Reply to Rat

Well, I've explained things many times (including to Rabbi Moshe Rat himself), and I'll come back to it briefly here. First, regarding motivation. There are also many young people who stop praying because they are educated that God does answer prayers and they understand that this is a slogan of ignorance. The more important question is what is right, not what is beneficial or harmful. Second, during the biblical period there were prophets who explained to us the Holy One's involvement, and therefore it made sense. We could draw conclusions from it and draw lessons. Today this does not exist. So why intervene if no one sees? Third, it is not true that they always understood that there are laws of nature in our sense today. The fact is that to this day, most of the public and the rabbis do not understand that divine intervention is not possible within the framework of the laws of nature. They thought (mistakenly) that the laws of nature are not deterministic and therefore God can intervene within their framework. And it is not. Fourth, I have written more than once that there may be sporadic interventions, since this cannot be ruled out or confirmed. But it is certainly a concern in the ongoing conduct of the world. Fifth, we all act as if there is no involvement, and therefore the statements about belief that there is involvement really do not inspire confidence in me. Studies by doctors do not neutralize the effect of prayers and spiritual level on medical outcomes. Studies of plane crashes are not satisfied with clarifying how the pilot or passengers prayed. Furthermore, even when the fault is not found, we assume that there was a fault and we did not find it. I have never heard anyone say that there is no point in checking because in any case the matter depends on prayers and mitzvot. Sixth, indeed there is no proof, but neither are there proofs for the laws of nature. We learn from observing reality, and as the Rabbi wrote in the Sukkah, the tangible cannot be denied. Those who believe in the laws of nature and the scientific picture believe that there is no involvement. And those who don't believe – live in a movie (and I also don't believe him that he doesn't believe). Seventh, the apparent miracles of the establishment of the state or victories in wars are apparent only to those who assume that they are miracles. All the others have good explanations for the matter. The explanations, of course, are related to our national character, which was also influenced by the Torah and tradition, but not necessarily by the hand of God and divine intervention. Any unusual event can occur naturally, and in order to prove the hand of God, a controlled study must be conducted on large groups with control groups. Impressions can lead to a lot of mistakes, especially impressions of people who are not skilled in logical and statistical thinking, and especially impressions based on a single event or single events. Do you know how many unusual events have happened to just one people in history? Countless. So every people can prove that the hand of God is watching over them. Unusual events also happen from time to time. This is the ABC of statistics and probability. Eighth, I do not accept his claim for the superiority of the other method because the first and all the ancients did not think so on a factual level. In my book I cite quite a few methods that believed so (in particular Maimonides, who speaks in the eighth chapter about the miracles that were inherent in the laws of nature from their creation. There is no contemporary involvement of God). And several others like that. And ninth and last, I do not accept his premise that if this is the accepted belief, it has validity and the burden of proof is on me. It is a belief based on people with a lack of scientific and philosophical skill, or partial and ancient knowledge of science, and therefore they have no way of knowing the truth. The validity is that of common sense, and the evidence is what is derived from it. I would rather he show me divine involvement and the influence of prayers and a spiritual level, and then I will be convinced. Conservatism is not an argument (see column 217).