The greatest Jew in Great Britain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reviewed Richard Dawkins’ most recent rant, The God Delusion (via Hirhurim). He begins with the following brief dialogue:
“DO YOU believe,” the disciple asked the rabbi, “that God created everything for a purpose?”
“I do,” replied the rabbi.
“Well,” asked the disciple, “why did God create atheists?”
The rabbi paused before giving an answer, and when he spoke his voice was soft and intense. “Sometimes we who believe, believe too much. We see the cruelty, the suffering, the injustice in the world and we say: ‘This is the will of God.’ We accept what we should not accept. That is when God sends us atheists to remind us that what passes for religion is not always religion. Sometimes what we accept in the name of God is what we should be fighting against in the name of God.”
It’s important to recognize how brilliantly R. Sacks undermines the main thrust of Dawkins’ argument. Dawkins emphasizes the cruelty and injustice perpetrated in the name of God as a way of undermining religion. R. Sacks uses those same facts to promote ethically sensitive religion. By forcing believers to distinguish more sharply between “what passes for religion” and genuine service of God, the atheist critic does religion a tremendous favor.
If I remember correctly, Rav Kook develops a similar idea regarding secular Zionism. Would anyone care to dig up the reference?
Dawkins emphasizes the cruelty and injustice perpetrated in the name of God as a way of undermining religion. R. Sacks uses those same facts to promote ethically sensitive religion.
There’s no disagreement there. If the majority of religious people listened to R. Sacks, there wouldn’t be an issue. As reality has it, though, they prefer to ignore everybody and everything which doesn’t agree with their narrow view of religion.
Comment by JewishAtheist — October 26, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
Which is exactly what Dawkins doesn’t get. Religion, per se, isn’t the problem. Bad religion is.
Comment by sagoboulevard — October 26, 2006 @ 3:43 pm
But most (”some?”) religion falls into the “bad” category. And the “good” religion enables it.
Comment by JewishAtheist — October 26, 2006 @ 4:17 pm
JewishAtheist, I think it’s not the “good” religion that enables it, but rather the inability or unwilligness to apply it correctly. I think the same is true of any belief system, be it spiritual/ritual based, legal, political ideology or anything else. You start out with a set of essentially good ideas, but then you either apply them to a set of wrong circumstances, or go too far, or don’t go far enough, or completely misinterpret the idea itself - and there you have it, the problem. But instead of working to correct the flaws, which led to misapply the idea, many prefer to blame and discard the idea itself, without trying to modify it so it would fit better.
Comment by Irina — October 26, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
Herman Wouk addresses this issue in “This Is My God”. He quotes a great opera critic as saying that there has never been a performance of “Don Giovanni” worhty of what Mozart wrote. Wouk then says that even if there is no Jewish community worthy of Judaism, this is not a point against Judaism, only against human failings.
Indeed, I think Judaism is to be commended for trying to lead us onto a higher path. That we fail to measure up is inevitable. If all humans are imperfect, then it would be against the very grain of the world to have a perfect Jew. The failings of Jews, as a group or as individuals, cannot be taken as arguments against Judaism.
Comment by Seth Chalmer — October 29, 2006 @ 11:22 am
interesting, David, I posted on the same article with a very different take….
Comment by Ben Avuyah — November 19, 2006 @ 12:36 pm