Joseph Brown responds to “The False Binary of Theism vs. Atheism”

To the Editors:

Adena Philips begins “The False Binary of Theism vs. Atheism” with a perfectly respectable complaint against the reductionism with which discussions of theology are typically started — namely, against the question, “Do you believe in G-d?” It is true that Hashem as He is depicted in Torah is a mysterious character. He is said in Exodus to have a face, back, and hand. And yet in Psalm 115, we’re entreated to a mockery of the Levant’s false idols, whose clay and wooden sensory organs are merely cosmetic. The true G-d, of course, has no form.

There is much room to ponder the nature and essence of G-d. Philips does not do much of this. Instead, having pried open some of the Torah’s more puzzling esotericisms, she proceeds to denounce the uselessness of gatekeeping in Jewish thought. It may be that, as she relates to us, a significant portion of American Jews profess belief in a “higher power.” And it could certainly be said they believe in a god, or something like a god. Our most hardcore secularists often assert the existence of rights to this or that good, demonstrating some belief in the transcendental. Man is a spiritual animal.

So what is the issue? Even the most dogmatic among us can acknowledge the existence of non-halakhic beliefs among Jews, and especially among American Jews. But here Philips offers a glimpse of the point at which she has been hinting throughout the piece:

“The God of my Jewish upbringing lives for me in the warmth of a Shabbat table . . . . She also appears in the ecstasy of the dance floor . . . . As my conception of God has evolved throughout my journey with Jewish spirituality, I’ve come to see it as a mirror — a projection of my own inner state, constellation of beliefs, and learning at a given point in time.”

Of course! He is the mirror. The god of the void — literally an image of ourselves, no more and no less than the reflective capacity of water. Thousands of years of Jewish history, replete with the mindless and interminable debates of silly sages, just to arrive in precisely the same theological territory as, uh, Unitarian Universalism. Quite the trip!

Maybe American Jews are drifting away from Hashem as He is depicted in Torah. So perhaps there is a reason we ask, “Do you believe in G-d?” At the very least, it provides good polling data.