BALANCE

In my post on Evidence for G-d, I made a distinction between G-d the Creator and G-d the Rule Giver.

I’ll lay my cards on the table and tell you why I did this. I believe that there is a huge population of people (I’ve spoken with a bunch of ‘em) who believe in G-d, but have a problem with organized religion. I think that there is a hair’s breadth of difference between these people and a bunch of people who call themselves atheists largely because they don’t believe in religion.

So, here I come. I have the chutzpa to call my blog “Balance,” and I make as if I have some approach that may find a centered approach to some of the questions brought up by the anti-religious world. I call it chutzpa because my personal belief system includes a belief that G-d revealed Himself to the Jews as Mount Sinai. How dare I, “religiously blind sheep,” “opiate consuming member of the blind masses,” try to appeal to reason!?! Like I said – chutzpa!

Therefore, I wanted to first lay out some evidence for a G-d who created the world. Let’s put our guard down for just a minute. Like I wrote, not proof, but yes evidence – there is some compelling evidence that this world has a Designer. Don’t worry about the rules yet. We’ll layer our approach so that we can stay on common ground for as long as possible. We’ll see where we can agree for as long as possible. The next step, then, which is this post is to lay out some evidence as to why I believe that G-d spoke took the Jews out of Egypt and gave them the Torah on Mount Sinai. We won’t get to any rules here or how or whether they impact you, just that there was revelation.

THE POWER OF A MIRACLE

There was a wild story in the New York Times about five years ago. It seems that a Chassidic fish store owner and his non-Jewish worker heard a fish talk before it was killed. I have no interest right now is discussing whether or not this was/wasn’t could/couldn’t be true. My observation is simple. If one person had claimed to have seen it, the story would have had as many legs as the fish. Two people made the claim, and it made it to the New York Times and throughout the blogosphere. This is a fascinating insight into the power of miracles.

Just for a few minutes, I’d like to ask the skeptics to take a brief trip with me (the non-skeptics will find this very easy). Imagine that a miracle occurred to you. Not something that could possibly explained by the natural laws that we are familiar with. You walk outside your home and everything is stopped. Birds flying in mid-air are frozen. People walking and driving down the street, likewise, are frozen as if there was a pause button that was hit. You are the only animation happening. Suddenly, you hear your name called with a deep rich baritone voice, “David.” (Use your imagination and plug in your own name if it’s anything other than David.)

Because fiction is not my forte, I’ll allow your imagination to finish all of the description. G-d speaks to you in whatever way you need to be convinced that it’s Him. He wishes you a nice day, and tells you that you need to do apply for a job at Home Depot in the flooring department. You get the point. The original excitement (or fear or plain ol’ being freaked out) might fade, but this event would leave a mark on you forever. A miracle (if they exist at all insists the skeptic) is powerful. It would be powerful without the voice of G-d (I couldn’t resist adding it – especially with the baritone voice part), but the power of a miracle lies in the suspension of all that you think you know. Reality gets turned on its head.

Now, let’s manipulate a few factors and see what happens.

What happens if instead of witnessing this miracle by yourself, you are joined by a friend? The presence of one extra person brings the miracle to a new level. When you see it by yourself, even if it is so clear to leave no doubt in your mind, you’ll always feel a bit strange, knowing that there is a chance that no one will ever believe you. Experiencing the witness with another person creates a bond that makes the experience so much more powerful. You can confirm the details; you can experience the lift together. That second person turns you from a person perceived as a loon to a story in the New York Times.

One other factor that we can change is to make the miracle last longer. Instead of it being a five minute experience, what happens if it lasts for an entire day? Again, the power of the experience expands exponentially. The longer it lasts, the more connection you have to the miracle.

The last factor that we add to our miracle is meaning. What if instead of telling you get a job at Home Depot, you and your friend were given a set of instructions that included the meaning of life and all of the “secrets” to happiness? And since the message would be long, G-d were to deliver to you notes to help you remember all of the instructions.

A final idea to this scenario to think about is the probability of deceit. When one person claims a Divine message, he can easily be lying. It’s all his claim. Two could also be lying, but it gets more difficult. We can cross examine the two “witnesses” to see if their stories match. They could still be lying, but depending of what they have to gain, their reputation before this and how well they stand up to tough questioning, to that extent their believability will be brought into question.

The more people who claim to witness a miracle, the harder it is to fake it. At some point, the idea becomes ridiculous. Ten people could get together and decide to be deceitful. Even twenty. But 100? 10,000? Somewhere along the lines, it becomes near to impossible to imagine a scam where so many people keep their mouths shut.

[It seems that most blogs have shorter posts. For the sake of trying to keep some people interested, I will post this piece in pieces. Let me know, please, if this makes it better or not. Part II should be along within a day or so.]