Living up to Truth, Ch. I - The Relevance of Religion
Living Up to Truth
by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb
2nd Revised Edition
I - The Relevance of Religion | II - Religion: Pragmatism or Truth? | III - Belief and Action: Criteria for Responsible Decision | IV - True Predictions | V - Archeology | VI - Revelation and Miracles - the Kuzari Principle | VII - Jewish Survival - the Fact and its Implications | VIII - Summary and Conclusion
I
The Relevance of Religion
The question is whether religion is relevant. What I would really like to argue is that this question is an incoherent question. The question makes no sense. However, I am afraid that if I argue directly that the question has no sense, then you readers will take it as an excuse for not being able to answer the question. You will think that I am ducking the question. So, I am going to adopt the following strategy. I am going to first answer the question, and then I will tell you why this question is illegitimate. So, everything that you read in the next couple of pages, put it on hold (even though it is something that we should all no doubt reflect upon), and afterwards, we will dissolve it with a little logic.
So, the question is: Is religion, or in our case historical Traditional Judaism, relevant? Yes, of course it is. Historical Traditional Judaism is relevant because given the concerns that people typically have, the Torah has a very good track record of producing results.
Take for example the issue of quality of life. Marriage and the family are still fairly popular institutions in the United States and the Western World. No one goes into marriage looking for a divorce. No one goes into marriage looking for the kinds of tensions and unhappiness which make people wish they had divorces. So, a stable and fulfilling family life is a goal for many people. Those of you whom have had any contact with the Traditional Jewish community know very well that the Torah way of life has a very good track record for this. Granted it is not ideal or perfect, but it has a very good track record in producing that kind of family life. For example, the divorce rate is comparatively low vis-a-vis secular society, and quality of relationships between parents and children, and between husband and wife, is something of which the traditional Jewish community is very proud.
A second area of concern for quality of life is freedom from addictions. I don't have to tell you that if we put together all the alcoholics and all the drug addicts, and include in the drugs the middle and upper class pills which are openly prescribed by doctors and which are perfectly legal and to which people are also addicted, we would have a large percentage of the population battling addictions. If 10-15% of the population is addicted to alcohol, and another 5-10% are addicted to drugs in the sense that we described, we would be talking about approximately 20% of the population that has a problem with addictions. The Torah community is very proud that it is relatively free of these addictions. I say relatively free because again the record is not perfect. No one is claiming that it is perfect, but vis-a-vis the general society, if you would observe the phenomena the way a sociologist would observe it, plot a curve, and do a statistical analysis of the information, you would see that the incidence is much smaller.
A third area of concern is crime. Everyone wants to live with as little crime as possible. Again, Jewish Tradition is very proud that within Torah communities, crime, violent crime in particular, is almost unknown. Imagine interviewing the presiding police officer in a precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Borough Park, Flatbush, Monsey, Monroe, or any place where you have large concentrations of Traditional Jews. Ask him how many times he is called out on a murder charge, rape, assault and battery, mugging, child abuse, etc. The incidence of these sort of crimes in Orthodox communities is very low.
A fourth area is literacy. The rate of literacy in traditional communities for children with the capacity to read is 100%. And this usually means competence in two languages. This is far in excess of the national or regional averages.
No one is claiming that the Torah way of life makes all its adherents perfect. This is not being claimed and is obviously not true. In no way do we expect that to be the case. However, what we do expect, and what we do find, is that it makes the Torah community significantly better than the average surrounding communities. So much so, that if we return to our original question, in asking whether the Torah is relevant, and given the standard concerns for quality of life, then the answer is yes, the Torah is of course relevant.
A fourth concern that most people share is the meaningfulness of life. As Viktor Frankl said, we suffer from an existential vacuum, the angst, or the ennui that the existential philosophers have written about. We want to know where we are going, why we are going there, and what the importance of going in one particular direction or another is.
