More about First Cause and Belief

On my post responding to GH where I discussed the proof for the existence of a First Cause, I responded to a comment that argued that all I proved was that a First Cause exists but it could be *anything*:

No it could not be anything. It would have to be *something* that contained in it all the information necessary for the universe to exist for it to be the cause for its existence. That *something* by definition is hierarchically higher than everything else.

To which another commenter made the following comment:

Is this not all belief? You cannot prove that "something" exists that contains all the information for the universe to exist and therefore hierarchically higher.

When I say that the First Cause is hierarchically higher to everything it is simply because it is the only entity that has no cause. The First Cause by definition exists independently of its effect and has no cause. It is therefore hierarchically the highest possible position in a chain of cause and effect.

The idea that all information is contained within the First Cause is much more complicated and I will propose a way to think about it. For Rambam and other medieval philosophers it was much easier to demonstrate. They understood that the motion of the spheres is because the spheres have a mind that conceives of the First Cause. They therefore emulate what they visualize as the perfect entity, the First Cause. For the First Cause to be perfect it by definition has to contain all knowledge, be omniscient and omnipotent. This idea of the spheres having a mind and thought sounds like a fantasy to us but they could not conceive of the laws of motion, inertia and gravity and this was their cosmology. The challenge is for us to translate that into contemporary science.

The way I see it is that the law of motion itself, the concept which is the cause of the movement of the planets, has to have a First Cause that conceived it. The First Cause therefore contains that law within itself as it contains all the other laws of nature, which it causes, within itself. It is the non-physical repository of the Laws of nature and therefore the cause of all existence. Being that it is a non-physical entity, it is not temporal but eternal. Time has no meaning outside the physical.

There is a revealing sentence in Rambam in Moreh 1:72 that made me think of that approach.

“It is true, we might have compared the relation between God and the universe, to the relation between the acquired intellect and man; this intellect is not a faculty in the body, but is truly separate from the organic body and overflows toward it.”

The idea “acquired intellect” is when man has developed the intellect he is born with to its maximum potential by acquiring all possible knowledge. Rambam is comparing the relationship of God to physical existence like man’s mind to his body. Both God and the mind influence a physical entity but are outside it. He is referring to the well-known and much discussed mind-body problem, and uses the observation as an example of how a non-physical entity influences another physical one. Although Rambam is not talking about the issue we are discussing here, which is what impels us to say that God or the First Cause is more than a mere entity, the comparison to the intellect made me think in this direction. I do not think that it is a definitive answer to the question but rather a direction of thinking that I believe gives me a sense of the ultimate solution.

As to the question of belief and its role in philosophical and theological discussions, I think it is necessary to address it head on. The way I try to think and the way I believe a man of religion should, is to be realistic and know that one cannot develop a philosophy a-priori. Most of us who would try to go that route would eventually get tired and end up with nothing. As religious Jews we start with the things we are taught, or better supposed to have been taught, that God exists, He is one, incorporeal, omnipotent and omniscient. We now spend a lifetime trying to understand the meaning of these terms, prove them as true and by doing that develop an understanding of God, His relationship to us and the world and our relationship to God. Our goal is to turn belief into conviction in our minds. That is the mitzvah of Yediat Hashem. Plain simple belief is only a stepping-stone and a tool to help us stay focused in our search for understanding.

My objection against statements that God is a belief and no more is that it negates all that the Torah is meant to teach us and have us accomplish which is getting to know God. One of the most touching prayers we say every day is in the “Uvah Letzion Go’el” where we say “Hu yiftach libeinu betorato veyassim belibeinu ahavato vey’r’ato la’asot retzono ule’ovdo belevav shalem lema’an lo niga larik velo neled labehala” the last few words so that we should not toil in vain and be born for naught, are a reflection of every man’s internal question, am I going to find the truth at the end of the road? It is only through a constant and focused search that there is hope that we will find the truth. That is the purpose of Torah and Mitzvot, to keep us focused and searching at all times.