Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb - Jewish Philosophy: Is Belief in God a Crutch for Psychological Weakness?

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Hidabroot - Torah & Judaism’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

isn't the philosophical belief just a crutch for the psychologically week I think there are two responses here one is more on the surface speaking literally and not politically I would call it superficial but it's right it's correct and it does a job and then there's a deeper issue that I would like to try to explore the superficial issue is okay there are people who are psychologically weak people who are worried about death there are people who need to have certainty about what's right and what's wrong the people to be you need reinforcements in the feeling that they are special valuable what's called now moving for human exceptionalism which builds up their ego and no question that believing in God does serve all these purposes and therefore person who lack self-confidence and kind of worried personality and who needs reinforcements so as to keep his blood pressure down that might give him adequate psychological cause to adopt religious belief that might be the very same thing might be said about belief in atheist after all if you believe in God in the waste that traditional religion describes God that puts a big crimp in your plans for Jews no cheeseburgers for men generally you have to lay off your neighbors wives may be cheating on your taxes or miss advertising your merchandise even though others do it but he believed in God that might be a no-no so you're gonna have to take an economic it there may be people who sense that

Jump to a moment

1. 0:19isn't the philosophical belief just a crutch for the psychologically week I think there are two…
2. 4:30conclude that other than some people are weak psychologically and they adopt beliefs because of their…
3. 9:08beneath your dignity the person who made a remark like that we're typically be encouraged to…
4. 13:47think of like recently you know like the god gene looks like that when they talk…
5. 18:29my past evaluating my past thinking about changing my past what for I don't evaluate and…
6. 23:10excusing everything until his book practice of reason how can you do that as a materialist…
7. 27:22people and the rituals are nothing then it becomes an inexplicable miracle god forbid I mean…
8. 32:05have to know that non-jewish nations hate us they hate us so he expects it he…
9. 36:45repentant little I hope so it's one of the reasons that liberals often rub me the…
10. 41:22you don't care about how to make a consistent point of view you really into politics…

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