Meaningfulness is a function of relationships, of context, of consequences, and of connections. In order to understand the meaning of one's life, one has to have a picture of the historical perspective of the past, a vision of the future, and how one's life relates to that historical perspective. Judaism provides that kind of perspective. There is not only a recording of important episodes of history, but there is also a view of the dynamics of history, the laws of history if you will, where it comes from, where it is going, and what its purpose is. One can achieve for oneself a picture of one's own position in that flow or slot, and therefore the meaningfulness of what one does.
One does this not only by taking one's life vis-a-vis the outer environment, but also by taking different sections of one's own personal life. For example, each year, or each crucial event whether it be birth, achieving adulthood, marriage, having children, or experiencing death. Each of these is a stage on an integrated path, so that each step on the path is related in a determinate way to the preceding steps, and contributes in a determinate way to the following steps, and hence gives oneself a clear picture of the meaning of each particular step. There is an integration of life, a plan which enables one to organize all the details of life around a central theme, so that each detail contributes to the expression of that overall theme. Even though they are tiny details, they contribute to the overall impact of the theme which is trying to be expressed. Likewise, that in turn confers a meaningfulness on those individual choices, and enhances the meaningfulness of life. So, in so far as we are concerned about the meaningfulness of our lives, the Torah is again quite relevant.
SUMMARY
Judaism is relevant because it contributes to our goals - specifically
to successful marriage, reduction in addictions and crime, universal
literacy, and a meaningful life.
Finally, in addition to the Torah being beautiful, profound, noble, challenging, mind expanding et cetera, it is also true. And since it is true, of course it is relevant. If I want to live successfully in the world around me, if I want my actions to be intelligently related to my ends, then I have to know the nature of reality. I have to know the nature of the world that surrounds me. To choose intelligently means to understand the characteristics of the world in which I live.
Also, not only is truth relevant to choosing means, but also in adopting ends themselves. It is important to have accurate information of the world around you because it can often happen that a person espouses to a number of goals, and when he analyses the world around him, he finds that those goals are incompatible to one another. One cannot simultaneously realize all his goals because the world does not allow all of them. If you realize one, you will therefore prevent yourself from realizing one of the others, and then a choice must be made. Ignorance of the world can lead one to extend oneself and to commit one's efforts to goals which cannot be simultaneously realized, which is of course a tragedy.
Take for example the twin goals possessed by many people that Judaism should survive as a distinct culture because it has an important distinct contribution to make to the world, and simultaneously are recommending a path of cultural compromise of some kind or other. They are interested in some kind of accommodation with Western Civilization. Now, if one studies history, in particular Jewish History, one will quickly come to the conclusion that those two goals are incompatible with one another. This path of cultural compromise, of accommodation with host civilizations, is a path which has been tried many times in the past. In each case it has resulted in cultural failure, complete cultural disintegration. [For the full argument on this point, see below Historical Verification of the Torah, Part V.]
Similarly, someone who wants to simultaneously contribute to the moral maturation of mankind, and also wants to contribute to Western Civilization, for such a person the experience of Germany should give him second thoughts. Germany represented the flowering of Western Civilization. They were great in art, literature, science, poetry, music et cetera. Yet, morally speaking, they were capable of sinking, in one decade, to the lowest depths that humanity has ever trod. So, one has to ask whether Western Civilization, morally speaking, is only skin deep and does little if anything to tame the beast that rages within. (Perhaps it helps in creating that kind of bestiality?) At any rate, surely those two goals have to be scrutinized top see if they can be made to live together. This is an example of how knowing the truth is crucial not only for choosing means to our ends, but also for choosing our ends intelligently by making sure that they are jointly realizable.
SUMMARY
Judaism is relevant because it provides truth about the world
which enables us to make fruitful decisions.
So much for the treatment of the question in a serious fashion. Now, what I want to tell you is the truth which is that the question is really no question, that it can't be asked, and that it is really incoherent. Why?
What does relevance mean? Relevance is a relative term. Relevant to what? When I say that something is relevant, what I mean isthat it is relevant to some given concerns, goals and values. For example someone is applying for a job. Is that fact hat he is 5'2" tall relevant? It depends: if they want an accountant then no, but if they want a basketball player then yes! Every question of relevance presupposes a context of accepted goals and values. For me to ask whether religion is relevant is to measure religion against my goals and values. But, this presupposes that I already have goals and values. We could raise the question: How were they chosen? How were they established and justified?
