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Neil deGrasse Tyson Made Me A Better Theologian

April 13, 2012 by Patrick Beaulier

I know, I know. Neil deGrasse Tyson is agnostic. But that doesn’t mean that man isn’t a believer at the same time.

My final assignment for rabbinical school is a thesis where I have to discuss my personal theological understanding of Judaism in the context of the Jewish future, and to use text to defend it. I must also include in the paper any kind of texts that contradict my theology and find ways to deal with those “difficult passages”. While I have a while before I get to this (one must crawl before running), I have to admit that I am terrified by writing this. There are some incredibly thorny passages in the Torah. How does a progressive Jew defend slaying Amelekites, stoning gay men, divorcing the spouses of interfaith marriages, and all the other troubling texts? It’s easy if you believe in an unquestionable Torah mi’Sinai that gives you the ultimate “out” of, “the Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it”. Problem is, if you’re the type to wrestle with text, no matter what you believe about the origin of our holy texts, you still have to figure out how to deal with all the fundamentalist sounding stuff that your modern sensibilities can’t stand.

Really good Jewish thinkers are willing to ask tough questions, to deviate from conventional thinking when things just don’t add up, and to willingly throw away any of their ideas that don’t hold up. I think the same must be true for scientists, which is why I often watch science programs on Netflix when I find myself unable to deal with religion. Surprisingly, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and others don’t compel me away from the Divine, but rather, help me to more fully connect with the nature of the Universe, which I understand to be one of several projects that God has undertaken.

The video below really spells it out for me.

While Mr. Tyson and I probably disagree on the conclusion, what we can agree on is the spectacular nature of life: that we are made of all the same things that the universe is made up of, and that this is pretty cool. I know that “pretty cool” is an amateur, flippant way of describing the existence of reality, but you get my drift.

For me, this unity of all things is the seat of God. I find in the Shema the blessing of God’s oneness as a true-ism of all reality: that God is one, that the universe and everything in it is one, and that we are one with all of these elements at the same time. God, heaven, the past, present and future are all within us and at the same time, outside of us.

As a self-professed “serial monogamist”, I can speak with a certain level of authority that no relationship is perfect and that while we hope that everything we do is to the benefit of our partner, or is at least keeping them in mind, often times we just act on our own self-interest. In an interview, Tyson said that “every account of a higher power that I’ve seen described, of all religions that I’ve seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence.” 

When we look at the way a single change in the coming together of our universe could have completely prevented humanity from ever existing, it gives us an amazing pause to think: perhaps the world is made with love in mind. As Einstein said, “God doesn’t play dice with the world.” At the same time, I can see where Tyson is coming from. The world is amoral; children are born with genetic diseases that take their lives before they have the opportunity to live, earthquakes and other natural phenomena sweep people off to eternity regardless of how holy or evil they are, and by most trustworthy accounts, the Earth will be destroyed by the sun, no matter how much faith we put into God to prevent that from happening.

Perhaps though, we are trying to fit a square God into a round hole. Perhaps God is not benevolent or the destroyer: God just is. Just as our relationships with those we love are never simple, perhaps God, who I have always viewed as the ultimate in complicated, complex issues, cannot be made into a boiler plate one-liner.

Our faith tradition gives us two ways to take refuge under God’s shechinah in spite of the terrible amount of mental noise that the why-God-why type questions cause us. As I mentioned before, the Shema’s declaration of oneness of God is a no-brainer. God is one, and from Tyson we learn that everything in the universe is one. Oneness disguised as diversity and chaos seems to be God’s operating philosophy.

The second point comes from liturgy. When we pray the Amidah, we pray “blessed are you…God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob”. Martin Buber in The Ten Rungs, a collection of Chasidic philosophy, explained that the reason we say “God of” before each name, is that God was revealed to each of these individuals, and to all of the prophets, in different ways and at different times. God is not a singular experience, but rather, an experience that each generation is tasked with in its own way. Perhaps science is just another of God’s prophecies.

From that place, I am able to sit with my non-theistic friends and know that when we talk about the stars in the sky, the birth of a child, or any other life affirming moment, the “ooh, ahh” noises we make reflect a shared experience of the transcendental.

