Jerusalem & Athens

Every religion is based on a certain number of beliefs. Belief in G-d, belief in prophecy etc. But what is belief? The inquiry into the nature of belief is best captured in the following two-sided question: Is belief rational or irrational? Meaning, is it a conviction one acquires from real observation and logical reasoning or is it a conviction one simply has as a result of a higher sense or spiritual Intuition? Saadia Gaon, in his famous “Haemunos Vhadeos”, is a proponent of the first approach. He does not subscribe to the mystical or spiritual notion of belief. To him, any set of beliefs must be firmly grounded on human observation or concrete rational reasoning. Any idea which cannot be corroborated by either experience or logic should be rejected.  Thus, he deals at length in his introduction with the proper methods of acquiring beliefs and the rigid set of tests one should put every idea through before accepting it as truth. Here is a summary (in my...

Modern scientific evolutionary theory and the Tanya (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Chabad) both seem to have arrived at a very similar conclusion. How they get there, however, is an entirely different story. Every self reflecting human being no doubt sees that we possess a complicated and paradoxical set of traits. On the one hand we are beastly, but on the other hand, cultured and civilized. We enjoy base and materialistic pleasures but also have a fine taste for the arts and wisdom. Evolutionary theory explains this phenomenon quite simply. Man was (and basically still is) an animal. We lived in the jungle where we hunted and gathered food for survival. We spoke no language, possessed no moral code and knew nothing of the arts and fashion which form our culture. It was only after many millions of years that this beast called man learned to speak, think, write, and turned itself into the fine cultured and civilized ape he is today. This explains the dichotomy within our characte...