The "Assumption" Divide

Recently, I was drawn into a discussion, over at Garnel's blog (http://www.garnelironheart.blogspot.com/), specifically at the post on Goodness and Righteousness, that developed into a dialogue (or, rather, mutual soliloquies) on the issue of science and religion or rationalism and religion. The dialogue reminded me of a paper that a friend of mine, with a Ph. D. in Philosophy, once submitted a paper to Nishma for publication which we, unfortunately, did not get a chance to yet publish.

In it, he proceeds to describe the distinction in frame of reference between the Greek perspective on life and the Jewish one. What I found most significant in his presentation was his perception that never or rarely the two shall meet. What he argued was that someone with a Greek perspective just simply cannot accept answers or ideas that are based upon the acceptance of the Jewish perspective. And similarly, those with a Jewish perspective simply cannot accept a similar insistence on the Greek perspective. Perhaps, using the terminology of Rabbi Sholom Carmy, there is a secular bias and a religious bias -- and this bias should be recognized in any discussion that brings those with differing frames of reference together.

Let me give an example. One may look at something in the Torah and argue that this clearly proves the Torah's Divine origin. This argument is then presented to someone with a secular bias -- and it goes nowhere. What may ensue is a fight over the specific issue -- but that is not really the point in conflict. The one with the secular bias just simply cannot accept the conclusion of the one who maintains that this statement in the Torah proves the Torah's Divine origin because he inherently rejects that assumption. Any real discussion must therefore focus on the realm of the assumption and why one is insistent on it. That actually may yield an interesting dialogue and discussion.

This is similar in regard to someone arguing that something in the Torah proves that the Torah (chas v'sholom) is not of Divine origin. The argument is really not going to get anywhere because the one that this person may be trying to convince already accepts this position inherently and as an assumption. So the argument may surround this particular area of the text but that really doesn't accomplish anything. The real focus should be on the assumption -- not just why it is made but its repercussions. I, for example, recognize that in accepting the Divine origin of the Torah I am also accepting a presentation of a world with very different rules of nature that would seem to apply. Maybe this historical world had the same basic rules that we have today but clearly there was much more Divine intervention and open miracles. As such, the world, practically, functioned within a very different perspective. The result for me is that while I may not fully understand what a specific text may be saying as I don't really understand this perspective found in the ancient world, I also cannot deny that something unique may have happened. The point, as my friend put it, was that I accept a view of time and history that maintains that different epochs may have different basic rules. This is why I can believe there was a Sinaitic Revelation thousands of years ago while any open Revelation is not existent today. The secularist, though, accepts, as my friend put it, a democratic view of time and thus cannot accept that one period in history or time is fundamentally different in natural laws from another. With such and assumption. no arguments of Sinai effectively would work. You have to go back to the assumption.

I invite you to view the discussion over at Garnel's blog but I also invite you to comment on this, what I term, The "Assumption" Divide. Its not the arguments nor the conclusions that is at the essence of many debates but the assumptions that are not even articulated. Can you articulate yours?

Rabbi Ben Hecht