Even more fundamentally, the Torah doesn't allow itself to be a tool with which we can realize our extra -Jewish or our extra-Torah goals and values. The reason is that the Torah itself provides a complete set of values. The Torah itself dictates what shall be the goals of man. Thus, the Torah contains its own complete standard of relevance. The only way in which I can ask if the Torah is relevant or not is to have already decided not to treat it as true, not to take it on its own terms, in terms of its own self-conception, but rather to set something else up as a standard of what shall or shall not be relevant. The Torah dictates for itself its own standards of relevance, and so to ask whether it is relevant or not is to ask an incoherent question.
I'll give you an analogy. There is an international commission which determines the rules of international chess competition. Now when they publish the latest rules we cannot ask: "Are those rules really valid? Are they correct rules of chess?" We can't ask that because they determine the rules of chess. Similarly here, if the Torah is going to dictate what my ultimate values are, and what my ultimate goals are, and my ultimate values and goals are my standards of relevance, then I can no longer ask whether the Torah is relevant. The Torah is that which determines relevance for everything else. The Torah is that to which other things have to be relevant, if they are to be relevant at all. The question then becomes not: Is the Torah relevant to me, to mankind, to society? and so forth, but the question then becomes: Am I relevant to the Torah? Is my life a relevant life? I become the subject matter of the question, not the one who asks of the question.
SUMMARY
Relevance is relative to a standard set by our goals and values.
To ask if religion is relevant is to evaluate religion by a standard
external to religion itself. Judaism contains its own goals and
values, and thus its own standard of relevance. Therefore it falsifies
Judaism to assess its relevance to external standards. Judaism
is the standard of relevance for everything else.
Now, this idea that the Torah can dictate goals and values is going to run counter to the intuition of many. Many people think that they think that values are relative. (Or rather many people think that they think that, because I am going to argue that they don't really think it.) Relative values means that each person chooses his own values, each person makes his own commitments, no one can tell anyone else how they are going to live and what they should pursue. In short, the question of values, ethics and morals is purely a personal question, a subjective question. I am not drawing fine distinctions between relativism, nihilism, subjectivism et cetera. Let's just lump it all together: there is no objective standard of right and wrong. That, anyway, is what they think they think.
Now, I am not going to address this question philosophically simply because 2500 years of philosophical ethics has produced nothing conclusive on the question. We are still floundering around much as we were before Plato and Aristotle started the current tradition. So, instead of arguing about the question philosophically, I am going to argue to you as people. I am going to argue what is called ad hominem. I am going to argue that you yourselves do not hold this position. You may think you do, you may have been taught the phrases, but I can ferret out of you intuitions which are very much at variance with this conception. I think that I will show you, unless one or two of my readers are very recalcitrant which I doubt, that you are believers in absolute universal binding values, and the only question is what particular values are the correct values.
So, let me argue to you, ad hominem, that you really do believe in this shockingly old fashioned thesis. Consider the following two conflicts. Number one, you have two conflicting desires. You want to go to the rock concert and you want to go to the hockey game, but they are at the same time. So, you have to decide what to do. So you say "Well let's see, the concert costs $35, the ice hockey game costs $45, that one's farther away, this one would be more exciting, but that one happens more rarely, but this one my friend wants to go to, or that one not," and so on. You make up a calculation and you decide "Okay, I'm going to the concert." That is the first case.
Now, the second case. You have a rock concert to go to and you have a promise to keep, and there is a conflict and you cannot do both. Again you weigh up that the rock concert only happens once a year, but then again, I made this promise, these people need it and so on. Again, you weigh up all the factors, and you make a decision to go to the concert. That is the second case.
Now let's suppose that in both cases, later, you feel as if you have made a mistake. You go back over it and you say "No, I should not have made that decision, I should have made the other decision. I wish I had made the other decision. If I could do it all over again, I would do it the other way."
