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Chabad.org » Learning & Values » Questions & Answers » Ask the Rabbi » Latest Questions » The Big Picture » Is It Logical To Have Faith?
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Is It Logical To Have Faith?


Yes, it is.

In the first half of the 20th century, Bertrand Russel and Alfred North Whitehead attempted to compile a comprehensive system of logic and mathematics that would be entirely internally consistent and self-evident. They were miffed by the paradoxes of set theory, and the project was finally put to rest by Kurt Goedel's theorem of incompleteness.

In a nutshell, Goedel demonstrated that no system of logic or mathematics can prove its own axioms. Every logical system relies on a priori acceptance of unprovable first principles.

Life, too, relies on faith. We cannot step out of our beds in the morning without pure, simple faith in hundreds, perhaps thousands of basic assumptions for which we have no real proof. We run our lives with an unquestioning assurance that today will follow the same laws as yesterday and tomorrow the same as today, that our senses are not deluding us, that we are awake and not asleep, that our memories are reliable, that our food is not poisoned and our doctor is not out to kill us, that life is better than death and that all its pain does not measure up to its happiness.

It is logical to have such faith, because otherwise, life would have to be led in an insane asylum or under heavy psychotropics. So, too, it is logical to have faith that G‑d is good and there is only one of Him.

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By Tzvi Freeman   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: May 6, 2010
Faith
Faith is having hope. Faith is also a knowing. Faith encourages us. Faith helps us face another day. Faith is positive energy. Faith opens the mind to solutions. Faith is intellect based off of knowledge and experience. Faith can heal your body, relationships, and connect you to G-d. Faith helps you reach your goals. Faith can make you an overcomer. Are all those things logical? You bet!
Posted By Zoe

Posted: May 5, 2010
Is it logical to have love?
Love, faith, hope and joy are all emotions. Are emotions logical?
Posted By Ms. Karen Kleinman

Posted: Nov 26, 2009
Sive Via Negativa: Is it illogical to have faith?
I think the questions of axioms is right on. And we could go deeper and inquire into the very origins of logic itself. Logic did not fall from the sky. It's birth was midwifed about 2500 years ago by Parmenides and Heraclitus. Howbeit a wonderful way of accessing reality, it is only one way of access, one among other ways. In short, I would say faith is neither logical nor illogical. IT IS ANOTHER TROPE.

I much appreciate Rav Tzvi's focus on what Russell et al call the question of scientific induction. It is much in line with Popper's critique of induction. As the latter shows: at its core of cores, science is myth. Critical myth, but myth nonetheless (see e.g. his 1960 essay, "Sources of Our Knowledge"). If we are not embarrassed to rely on human-made scientific myths ("conjectures"), how much more should we feel unabashed to lean on the Torah which, according to its own neither logical nor illogical account of itself, was GIVEN in the strongest sense of the word.
Posted By Michael Kigel, Vienna, Austria

Posted: Sep 20, 2009
Logical faith
When the frontal lobe is severed from the rest of the brain a man has no spiritual compass according to some brain excepts, so it appears that the frontal lobe is design with the longing after a Creator, and of course also we have the power to choose whether one will live by the laws of the Creator of this universe. We were made by design, it appears to be mathimathic impossibe that we happen by chance. So because I do not want to rust I trust to my Elohim to be my Almighty One.
Posted By Benjamin Vela, Citrus Springs, Fl.

Posted: July 31, 2009
Like you said if we didn't allow for basic assumptions "life would have to be led in an insane asylum".

Belief in G-d is not necessary to live a normal life as we know it to be.
Posted By Dave, brooklyn
via thejewishflame.com

Posted: July 18, 2009
is it logical to have faith?
How ironic. I have been hounded by a non-believing person this week on this very subject.
I cannot deny my creator. I cannot deny my faith. It seems as if I spend a lot of my time defending what I believe in. What I know to be true.
Posted By Mone, Charlotte, NC



 


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