Q&A: Rabbi Moshe Rat’s Approach to Atheism
Rabbi Moshe Rat’s Approach to Atheism
Question
Hello Rabbi, have you happened to read Rabbi Moshe Rat’s book Simply Believe? If so, what do you think of the book’s conclusion, according to which a rational person can only be either religious or agnostic?
He argues this on the basis that, very briefly, there are no arguments that God does not exist, only arguments against the claims that God does exist (and one could even say that the burden of proof is on the one who claims God’s nonexistence), and therefore a rational person should either believe in the existence of God or believe that we are unable to know whether He exists.
Answer
I read it a long time ago. He identifies knowledge with certainty. You can’t prove that God does not exist, but you can certainly arrive at the conclusion that He does not exist. The proofs that He does exist also rest on assumptions that cannot be proven.
Therefore, if his intention is to argue that certainty that there is no God is impossible, that is of course true, and really trivial. There is also no certainty that He does exist. By the way, Dawkins himself writes that he cannot be certain that there is no God. He places himself at level 6 out of 7 possible levels (with level 7 being certainty that there is no God).
Discussion on Answer
I explained.
He also pointed that out in the book, but my question was more fundamental: can one really say that because there is no proof against it, a rational person would be at most agnostic?