{"id":70,"date":"2010-09-03T16:36:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T16:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/my-purpose-in-debating-christopher-hitchens-on-the-afterlife.html"},"modified":"2010-09-03T16:36:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-03T16:36:35","slug":"my-purpose-in-debating-christopher-hitchens-on-the-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/my-purpose-in-debating-christopher-hitchens-on-the-afterlife.htm","title":{"rendered":"My Purpose in Debating Christopher Hitchens on the Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is atheism necessary for religion? Rabbi Zusya would say yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The great Russian Hassidic Rabbi, who lived more than two hundred years ago, was one day teaching his students when he emphasized the necessity of atheism and agnosticism. His students were aghast. Had the master lost his mind? He proved his point. “Say you’re walking down the street and you see a hungry man or a homeless woman. If you’re certain there is a G-d you’re reaction might be, ‘I need do nothing because G-d will provide.’ But if you don’t believe in G-d, or if you doubt his existence, then there is only you<\/i> who can provide.'”<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Religion is the most powerful tool known to mankind. It is capable of
\ninspiring the artistic wonders of the Italian Renaissance and the reliefs of
\nMichelangelo, and it is capable of inspiring nineteen young men to fly
\nairplanes into buildings. It can lend mankind a vision of a perfect world in
\nwhich ‘the wolf lies down with the lamb’ and it can impart to the world a
\nvision of people needing to be burned at the stake as infidels.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Without intelligent and earnest critics of the faith the heavenly
\nvision of religion can easily spill over into the hell on earth. Hence, the necessity
\nof atheism and agnosticism. I would argue that religion learns more about
\nitself from its critics than it does about its admirers.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have debated many atheists in my time, from Richard Dawkins to
\nDaniel Dennett to Sam Harris to Christopher Hitchens. Of them all Hitchens
\nstands alone. He has by far been the most formidable and the most interesting
\nopponent, the one I have most loved and the one that has most gotten under my
\nskin. Religious people have no real interest in Dawkins whom they find extreme,
\nclinical, mechanical, and monolithic. But Hitchens is passionate, utterly
\nunpredictable, contrarian, and fluent. And while he has been, at times been, in
\nmy opinion, highly unfair in his criticism of religion, he redeems it all by
\nbeing all too human. It is his most likable quality. He is also supremely
\nentertaining.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I believe this is the reason that my upcoming debate with Hitchens
\non 16 September in New York City at the Cooper Union on ‘Is there an afterlife’
\nhas generated such considerable interest, particularly among religious people.
\nThe news that Hitchens has esophageal cancer and may be terminally ill has
\nprovoked sadness all round, particularly among the faithful. When I told my friends
\nat the excellent Baron Herzog vineyards in California that Hitchens was ill, we
\nall immediately decided to send him fine bottles of kosher wine so he and his
\nfriends could toast L’Chaim, to life, for his recovery. Religious prayer groups
\nfor Hitchens’ healing have sprung up all over America.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are the faithful praying for Hitchens recovery because they want to
\nhave enough time to convert and win a great victory? Is it because they want a
\nmiracle in Hitchen’s life to open his eyes to G-d’s presence? I cannot say. I
\ncan only speak for myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have no interest in converting Christopher Hitchens to religion.
\nHis atheism has not stopped him from being a singular champion of human rights
\nthroughout the world and he can teach we religious people a thing or two about
\ncourageously standing up to tyrants. I am not so na\u00efve as to believe for a
\nmoment that Hitchens would be so intellectually dishonest as to suddenly now
\nchange his antipathy toward religion because of the possibility of impending
\ndeath. Only a coward would forsake his personal truth out of fear of death and
\none thing Hitchens certainly is not is a coward. I am not a believer in
\nreligion-in-the-foxholes and deathbed confessions. Religion is too important to
\nbe embraced out of fear or trepidation.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Rather, what I intend with our debate is to finally dismiss this
\nnotion that religious people invented the idea of an afterlife out of a sense
\nof weakness and insecurity. We’ve heard it all before. Religion is the opiate
\nof the masses. It’s a drug that weak-minded people take to help them deal with
\nthe meaninglessness of life. They invented the afterlife because they couldn’t
\naccept the finality of death. Then they invented G-d to give purpose and design
\nto a fundamentally chaotic and unjust world.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The afterlife in Judaism is none of these things. It is not an
\nescape from the flaws of this world or a reward for the suffering endured here.
\nAny religion that promises an eternal reward for living righteously is better
\ncharacterized as a business promoting celestial remuneration. Worship G-d so
\nthat he’ll pay you in the hereafter. Judaism certainly demands that we do the
\nright because its right and never for the consideration of any external reward.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Most Jewish sages understand the World to Come<\/i> as the world
\nthe way it will be when it reaches a state of perfection through human endeavor
\nand G-d’s finishing touches, what we call the messianic era<\/i>. Judaism’s
\nfocus is not on the heavens but on the earth, not on a disembodied existence in
\nthe sky but on souls animating bodies and doing good deeds here on earth. Our
\nground zero is not G-d’s celestial throne but the earth’s sacred spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have no intention of converting Hitchens to my religious point of
\nview and do not believe I could do so even if I wished.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But I can convince Hitchens that his ideas about religious people<\/i>
\nare wrong. That we are strong rather than weak, focused on this life rather
\nthan the next, dedicated to healing the world rather than gaining entry into
\nthe heavens, fundamentally opposed to fundamentalists, extremely suspicious of
\nany kind of extremists, and open to ideas – and criticism – from every quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

And that’s what Rabbi Zusya was trying to demonstrate in his story.
\nReligious people learn how to serve G-d and humankind better from all whom they
\nmeet.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is
\nthe host of ‘The Shmuley Show’ on 77 WABC in NYC, America’s most listened-to
\ntalk radio station. He is the international best-selling author of 23 books and
\nwas the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium. As host of ‘Shalom
\nin the Home’ on TLC he won the National Fatherhood Award and his syndicated
\ncolumn was awarded the American Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for
\nExcellence in Commentary. Newsweek calls him ‘the most famous Rabbi in America.’
\nHe has just published ‘Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life.’ Follow him
\non Twitter @RabbiShmuley.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is atheism necessary for religion? Rabbi Zusya would say yes.   The great Russian Hassidic Rabbi, who lived more than two hundred years ago, was one day teaching his students when he emphasized the necessity of atheism and agnosticism. His students were aghast. Had the master lost his mind? 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