, he is under compulsion according to his reasoning—how can one punish someone because he reached the wrong conclusion? To be sure, one could punish a believing sinner, or an atheist who fights against religion, but an atheist by himself—how could that be possible?
By the way, does the Rabbi know the midrash that says that if one wants to recognize the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, one needs to study aggadic literature? From that it follows that there is value, and even an obligation, in the conclusions that arise from homiletic interpretation. In my opinion, am I right?
Does the Rabbi see the Sages as having authority to determine non-halakhic heavenly matters?
Answer
Indeed, there is no reason to assume that he will be punished. And even if he fights against religion, if that is what he truly believes, then he is under compulsion.
I did not understand the question about studying aggadic literature. Is the difficulty that there is a midrash that says one must study midrash? There are also midrashim that were written as midrashim, and they too presumably expect people to study them. So is that really a better difficulty?
In principle, no—unless they are transmitting to us a tradition from Sinai or from the prophets.