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs Tagged With: atheists, convert to judaism, darshan yeshiva, jewish agnostic, jewish atheism, jewish atheist, jewish theology, Neil deGrasse Tyson, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rabbinical school, science and god, science and judaism, science and religion, science and theology

Atheists Seem To Have It So Easy

October 19, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

(Originally posted by our friend Heshy Fried here)

Atheists really seem to have it easy. They probably don’t, but when I look at them from afar it seems to be an easy life. A life of non-believing and depending on their personalities they may be ironically called insane by us religion espousers, but in the end believing in God seems to be tough work – but not so much believing in God as struggling with the entire concept of “what is the meaning of life?” I was asked that by an older friend of mine recently. I couldn’t tell if it was in jest, but I told him that life was about realizations that hit you in the head and made everything else until that point seem idiotic. Like when I realized that worrying about things was the tyranny of the mind. Chabadnicks say it’s the sitra achra and I agree – the other side, the devil, the evil inclination, the yetzer harah – whether or not that may be fictional or not is up for debate – but something in our conscience screwing with us. We worry about things all the time that will happen regardless of worrying or not, so why worry?

So Atheists, what’s the deal? I can’t seem to shake my belief in God. I never actually tried. I don’t think I’m smart enough to be an Atheist. Almost every Atheist I ever met was a scientist of some sort. I have a friend who says that any scientist who believes in God is intellectually irresponsible and I disagree – I don’t see how God cannot be worked into any scenario – I just don’t understand Atheism.

I kind of wish I could be an Atheist sometimes. I wouldn’t have to worry about the afterlife (I don’t really worry about the afterlife now anyway, like most people my age death is not really in my mind much) and my entire life would be devoted helping future generations have a good time here on earth, rather than the constant talk of this so called messiah who will deliver us from our misery, after a 1000 years of nothingness by the way. So apparently, one of the many urban legends surrounding the coming of the messiah (I’m not really sure about the whole thing, I only look forward to it for the fodder it will provide, I’m sure the messiah will be a transgender woman who is modern orthodox and everyone won’t take a hint) is that there will be a big war and the world will be empty of life for 1000 years – so we won’t see the whole thing anyway. Also, how on earth are we going to roll to Israel with all of our luggage anyway? And what about all that stuff the beis din will kill us for, like carrying in an eruv that not everyone accepts — maybe they will have the beis din stonings on pay per view or something with the money going to tzedaka.

Religion ain’t easy, unless you’re ignorant. If you sit and learn all day and never bother to reaffirm your beliefs it seems so easy. “Honey I’m going to Kollel” followed by “Honey did your father pay the rent?” It seems from the outside like an easy life, intellectually at least. Sure, you cannot afford white meat and don’t get to drink brand name soda, but you learn and shteig and believe fully (I think) in what you’re doing. Meanwhile, us underlings cling to this religion we really don’t fully believe in but are afraid of losing the community around it or something of the sort.

I believe so strongly in God, but don’t really know what to do with that belief. Others dive blindly into Judaism, whether it be orthodox, or some other stream, but I’m always unsure. I consider myself orthodox, sure, but am I? I like the term post-orthodox, or post denominational, it makes sense. I don’t have a hashkafa. For instance, I am vehemently against TV and Movies, more from a philosophical than hashkafic bent. I think it’s all a waste of time, but not bittul torah — everything is bittul torah, you know?

To not believe in God takes everything out of the picture, what pains do you have? But then again, when you do have pain, to whom do you daven? Baal? I don’t know if I could live without my daily conversations with the L-rd. He’s the best free psychologist. You can scream at Him, curse at Him, wave your fists at Him or Her or It and it just sits there on its cloud filled lazy boy reading the DSM 4 and wondering about what on earth you’re babbling. It’s really good talking with the Lord, loads of fun, except for the few times that I was heavily involved that when I came across a fellow hiker, they looked at me like I was crazy, after all – there was no Bluetooth in my ear and definitely no reception for one to be talking to anyone. I would momentarily break from my philosophical discussion with the clouds and tell them that I was spacing out and trying to scare the bears.

I guess Atheists have to pay for a psychologist. Maybe it’s worth the ease at which their minds get to glide through life. I don’t like the argument that Atheists are immoral. You don’t need God to be moral and it seems like the opposite actually. It seems like the evil things done in the name of God far outweigh the things done in the name of Atheism. You may make the argument that the Communists were Atheists and Stalin managed to kill 80 million people, but it’s doubtful they did it in the name of no God in existence — they did it because they wanted to control the world vodka market – which seems to be against capitalism, so why not?

Filed Under: Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: 3xdaily, atheists, babbling, convert to judaism, darshan yeshiva, frum satire, frumsatire, God, humanistic judaism, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Rants, Religion, secular judaism, slight humor

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