Q&A: On the Article “Between Optimism and Pessimism”
On the Article “Between Optimism and Pessimism”
Question
The Rabbi criticized Zeitlin for clinging to an opinion with absolutely no basis, namely that disproving the power of reason does not prove faith.
It seems to me that what Zeitlin, and many like him, mean is that since rational cognition is not certain and cannot be logically grounded, a person’s choice of what to believe depends on what he wants to believe. The desire to believe is sufficient for faith. Just as a hungry person eats not because of a logical reason but because of his simple desire to eat, so too the believer believes only because of his simple desire to believe. And all of Zeitlin’s words and poems are merely meant to show how deep this desire is within a person. That is why some people believe even in things that are logically contradictory, since their faith comes from the power of desire, which is a sufficient and reasonable cause for faith. I would be glad to hear the Rabbi’s opinion on the matter.
Answer
You are repeating what I wrote. The three columns (494–496) were written in order to say what my opinion is about this. Someone who adopts faith because he wants it is not a believer; he merely wants to believe. He is an atheist in disguise. That’s all.
By the way, it would be better to post a question like this as a talkback on the columns themselves.
Faith is cognition. Logical proof gives it validity, but even without proof there is still cognition here. There is no difference between a cognition that has logical validation and a cognition that does not have logical validation; the whole difference is only in its validity, not in the content of the cognition itself. And logical proof is only one among a variety of reasons a person has for choosing his cognitions; there is also the reason of desire. So why does the Rabbi call him an atheist? In terms of their cognition, both believe; each simply has his own reasons.