Now, I suggest to you that in the case where you chose the rock concert over the promise (the second case), it is relevant, reasonable, and coherent that you feel guilty. I am not saying that you have to feel guilty, or that you will feel guilty. But, if a person does happen to feel guilty, it is a normal response to have that feeling. Whereas, in the first case, where you chose the rock concert over the hockey game, if a person feels guilty in that circumstance, it is pathological. It is not logically relevant to feel guilty for having chosen the wrong one of your desires. This is now not a point about psychology, but rather a point about logic. The conflict of desires on the one hand, and the conflict of a desire with a recognized obligation on the other hand, produce the relevance of an entirely different kind of emotion - the logical relevance of the emotion. This is an indication that we do not conceive of our obligations on a par with our desires, our inclinations, our feelings, and the rest of our subjectivity. But, this is merely indicating evidence.
SUMMARY
Many people think they believe that values are relative. But
they recognize that a failure to live up to one's values makes
guilt a relevant reaction, which is not the case for a failure
to satisfy desires. This indicates that we experience our values
differently from our desires.
Let me argue the case directly now, the case for what you really think. The following story appeared in the Wall Street Journal a number of years ago. There was a student at a philosophy course who was assigned to write a paper on ethics. He wrote a paper defending the thesis that there are no universal objective values. Everyone can more or less do what one likes, choose one's own commitments and so on. He received the paper back with an "F" on it. He went to the professor and said: "Why did you fail me?" The professor replied: "Because your wrong," and the student said: "Prove it!" The professor took out all the standard arguments that prove why there are objective values, and to each argument, the student said: "I don't believe that...I'm not committed to that," or, "I don't accept that...that doesn't persuade me," and so on down the line. After a half an hour, the student said: "Well, see, you tried out all your arguments and I am unmoved." The professor then replied "I'm going to fail you anyway, and not only that, I'm going to fail you in the course." The student, feeling a little unsettled and worried, said: "You can't do that!" The professor replied: "Of course I can. I put an F right here, see? Then, I sign my name over here. There's nothing to it!" The student then said: "No, no, you have no right to do that!"
What did the student say? "You have no right to do that?" This is the student who has denied the objectivity of value, thus denying the universality of value. Who is he to tell the professor what rights he has? Suppose the professor says, "My value that I have chosen is the following. I fail all those whom disagree with me, and I give A's to all those who agree with me." Now, the student, given his position, cannot criticize the professor because he has just defended the thesis that anybody can choose whatever values he likes.
Now let me ask you: with whom do you agree in this story? Do you side with the student, or with the professor? I think we should side morally with the student - he is clearly a victim. But then what about his paper? His thesis that values are relative gives him no room to complain when he is treated unjustly! If the student wants to condemn the professor, he needs to have objective values which apply to the professor no matter what the professor thinks.
If you reject objective values then you give up the ability to condemn even the most outrageous injustice. What can you say even to a Nazi? He will tell you: "You chose your values, I chose mine. Who are you to tell me what values to choose? You mollycoddle Jews; I kill them. The future will be decided by the stronger army!" When you protest that what he does is unjust, evil, you are only expressing your private choices. Why should that be of any relevance to him?
The fact is that there is a deep inconsistency here. When I want to stifle a nagging conscience, and when I want to throw off the ideals of a society with which I disagree, then I become a nihilist, I become a subjectivist, I become a relativist, everyone can choose their own their own values, and everyone makes their own commitments. But, the minute that someone tries to interfere with me, the minute someone tries to limit my freedom, I then suddenly become a universalist, an absolutist: I trumpet my universal values and expect the other person to pay attention.
I don't merely fight it out with the Nazi, I don't believe that the reason Democracy should triumph over the Nazis is because we have more guns than they do. I brand the Nazi as evil! Also, I expect all the people who have moral conceptions, and who are not evil themselves, to agree with me. When I declare the Nazi as evil, I don't think of myself as just letting off steam the way some philosophers would have it. We want our own freedom that we expect other people to respect. That being the case, we all believe in absolute, universal and binding values. The only question is, which ones are they?
SUMMARY
The fact that people are willing to condemn injustice in others
despite their choice of different values shows that people believe
in universal objective values.
