When on the topic of religion, one of the first questions I am usually
asked is why I believe in God. People will first inevitably comment on my
more prominent signs of religiosity; my yarmulke (skullcap),
tzitzit (ritual fringes), and modest clothing, and ask why I observe
these "outdated" traditions. I answer that I, as a Jew, have been
commanded by God by way of His Torah to observe certain mitzvot
(commandments), and these are just a few of the more noticeable ones.
Then they usually ask why I believe in God in the first place. Without
waiting for an answer, they typically enumerate several dozen reasons why
they don't believe, and why I shouldn't either, and why all religion
is bad and evil and contributes no good to the world besides latkes. Their
monologue tends to end with a demanding stare, as though I have been denying
them a straight answer to their question all this time, rather than them not
allowing me to give them one.
As it turns out, my answer won't sway many minds at all, not least
because I don't try to prove to anyone the existence of God, simply because
it's not possible. God's reality cannot be proved or disproved by any means,
and attempting to do so is a gigantic waste of energy. If you spend your time
trying to answer foolish questions, all your answers will be foolish.
Which is essentially why most people tend to walk away from these
conversations with me with a feeling of disappointment, as though they were
expecting me to offer them proof that the King of Kings is really up there.
Maybe they wanted me to give them a little two-way radio that only religious
people have, so that they too could achieve that spiritual high that they
feel they so desperately need in their lives?
The sad truth is that there are no such two-way radios. Religious people
are religious because of faith, nothing more, a gut instinct and a certain
kind of appreciation of the world around them that seems to escape people
without religious conviction. If it was something I could pass on to those
around me, I certainly would, but faith necessitates a personal
journey.
My answer to these questions is always the same: I believe in God because
the universe does not make sense to me any other way, and the Torah is the
only thing that seems to be capable of giving rhyme and reason to my life.
The Torah makes more sense than anything else that I have ever learned.
My beliefs may not meet military mustard when put to a scientific test,
but scientific tests are essentially irrelevant to the way I think about the
world. Nothing will ever keep me from believing in God, and no matter how
unscientific my reasons for it are, that is the way it will always be.
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