Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Previous Document: Question 12.1: What is the Jewish concept of G-d? Do Jews think of G-d as an angry old man with a long white beard? Next Document: Question 12.3: Does modern science (e.g., "big bang" theory, evolution, the age of the world) contradict traditional readings of See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Answer: What does it mean that one doubts G-d's existence? It rarely means that one does not believe that G-d exists, rather that a person does not understand what G-d does. In other words, that the way G-d runs the world is not comprehensible (e.g. not understanding why G-d allow things like famine or the Holocaust to occur). G-d does not fit into our limited intellect. And defining G-d to be something that would fit into a human ideal of what G-d should be, would mean that we are denying what G-d actually is: something beyond our intellect. So the answer is: we all have questions about G-d, but it does not prevent us from being good Jews. Because being good is not an end-goal, rather a process. We struggle to get better despite any doubts. What a Jew does is more important than what he or she believes, even though Maimonides included belief in G-d as one of Judaism's key principles. Full and complete faith (emunah sh'laimah) in particular is a most difficult state to achieve, but the seeds of faith find fertile ground in the person of one who earnestly strives to live a Jewish life based on the Torah's prescriptions. Note that there is an additional question of the extent to which an individual who doubts G-d's existance can participate in the congregation. This is more a problem for the individual than the congregation, for the congregation does not publically question one's belief. The individual, however, must reconcile publically performing actions or making professions with their internal doubts. User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Previous Document: Question 12.1: What is the Jewish concept of G-d? Do Jews think of G-d as an angry old man with a long white beard? Next Document: Question 12.3: Does modern science (e.g., "big bang" theory, evolution, the age of the world) contradict traditional readings of Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: SCJ FAQ Maintainer <maintainer@scjfaq.org>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
|
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: