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Beit Midrash
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Translated by Hillel Fendel
Question: How do we know there is a G-d?
Answer: The normal way of the world is that people believe in things that a decisive majority of the world believes in. This is why we accept as fact many historic or geographic statements, even though we have no way of testing them – simply because this is what most of the world believes. And in truth, most of the world believes in the existence of God in one way or another, while unbelievers make up a very small minority.
Ed. note: Out of 98 countries sampled by the PEW Research Center in 2012, atheists were found to comprise less than 1% of the population in about a quarter of the countries, while another quarter had between 1 and 5%; only five countries had more than 50%. The Oxford Handbook of Atheism published a 2017 report finding 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population), with China alone accounting for 200 million of them.
It is in fact such a small minority that we would generally not even have to take its opinion into consideration. But if there are those who still have difficulty finding the way to G-d, they can reach Him in several ways. One way is via the Torah and our tradition, which provide testimony of prophets who spoke or communicated with G-d and transmitted His word to us. (It would have been hard to fabricate to 600,000 people that they had just seen and heard G-d at Sinai if they in fact had not.)
And if this is not sufficient, one can always attain the knowledge of G-d with the help of his intellect, or by looking around at the world and its wonders. There are several logical proofs of the existence of G-d, discussed by both our Sages and wise philosophers of other peoples. (See "The Road Back" by Mayer Schiller, Feldheim, 1981)
But I would say that the best proof of all is simply the chronicles of the People of Israel. One who looks at Jewish history will see that it is simply not natural, but rather something well beyond what would be expected based on the history of the other nations. No other people in the world survived, much less flourished, after going through what we did in our times – and precisely as the prophets foretold in our holy texts. The Nation of Israel is living testimony of the existence of G-d.
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Question: How do we know there is a G-d?
Answer: The normal way of the world is that people believe in things that a decisive majority of the world believes in. This is why we accept as fact many historic or geographic statements, even though we have no way of testing them – simply because this is what most of the world believes. And in truth, most of the world believes in the existence of God in one way or another, while unbelievers make up a very small minority.
Ed. note: Out of 98 countries sampled by the PEW Research Center in 2012, atheists were found to comprise less than 1% of the population in about a quarter of the countries, while another quarter had between 1 and 5%; only five countries had more than 50%. The Oxford Handbook of Atheism published a 2017 report finding 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population), with China alone accounting for 200 million of them.
It is in fact such a small minority that we would generally not even have to take its opinion into consideration. But if there are those who still have difficulty finding the way to G-d, they can reach Him in several ways. One way is via the Torah and our tradition, which provide testimony of prophets who spoke or communicated with G-d and transmitted His word to us. (It would have been hard to fabricate to 600,000 people that they had just seen and heard G-d at Sinai if they in fact had not.)
And if this is not sufficient, one can always attain the knowledge of G-d with the help of his intellect, or by looking around at the world and its wonders. There are several logical proofs of the existence of G-d, discussed by both our Sages and wise philosophers of other peoples. (See "The Road Back" by Mayer Schiller, Feldheim, 1981)
But I would say that the best proof of all is simply the chronicles of the People of Israel. One who looks at Jewish history will see that it is simply not natural, but rather something well beyond what would be expected based on the history of the other nations. No other people in the world survived, much less flourished, after going through what we did in our times – and precisely as the prophets foretold in our holy texts. The Nation of Israel is living testimony of the existence of G-d.
In order to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the Israel National Torah newsletter here.
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