A Letter to Doctor Bart D. Ehrman

Dear Prof. Ehrman,

I completely understand why you feel that there can be good without faith. I agree. However, the cosmos is beyond reason.

Sure, I agree 100% with you that I find pretty much all the ethics I need in secular humanism. However, the universe is filled with magic. Faith is a reason we need not fear cosmic careening out of control. We need faith to say, "I know this universe is continually created from nothing, and I have no fear that in the next moment reality Gd just may give up on us, such that we leave existence without a fizzle."

Reason is trapped in the inexplicable how does the inventor figure out how to make a part of the universe malfunction. Atheists assume that it is impossible to make the world malfunction. Why? Because of reason. Where did that reason come from? Chaos? Is chaos great enough that it could create a world that won't fizzled out. And, if it is indeed Chaos that is behind this all, haven't we put Chaos behind the curtains of reality, as a God, heaven forefend.

"Why doesn't the universe cease to be?" says the Teacher.

Everyday is as amazing as The Big Bang if you ask me. Every moment matter is a limit, such that we need far more explanation than what came first in the universe. How many times have some of us assumed that without a Goad to animate us, the world would go on ticking. A void is created if we are without faith. Where would we be if we had no Gd to sustain us, or animate us to do His will, as a part of His choose your own adventure plan.



Sincerely,
Craig Hamilton

Criticism of Intelligent Design: It is not obvious that Gd is involved in creating us from nothing.

Persons, places, and things could all be creating themselves from nothing.  For example, in the instance of persons, both Hassidic literature, and the biological concept of metabolism teach that we are as flames, as both humans and flames consume oxygen and burn fat.  If we don't eat we can lose weight, and even our bodies may shut down regardless, such that we may perceive ourselves as creating ourselves from nothing via eating and breathing, and that Gd has no say whatsoever in how we are created from nothing.

There is no evidence to support intelligent design.  There is evidence of order, even to the extent that we are all here.  However, that order may have arisen from the turnings of chaos.  That is chaos need not be static, but that from chaos, given enough time, the universe would evolve chaotically to be the way it is from chaos alone.  The Rebbe is said to have stated if we are here on earth, it is because we have a mission to fulfill, such that none should say, "I am without purpose," but this is just a sign of organization which may have arisen as a result of chaos.  That is though it sounds like a very tall tail given enough time, chaos may have given birth to an ordered universe.  The choice is ours.  Do we believe chaos created order, or do we believe Gd created order.  Many scientists believe that the idea of Gd is absurd, and choose to believe that all the order of the universe essentially arose from chaos because scientists usually believe the universe is so old this sort of order could have arisen from it.

I do believe Gd sustains the universe in the same way that Gd may choose to have mercy or Gd may choose to have judgment, such that though Gd is the Giver of the Law it is up to us to uphold it via choices involving justice and mercy, but again the existence of justice and mercy could have evolved from chaos, or they might be the result of Gd.  Much of Torah Law is possible to derive from this universe without the aid of a Deity.  For example, if everyone murdered each other, then there would be no people left, and even other species rarely kill another member of their same species due to an innate desire to protect genes of family members or even cousins, etc.

The hidden nature of Gd is such that we can’t derive his existence is because Gd chooses Himself to be concealed, such that an atheist may learn about the universe, but miss out on faith because of His concealment.  Elokim means that the world is constricted to the point that scientists fail to see the residue of Gd's speech of the 10 divine utterances of which is the kinds of ore that reality consists of. That is that everything in reality is a derivative of the 10 divine utterances.  If it were obvious to everyone that we should have faith in Hashem, then this would not be counted as a good deed, as it would completely obvious and not challenging in our lives.

One reason I believe faith is reasonable is that we find that there are gaps in our understanding that require wisdom, and thus we say that the Ayn Soph permeates nature preventing it from crumbling on its own rigidity in ideas such as the problem of purity and the periodic table, or that in order to get somewhere we need to first travel half of the distance, and that it takes an idea that is beyond complete comprehension, infinity, such that we must infinately travel half the distance in order to actually get where we are going.

At the core of everything, is divine filler, which I would define as or Ayn Soph, which is more difficult to describe than nailing Jello to the wall. Or Ayn Soph is the reason why we can have imperfect logic that really works in the real world.  Clearly, the universe has many properties.  In Judaism, I am able to have knowledge of them in the same way that in science, I am able to say, "Close enough."

On the Age of the Universe: I haven’t a clue as to the age of the universe, but…

We can extrapolate from science that there is a created order.  This is not a world of which miracle chaos has no part, and yet there is a periodic table and various physical equations where we feeble humans can gain grandiose opinions of ourselves, especially if we have an aptitude for such things.

From the perspective of some it is uncertain whether something intelligent created that order (or not), or if that order was created intentionally by an Intelligent Being.

I believe the universe was created by Gd, as it would be odd for humanities obsession to with Gd to be accident, if there was no Gd.  If the universe is indeed ordered, as the scientists say, then naturally worship is part of that order, as what else could it be?

Thus, my opinion: Gd grants grace to scientists like Richard Dawkins despite their atheism, as they still approach their work in the way that is pleasing to Gd, emulating Him voraciously in their discipline they resemble an all consuming fire, giving purpose to an atheist.