So, which absolute, universal and binding values are the ones which we should believe in? When you come down to cases there is a lot of difficult discussion, and that is where the real interesting and important issues lie. Some people will say that it is patent: The absolute value and the absolute responsibility is not to interfere with other people. But this is not so obvious. Interference can be defined in a variety of ways. Take for example zoning laws. When someone buys a plot of land you tell him: "No! No two family houses, just one family houses." The purchaser will respond: "But it's my plot of land, they are my bricks, I hired the workers, why can't I build whatever I like? I don't care about your desire to preserve a certain quality to the neighborhood."
Well that's too bad, because even though it is his land, he will still not be allowed to build whatever he wants. Social legislation in general is like this. You tell someone who owns his own restaurant that he has to serve the public indiscriminately. But suppose he says "I only want to serve blue eyed people, I like blue-eyed people. Brown-eyed people make me nervous." Well that is too bad. He can't keep brown eyed people out. Why not? What counts as freedom from interference is a difficult matter, and it is going to be discussed and debated because people have different ideas.
In any case the general point remains: no one believes across the board in the subjectivity or the relativity of values. That being the case, I hope that you can at least accept the possibility of a philosophy, like the Torah, which says that there is an objective, universal, binding standard.
People may still try to argue as follows. Values cannot be objective because in the last analysis, I have to choose my own values. I have to make the choice. You can talk to me, you can show me the relevant facts, you can ask me to read the important novels or philosophical works which will have an impact on me, but in the last analysis, I have to make the choice. So, how could it possibly be objective? How can there be a universal standard if everyone has to make his own choice?
Now, that is nothing but a complete, irrelevant fallacy, and I will prove it to you. We will compare it with truth, in particular with science. Suppose someone said: "There can't be an objective truth, there can't be a reality, because in the last analysis, I have to decide what to believe. You could present me with the evidence, you could present me with the arguments, you could present me with all the theories and how they fit the data, but in the last analysis, I, and only I will have to make the decision to believe it or not to believe it. So, therefore, there can't be any objective standard and there can't be any universal standard. Each person's standard is his own standard for himself."
No one is going to buy that in science because science distinguishes between my choice of what to believe on the one hand, and the standard for correctness of belief on the other hand. Of course I will decide what I am ultimately going to believe and what I am not going to believe, but that means I can decide to believe what agrees with the real world, and is true, or I can to decide to believe what disagrees with the real world, and hence is false. The fact that I am making the decision does not imply that there is no correctness or incorrectness to the decision. The same thing is true with respect to values. The mere fact that I am going to decide what values to espouse and what values to commit myself to has nothing to do with the question as to whether or not there is an objective, universal standard.
As we will see in detail in chapter II, there are two basic attitudes toward religion. There is the pragmatic attitude and the realist attitude. One either looks at religion as a tool for self-realization, for self-actualization, for development of character, all as part of our cultural heritage. Or, one looks at religion as the picture of reality that we live in. Now then, from this point of view, if someone is going to look at it as reality, reality now not only includes factual reality, not only where did the world come from, how is it governed, where is it going, what is the essence of mankind and so on. It is also going to give us an objective account of what are values, of what are obligations, and what are goals that are universal and binding. So, in a rather convoluted way, we can come back in the end to the question of relevance.
If one is committed to understanding the world in which we live, if one wants to grasp reality mentally so as to live in it consciously, then discovering the truth of religion, if it is true, becomes one of life's most relevant projects. If there is a possibility, more than just a logical possibility, but if there is some evidence for the truth of Judaism in particular, then one has an overriding interest, it seems to me, in sifting that evidence, in investigating the possibility so as to come to a reasoned and informed conclusion as to whether or not it is true. Because, if it is true, then with respect to the first half of this discussion, given our concerns it will be tremendously relevant. Secondly, with respect to the second half of the discussion, it will then become the standard of relevance, and it will dictate the ultimate meaningfulness and significance of our lives.
SUMMARY
There is controversy in particular value judgments, but that
does not contradict the existence of objective values. Nor does
the fact that each person must make his own value commitments
contradict objective values; just as in science each person decides
what he will believe and yet there is a standard of correctness,
so too for value.
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