Atheist Orthodox Rabbi – for a Lifetime
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series on Rabbis. We’re starting with “Sherm” an active Orthodox Rabbi who muses on belief and non-belief. Then we’ll meet Shlomo Levin, an Orthodox Rabbi who recently resigned and we’ll hear again from Jeff Falick, the Humanist Rabbi who recently wrote about the Exodus myth. All are members of The Clergy Project.
September 2, 2014
by Linda LaScola
By “Sherm”
I cannot pinpoint an exact moment when I became an atheist. I do know the first time I acknowledged it, however. It was not spectacular or explosive. My wife simply asked me if I believed in God and I said, “no,” after a short hesitation, but all I said was no. I managed a slight smile that said, “I had no intention of this happening.”
I remember the period of time preceding that day where I would question what I believed or did not believe, but that was all internal. I remember thinking that as an Orthodox Jew I have had the opportunity to meet some very smart people, fellow Orthodox Jews – some rabbis, some professors, some lay leaders – who are far more intelligent than I am. I wondered how can these individuals believe? Was there something wrong with my thinking? Were they all lying? I have spent some time dwelling on this point. I have even heard other rabbis use the following line of reasoning as a support for continued belief:
“Others a lot smarter than you have had these questions, left them unresolved and still lead committed lives of belief and observance.”
I have, however, over time, come to realize that disbelief is not a function of intelligence or common sense. Disbelief seems, at least to me, to be a function of one’s willingness to consider the possibility that everything one has lived for and believed is made up. It so happens that the fabrication is quite elaborate and actually very sincere in its origin. The fabrication was meant to create a social system by which people can live moral and just lives. People are not willing to give it up or even be open to hearing the other side because most are convinced that the cost of giving it up is too great.
There is a self-test – a thought exercise – I came up with to see whether one has that willingness or not. It is actually quite simple. When one hears someone arguing against the existence of God or the divine authority of the bible, and if one immediately starts thinking of a response, a defense of one’s long held position, then that individual is not ready for disbelief. To be ready, one’s auto-response system needs to be turned off and one needs to contemplate and consider the possibility that the lifelong social system one has adhered to for so long is a human invention that one has been fed his entire life. While sincere and comforting, it should be subject to the same level of scrutiny and critical examination we bestow on almost everything else in life.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/clergyproject/2014/09/atheist-orthodox-rabbi-for-a-lifetime/
