Q&A: A Difficulty Regarding Your Thesis of Gradual Withdrawal
A Difficulty Regarding Your Thesis of Gradual Withdrawal
Question
Hello and blessings, why do you say that there was providence in the biblical period as the Bible describes, and that since then providence has withdrawn in a gradual withdrawal? After all, if your position is that because there are laws of nature, providence is impossible, why not say that there never was providence at all and that the Bible is mistaken in its description of reality? After all, the laws of nature have always existed!
Answer
I never said anywhere that if there are laws of nature, providence is impossible. Providence can exist in a way that freezes or changes the laws of nature for a particular moment. It is just that today I do not see that happening.
Discussion on Answer
Correct. That is why I explained here that there can be involvement, but only if the laws of nature are frozen or changed for a moment.
In my humble opinion, this even appears in the words of the Sages: that as they sinned, the Divine Presence withdrew. So even in the biblical period, Rabbi Michi’s possibility is certainly reasonable according to the Sages.
But from what I understood from the second book, one of your arguments against providence is that if there is a natural explanation for something, it cannot also have another explanation.