322. Objective Faith
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If your belief system is based upon what makes sense to you, what you find most gratifying and what best accommodates your own self-concept—then you will undoubtedly fear intellectual inquiry.
At best, your approach will be subjective and bribed.
However, when your faith is based not upon your subjective self, but because this is the reality of your inner soul, a truth to which it is intrinsically bound—then you are not afraid to inquire.
There is no apprehension of being proven wrong, only certitude that you shall understand more.
Therefore, only true faith can be truly objective.
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Latest Comments:
What you write is very thoughtful, but I am missing a link: Why must objective faith of necessity include all other faiths? This sounds more like another assumption t to me.
At any rate, I am not talking about arriving at faith through objectivity. I am saying only that the man of faith can be intellectually objective. If he is not being objective, that demonstrates he is not so sure of his faith.
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I appreciate your skepticism, but it seems to me you have projected an entirely different meaning than that intended upon my words.
I am speaking about the courage to examine the evidence without fear, which can only come from a deep sense of faith.
A man of true faith is one who can say, "I don't yet understand."
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I fear G_d does not love me for i do not posess Objective faith, no matter how I try
This is impossible for me and is a definite effort.
i fear I am a lost cause, in G_d's perception. my total being is based on 'understanding' and I find I do not even understand faith, and am unable to accept faith as unconditional ...it is not working for me...
I am on the verge of giving up the quest
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Fears don't dissipate on t heir own; something greater must overwhelm. Soul - felt & honest questioning can deafen our fears ... yet step into the shoes of a liberal rationalist, take in a lecture or a debate. 'sleep on it' & wake up with the image of that same thinker, exhausted, drown-proofing.
when is it necessary to enter into "a house of tanners" ... for the sake of the "bride in their midst"
that same bamidbar moses labored through, to the 1st shauvos.; thirsty in the desert, with a group large enough to contain at least a few gruffing & huffing future "anti-theists".
look closely & see how these same secular folk talk themselves out of the arena of God's love -- 1 dim sum galleria after another.
"There isn't to be found a moo moo better in THIS world", they brief you, sorting out boundaries with chopsticks.
A child thinks but does not ask " Who dares 'cry wolf'' when TEACH is paying? sensing his indigestion, his sister whispers: moshiah will be here tomorrow.
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Interesting sophistry
If you accept the Torah as G-d given, then you view your faith as objective: it comes from an 'objective' source - one which, in your view, is externally verified: so once you have this firm foundation, all further intellectual inquiry is indeed, in your view, a deepening of understanding based on your underlying premise. Fair.
However, how can your initial acceptance of this source's veracity be 'objective' when it is not based on evidence but 'the reality of your inner soul' - essentially how you feel instinctually? I.e what you have chosen to accept.
Moreover, how can any inquiry be said to be based on any 'objective' method if you are certain you shall not be proven wrong? This goes against the very essence of objectivity.
I am a very sceptical, agnostic Jew with a fondness and respect for Orthodox practice, and I understand and respect the intensity of belief orthodox people hold. However, aren't quotes like that above a little linguistically disingenuous?
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Judaism is what I find gratifying and enjoyable (sometimes). The welcoming atmosphere at Chabad, the belief that children are a blessing and not an inconvenience, all these things appeal to me and make sense to my outer, subjective soul. The food at shul is better than at my home.
However, I know that deep inside my inner soul is the soul of an athiest. I pray, but I do not sincerely believe in G-d. I just do it to feel good or for selfish reasons. In a sense, when the Rabbi says to come to services because there will be a special Kiddush, I suppose that is a "bribe". I have fear and apprehension that intellectual inquiry will bring me proof not only that what Chabad teaches is inaccurate (which I already know on some level), but also that it is harmful or destructive, and that this will force me to renounce Judaism, and lose the pleasure that I get from Chabad.
So, yes, it is true that I do not have true, objective faith. If I did, I would not be reading this website.
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philosophy, and you are a philosopher (as were all the great Jewish sages before you).
Philosophers are not all 'unabashed hypocrites' (as you procilamed in another 'thought of the day' earlier this week). They just, like most of us at times, get caught up in contradictions;-
and so do you.
What you have written here resembles more the philosohy of Immanuel Kant: We don't work by objective truths, but know reality only subjectively, and G-d is not so much an authority above us but something to which we are bound to by something inside of us.
Here's the problem, Rabbi: If G-d is not something we know through objective truths, but only subjectively through our inner souls, then-
we run the risk of accrediting ourselves as the source of G-d.
That, Rabbi, is why so few Jews are observant, and so many do as they please, come heaven or hell:
They can submit to the senseless and worship themselves on their own.
You're tripping over your soul and falling on your mind
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Before I raise my objection to the term "objective faith" I want to say something about assumptions. The first sentence starts with three assumptions that are apparently presumed to describe a self centered person. The way it is worded it seems to say that each assumption, by itself, shows that a person is self centered. To me the three assumption do not go together at all. Everything has to make sense to me, but I am not after gratification nor do I match everything to my self image. Rather, I adjust my own views of myself and my environment, according to what makes sense to me. That said, HaShem makes sense to me.
There cannot be Objective Faith as long as your faith excludes other faiths from your faith. If you include other faiths into your faith then your faith has already changed away from what your faith was. It is therefore no longer what you believe in and no longer your faith. Objective Faith cannot exist.
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Thank you so much :), I have left christianity behind me , born as a jew , but completely assimilated , I'm finding my way home and the journey is abfab :)
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I decipher that if faith is based on things or people of my reality then it is not. True faith is beyond understanding. In child like faith one loves and does not even ask why.
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