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February 12, 1969

Student Discussion on Belief in God (1969)

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Issues of Faith (1967)

The fundamental concept that captures the whole essence of Judaism – the idea of God, the obligations of man to Him, the interdependence of human beings – in one word, is that of mitzvah, commandment. The noun, in its different forms, appears about 180 times in Scripture; in its various verbal forms, perhaps twice that number. This is, of course, only a minor indication of the vast significance of what is apparently so simple an idea. The term mitzvah implies the existence of a Metzaveh – One who commands. The divine Metzaveh must obviously be theistic, i.e., a personal God, not an impersonal deistic or pantheistic deity – only a personal God is sufficiently concerned with men to command them. Mitzvah additionally implies that man lives under obligation to the Metzaveh, and that his life must be regulated in accordance with His express will. Furthermore, the very existence of mitzvah tells us that the will of Metzaveh formulated in the mitzvah was made known to man – hence, some form of revelation had to take place. The derivation of mitzvah from Metzaveh rules out the identification of mitzvah with generalized virtue, which may be self-motivated, a utilitarian ethic, or merely a reflection of contemporary mores. Similarly, it is a distortion of the concept of mitzvah to define it as religious folkways or customs. Folkways may be charming, even very valuable, but they do not presuppose an origin external and transcendental to man – on the contrary, their source is the folk, not God. The Jewish tradition cherishes customs and folkways – at least it values most of them – but takes pains to distinguish between mitzvah and minhag, custom. Despite the prominence given to the latter, it does not supersede the former – at most, it helps guide us to a proper interpretation of the mitzvah.
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Origins of the Belief in God

There are many conjectures, offered by prominent thinkers across diverse fields, regarding the origin of belief in God. We cannot exhaust them here, but will instead illustrate a few representative perspectives. David Hume believed that primitive religion began with polytheism, arising from early humans’ constant exposure to the many contingencies of everyday life – disease, hurricanes, heat, floods – which led them to posit multiple deities responsible for different phenomena. Monotheism, according to Hume, emerged later, as humans developed a sense of law-abiding universality in the world. The basic idea – if not the developmental direction – was already noted by Philo: that monotheism correlates with peace, while polytheism aligns with war. Most anthropologists agree with Hume’s chronology: that early humanity began as polytheistic and later moved toward monotheism. Bronisław Malinowski, the Polish-born Oxford anthropologist, disagreed with this account. He maintained that early man was originally monotheistic, but degenerated into polytheism, only to rise again with Abraham and Moses toward monotheism once more. According to biblical tradition, as found in the Torah, Adam was a monotheist; polytheism entered the human experience later, particularly with the generation of Enosh. Freud, following in the footsteps of several atheists and agnostics, argued that the origin of belief in God lies in fear and the dread of the unknown. According to Freud, when a child realizes that he will always remain a child in relation to the vastness of the world – that is, he will never be fully in control – he projects the image of the father onto a divine figure. Religion, then, is born of psychological need: a projection of a father-image to satisfy the desire for an all-powerful protector. Whatever the historical, theological, psychological, or anthropological origin of religion may be, we must avoid what philosophers call the "genetic fallacy" – the assumption that the origi…
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The Ontological Argument for God (1969)

Gave ontological argument (so named by Kant) in 2 forms: A) Anselm's original form: even afro/ can understand that god = a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. Such a being can exist in mind only, or also in reality. Now real existence bigger than something only in mind. Then, if this Being – than... _______ exists only in mind, it's a reality w/in reality is greater than it – which is an inner control______ ____ it ____ is reality. B) Anselm's second form: all that exists is either
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