Readers Respond

GODWITHOUTGOD After a frustrating discussion with an atheist in-law, I told my friend Jim that atheists could be as narrow minded as fundamentalist , evangelical Christians. To which Jim replied: “if they were open minded, they’d be agnostics.” The religions and spiritual traditions of the world are fingers pointing at the moon. Scientists and religionists alike mistake the fingers for the moon. This is the problem in the science/spirituality debate. In a classic show of intellectual dishonesty, Western atheists take aim at the straw man “finger” of the exoteric Judeo-Christian God, easily blow Him away, and pronounce that as proof for the non-existence of any “divine ” plane of reality. Physicists have no acceptable unified theory. They can’t account for some 85% of the matter/energy of the universe, resorting to speculation about “dark” matter/energy which is another way of saying “it’s a mystery.” The various string G-das“theultimatemystery of existence” sets the existential stage for a dialogue between atheists and theists about “the nature of the ultimate mystery of existence itself.” At this round table discussion there will be diverse views about the nature of G-d. Participants who believe in the traditional concepts of G-d will state that G-d is omniscient or all-knowing, omnipotent or all-powerful, immutable or unchanging, eternal, and omnibenevolent or all-good. They may argue that G-d is all-good and all-powerful and compatible with the existence of evil although human beings cannot comprehend such a reality. Thus, G-d’s will is incomprehensible , but they are people of faith. According to the kabbalistic view, everything is for the best. Other people of faith believe in all the traditional concepts of G-d except for the divine attribute of omnipotence. In Rabbi Harold S. Kushner’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, he speaks of a loving G-d who is not all-powerful. The challenge facing those willing to sit at a roundtable discussion is that the nature of G-d seems unknowable. On The Power of Myth series on PBS, Joseph Campbell pointed out to Bill Moyers that if we could logically prove the existence of G-d, there would be no need for faith. Mr. Hampson states that “it was fashionable for a while to look for gaps in scientific explanations and place G-d there, but the gaps will diminish to nothing in time: a G-d in the gaps has no future.” On the other hand, he points out: “And he recognized G-d in the waiting, and in the emptiness and in the silence .” At the very least, I personally believe there is a LETTERS theories are not scientifically verifiable under any normative definition of the term and have more in common with traditional metaphysics than science. Like traditional religions, much is taken on faith. Until scientific materialism , which is the religion of atheists, can satisfactorily deal with these huge problems , it seems like there is plenty of room for a reasonable conception (albeit not Judeo-Christian) of God. By the way, if the Higgs boson doesn’t turn up when the CERN accelerator revs up, they are in Big trouble. William Glasner Victor, NY I am writing this letter inresponsetoMichael Hampson’sarticle“G-d WithoutG-d”(Tikkun May/June,2008).Theauthorbelievesthatherecon cilestheismandatheism . However,hisproposedreconciliationisonlyapartial oneatbest. IagreewithMichael Hampsonthatacknowledging Editor’snote:: Someofthelettersinthissectionrespondtoarticlesdistributedelectronicallytothe tens of thousands of readers who are on our email lists. If you are not on the email list, please send us your name, your email, and your address to: Generosity@Tikkun.org. We will be happy to add your name to the list. Please open the emails we send—they often contain exciting and provocative articles addressingpressingcontemporaryissues .AsisthecaseforarticlesprintedinTikkun, thepiecessentoutfromouremaillistdonotnecessarilyrepresenttheperspectiveof Tikkun,whichcanonlybefoundbyreadingoureditorialsintheprintedition,but instead represent our assessment of important analyses that you are unlikely to encounter in your mainstream media or in the blog-o-sphere.] ForMORELETTERSnowandinfuturevisitwww.tikkun.organdclickonLetters in the In This Issue box. Readers Respond J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 3 PAYING JOBS AT TIKKUN...