Q&A: Existence
Existence
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi!
My name is Roy… a person who believes in God but does not believe in the existence of religions… I am secular, and I’m really happy with that.
I don’t mean to slander religions… on the contrary… I think cultures are actually really interesting.
I argue… that what all of us… not only the Jews… but what every person in the world is looking for… is pure and genuine happiness… that each person… would open his eyes in the morning… in a good and true way… actually, I think that’s also what all religions are trying to teach us… but none of them… has really reached a point… where everyone gets up happy in the morning… for thousands of years… since the first religion in the world was founded.
Look… I have no doubt that God is real… I have no doubt, but on the other hand… religions are not logical in terms of their individuality toward the population… I’m sure that in their time… they were created for a good purpose… in order to implement something… that was supposed to be interpreted as happiness… and indeed… in the Jewish religion… there is no small part… in the happiness of the world… (I grew up in a religious home).
At no point in this interesting discussion I’m going to have with you… am I looking for any desire to repent and become religious… only for a true answer to an honest question… which for some reason has been giving me a lot of strength and a different way of looking at the world lately… and by the way… my little brother referred me to you… knowing that I have the desire to ask the right questions… but he couldn’t answer all of them.
Somehow… the meaning of the creation of this world… over who knows how many recent years… has become, through human decisions… people already long ago forgot… why the world was created… and anyone who doesn’t believe that… can come live here for a few months in the home of the “middle class”… and he’ll understand on his own… why that isn’t right.
I don’t believe… that there is a religion that is not true… just as I don’t believe there is a religion that is true… it all depends on its interpretation… and the good of the world is hidden from us… because we operate according to definitions… almost every person who sees someone different from him… usually judges him as something unexplained… over the years of the history of our existence… we learned a lot about this… especially from antisemitism… which threw us as a people… many times into less good periods.
I think… that God’s purpose in the phrase… “By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread” was much greater than what we dare dream today… I think… that by giving such a condition, He was actually saying… you can rise above it… if you take everything I’ve told you until now… and interpret it all toward a good point… one that gives you real freedom… one in which the whole world… are no longer enemies of one another… but each person does exactly what he needs to do… in order for the world to develop… and when you finish everything… there is no reason… that you or the next generation… should not merit to taste the fruits… because there is no reason, after all, that anyone should go on working… we work today because they want to control us… those same human beings… made of the same energies as we are… still keep controlling us… instead of leading us… to a good point… in which nothing will have any meaning anymore… except only the exploration of happiness and the world.
After all, if we think about it… everything bad in the world… is a product that was created from the beginning of our path in the universe… Adam and Eve were created into a world that was entirely good… the only rule created for them… was not to touch the forbidden trees… they could talk with animals… and needed nothing… only to enjoy what exists… what was created for all of creation.
Even today’s wars… over religion and money… were created from different beliefs… which for no clear reason… people still believe in… 5,000 years ago or more… there was the first killing… and from then until today… a conflict was created within one family… that caused the whole world to create cultures and languages, and there were changes even in skin color, etc….
I’m asking a real question… it can’t be… that as a human being… only 31 years old, I am rising above God’s desire… דווקא because I distanced myself… after all, God is perfection… and there is no chance that the world today… is the way He created for us… I ask… if I can see this, how is it logical… that people don’t put their definitions aside… all roll up their sleeves together… and instead of creating more hatred and wars and different cultures… don’t establish a perfect world… because it doesn’t matter where you came from… the main thing is that you’re pleased with life… there would no longer be any reason for any quarrel in the world… because everyone would be equal… and each person would do something… in order to bring something more good into the world… getting up in the morning with such a feeling… really would do something for the population.
And not only for the population… it would make room… to sustain cultures through real love… you would no longer have bad things to think about… accordingly… it would create a utopian situation… that once you invent everything the world will need… everything will be perfect… and you’ll have more free time… to develop and understand your culture more… because no person, essentially… would need to work anymore… because you’ve passed a stage… and now… all that remains is to create… to create your truth… for the true believing Jew… there would be an option to develop to another stage… to reach the secret… and for each and every person… to travel the world… to see what he needs to see before he starts a family… everyone could do whatever they wish in order to advance the good… and of course if it’s the opposite… all we would need to do… is simply give him a good talk… and an atmosphere of “you belong here”… and he would naturally move in that direction.
Have we all lost the human image? Is the world already lost? Because what I know… is that God does not relate to us as if we are His show… and if so? then I should have killed myself years ago… and I think each of us should have done that… or maybe not… free will… but as far as I’m concerned… there’s no chance this is a telenovela for Him… otherwise there would have been no efforts to advance the world through religions… this is all in a nutshell here… the descriptions and the depth… but I have much more than this… theories I developed based on things I heard throughout my life… but this is the shortened version.
Is there a reason to prevent us… human beings… from having a perfect world?
Thanks in advance… Roy Cohen.
Answer
Hello Roy.
I assume you didn’t mean for me now to go read and listen through the whole internet step by step.
I’m not going to argue with a collection of many mistaken assumptions, some of them far-fetched, and most of them not defined at all (in my view), or at best baseless conjectures, that appear in your opening remarks. I’ll address only what you defined as your question (although I didn’t really see a question there).
What you say seems to me similar to someone proposing to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by all of us understanding that it’s worth living in peace and stopping the fighting. Does that seem to you like a solution proposal? If you have a practical way to move toward that, that would be a proposal. Otherwise, it’s a declaration.
You are proposing that we all behave nicely and live as we should (assuming I agree that what you described is indeed how we should live). That is not a proposal but a utopia. Human nature is apparently different, and this is not going to happen on its own. If you have a proposal for how to move toward that, we can try to discuss it. The proposal that we should make sure things are good is not a proposal but a declaration.
If there is something more concrete here that I missed, I’d appreciate it if you would focus it and try to shorten it and be sharp and clear.
All the best,
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know whether that was the intention, but that’s no difficulty at all. The way to arrive at a world with a proper human image is by punishing those who interfere with it. By the same token, you could ask: why put criminals in prison instead of benefiting everyone and creating a whole world?
Our sages already said: one who wants peace should prepare for war.
If I understood correctly, one of the points he touches on is the utopia of a completely perfectly moral world.
One of the questions is (if I understood correctly): how is it possible that the vision of such a moral world is impossible, among other things because of religions, which command killing and separation—how is it possible that this human vision, which advocates absolute morality, is more moral than God’s vision, where as long as His Torah exists, so too the concepts of killing and separation will continue to exist?