God the Creator?
June 26, 2008
Religious Life
(2 comments)
By Richard J. "Dick" Israel
The grand panjandrum of this blog (aka the editor) has decreed that I post or be forever exiled. I must confess that up to now my contribution has been non-existent, but I attribute that to a lifelong (by now that's pretty long) notion I have indulged that those who speak the most have the least to say. That includes yours truly. Nonetheless, in all fairness to those who have been striving to enlarge lay contribution to the evolution of our otherwise clergy heavy Reform Judaism, let me strive to comply by exposing some stray ideas which have drifted through my thoughts recently.
First, I tend to consider Reform Judaism as an association of generally like-minded Jewish people who can share religious worship and religiously derived social service activism with each other. That sharing includes financial as well as personal support to the best of each person's ability. I believe, also, in the utmost freedom of belief. I care not what any fellow Reform Jew believes, so long as we can worship together congenially. I care not what religious observances or practices any such fellow worshipper feels to be obligatory, optional or down-right silly, so long, of course, as that fellow worshipper accords me the same indifference.
I do not believe in any taboos of belief, but I do believe some religious practices to be unacceptable to Reform Jews. For example, I believe that those who call themselves Jews for Jesus, or who otherwise accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah or part of a holy trinity, are Christian and not at all Jewish, let alone Reform Jews. So, I cannot worship with them any more than I would take communion in a Roman Catholic church. Although they are often intertwined, what people believe and what people do in religious life can sometimes be usefully separated. So, I believe that Reform Jews can dialogue with Muslims, even if they do not worship together.
Second, in religious discourse among congenial co-worshippers, no idea should be off-limits. Today's far-fetched notion may well be tomorrow's common-place. In that respect, Judaism generally and Reform Judaism especially are paradigmatic.
I have observed some discussion as to whether or not Reform Jews can or cannot believe in God, and whether those who do not can publicly proclaim it. Let me submit a theological thought for discussion. God did not create the universe and humankind. Human beings created God. It does not seem to me that it would make any difference in our everyday lives if we deflected the God question by acknowledging and accepting the notion that there is a God, whom our ancestors and we have created to explain the inexplicable.
We can continue to worship such a God as embodying a notion of goodness and love and peace and all the blessings we cherish in worship. We can continue to struggle for a covenantal relationship with such a God who continues to embody moral obligations. Religious Reform Jews would continue to be obligated to render social service activism on behalf of all of our fellow humans in need. A benefit we might enjoy could be the freeing of our minds from a load of mystical baggage. We might also more easily come to grips with the lessons of the Holocaust, since the God we have created does not cause genocide in Europe in the Twentieth Century or in Africa in this. Unlike our Humanist co-religionist we would not erase mention of God from our public worship, we would simply reform our notion of divinity among all the other reforms we have found useful.
I recognize how painful it would be for people of strong faith to accept such a far-reaching change of conception. They don't need to. They and the rest of us would recite the same affirmation of faith, but some of us would know that the one God is different for some of us. I am also aware of the more powerful argument against God as a human creation. That is that what humans have created, humans can destroy. But, that is only true of physical things. The Roman conquerors, like the Babylonian can destroy the physical Temple in Jerusalem, but neither of them or their successors through the ages to this very day could destroy the idea of God's place in Jerusalem. Our ancient Israelite ancestors created the notion of human freedom from slavery, which despite the efforts of tyrants to destroy it, lives to this day.
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Dick, I argued in my post "Who needs God" that lacking a concept of a real God, Judaism cannot inspire. In particular, our ethical values go beyond ourselves, and the moment. When we see unity and the aspirations for a better world as rooted in something beyond ourselves, a higher power, that provides inspiration.
If God is just a convenient fiction, then it has no power to motivate us. And the actual experiences people have of the sacred are fake.
In particular passing along your values to the next generation is much more difficult. When you have a community who supports these values, and sees them as holy, it is a much stronger platform.
Frankly I am impatient with this convenient fiction stuff. I just don't think it hold up to critical scrutiny. And my experience is that it goes nowhere with teens, who see it as selling something we don't believe in.
I'm two posts here of three or four into showing that there is a viable concept of God that those who accept science can believe in. Let me know if I convince you!