sign in sign up
<<
Home , Aaron

The of Independent Minds - WSJ.com 2012.08.26 21:52

Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com See a sample reprint in PDF format. Order a reprint of this article now

ESSAY August 24, 2012, 8:58 p.m. ET The God of Independent Minds Is religion the enemy of reason? A look at the questioning, disobedient heroes of the Old Testament

By YORAM HAZONY

Today's debates over the place of religion in modern life often showcase the claim that belief in God stifles reason and science. As Richard Dawkins writes in his best-seller "The God Delusion," religious belief "discourages questioning by its very nature." In "The End of Faith," his own New Atheist manifesto, Sam Harris writes that religion represents "a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible."

The argument that religion suppresses rational inquiry is often based on the idea that "reason" and "revelation" are opposites. On this view, shared by atheist crusaders and some believers as well, the whole point of the is to provide divine knowledge for guiding our lives, so we don't need questioning and independence of mind.

This dichotomy between reason and revelation has a great deal of behind it, but I have never accepted it. In fact, as an Orthodox Jew, I often find the whole discussion quite frustrating. I will let speak for their own sacred texts, but in the (or "Old Testament") and the classical rabbinical sources that are the basis for my religion, one of the abiding themes is precisely the ever-urgent need for human beings, if they are to find what is true and just, to maintain their capacity for independent thought and action.

Musee des Beaux-Arts/Clermont-Ferrand, /Roger- Viollet, /Bridgeman Art Library Almost every major hero and heroine of the Hebrew Bible is Independent thinker: ' Wrestling with the ,' depicted as independent-minded, disobedient, even 1865. contentious. , and Jacob, 's , and Aaron, and , such as and , and exilic biblical figures such as , Mordechai and —all are portrayed as confronting authority and breaking the laws and commands of kings. And for this they are praised.

But aren't these biblical figures just disobeying human institutions in response to commands from on high? Not at all. Very often the disobedience we see in Hebrew Scripture is initiated by human beings with no word from God at all. Thus the midwives Shifra and Pua resist 's decree to murder the Israelite children in narrative. And Moses' mother and sister hide the infant boy, although it is against the law. And Moses grows up and slays an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew slave.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444270404577607242416148280.html#printMode Page 1 of 3 The God of Independent Minds - WSJ.com 2012.08.26 21:52

None of these deeds is initiated or guided by divine command. Like many other stories in , they tell us about human beings who make their stand entirely on their own authority.

Some will want to object that the biblical heroes exhibit such

independence of mind only with respect to other human beings, and that they become pushovers when God enters the picture. But that isn't right either. Many biblical figures dare to extend their arguments and criticism to God himself. Abraham is famous for challenging God over the fate of Sodom: "Will not the judge of all the earth do justice?" Moses repeatedly argues against God's intention to destroy Israel. is outraged over what he sees as God's unjust killing of one of his men, and similar arguments with God appear in , , , Havakuk, and . Almost every major figure of the Hebrew Bible confronts authority and breaks the law. Nor do these biblical figures stop at just arguing with God. They also disobey God. Abel disregards God's instructions to go work the soil, while his obeys—yet it is Abel whom God loves, not Cain. Moses, too, directly disobeys God's command to lead the people up to after the sin of the . Aaron refuses to conduct the sacrificial service as commanded after God kills his two sons. The daughters of Tzelofhad even demand that Moses alter God's law because they deem it unjust. And in all these cases, the biblical narrative endorses such resistance.

The Bible acknowledges this pattern explicitly when God gives the name "Israel" to Jacob and his descendants, saying: "Your name will no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have contended with God and with men and have prevailed."

Reread that last sentence. It says that the God of Israel so cherishes independent-minded men and women that he himself names them Israel, meaning "will contend with God," as a sign of his love and esteem.

The claim that the Hebrew Bible seeks to suppress inquiry and argument can be maintained only by way of colossal ignorance or willful distortion. In fact, no literary tradition of the pre-modern world—including Greek philosophy—was so effortlessly radical in its endorsement of human questioning, seeking and argument. And few have rivaled it in modernity either.

Perhaps it is time for the participants in the great "religion wars" of our day to give the Hebrew Bible another read.

—Dr. Hazony is the author of "The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture," which has just been published by Cambridge University Press.

A version of this article appeared August 25, 2012, on page C2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The God of Independent Minds.

Copyright 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444270404577607242416148280.html#printMode Page 2 of 3