Monotheism is Atheism regarding 99.9% of gods. The habits of mind which gave our ancestors insight to doubt the existence of the pagan deities lead us, their descendants, to doubt the existence of any personal G-d however conceived. These doubts are not a betrayal of Monotheism but a logical extension of it. Monotheism was a step in the development of skepticism.
As illustration we might recall the legend of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al as recounted in 1st Kings chapter 18. Elijah challenged the worshippers of Ba’al to a demonstration: “Let two bulls be given to us; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it. And you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the L-rd; and the G-d who answers by fire, he is G-d.”
The rest of the story is well known. The priests of Ba’al called to him “from morning until noon,” but “there was no voice, and no one answered.” In profound contrast, as soon as Elijah finished his prayer, “the fire of the L-rd fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The L-rd, he is G-d; the L-rd, he is G-d.’”
There is a glaring fact usually overlooked here, and I do not know how preachers treating this story manage to get around it. This is not the way things really happen in life. If this demonstration were actually attempted, true enough the worshippers of Ba’al would get no visible result for their prayers; but the worshippers of The One True G-d (whichever version you like) would also see no result at all. The fire from heaven never falls. I know this as surely as I know that when I look outside my window pigs will not be flying, and the Starship Enterprise will not be landing in my back yard. Centuries and millennia of unbroken human experience let us know that no amount of prayer or chanting results in fire from heaven, or any comparable result. I know this as a person who has prayed many prayers, and empathized with communities praying many earnest prayers to many versions of G-d for many important things.
The logic by which the author of 1st Kings teaches us to doubt Ba’al, therefore, must also lead us to doubt the L-rd (as 1st Kings portrays Him). The same insight that caused Abraham to smash the idols in his father’s shop also topples the altar erected by Elijah. Doubt, once unleashed, is not easily contained.
Perhaps I am being naïve in taking the story of Elijah as a basis for doubt, even more than others are naïve if they take the story of Elijah as a basis for faith. It is, after all, a legend, and perhaps no one was ever intended to take it at face value.
I am not concluding that prayer is without any value whatsoever. I do pray. Prayer has social and psychological benefits. But prayer, intended to bring about a change in the behavior of the universe, has never produced any measurable result, and no god has a better track record than any other in this regard. (Despite this I must admit that if one of my loved ones is in trouble, you may find me praying to affect the outcome, against my better judgement. It's a deeply human response and I am not immune to it.)
There are many possible concepts of G-d that are truly consistent with our experience of life. The supernatural remote-controlled G-d portrayed in 1st Kings, however, is contrary to human experience. By the Bible’s own logic, that sort of G-d must be rejected. Perhaps this is why so many Jews find themselves skeptics and Atheists while being very devoted to the heritage of Israel. This is the way of Abraham our father – to doubt and deny, not in a sterile and negative fashion, but to clear the way for us to focus our lives on that which truly deserves our attention.
[I revised and expanded the thoughts in this entry for a presentation to the British Association of Jewish Studies. You can read the published paper here or listen to me read it on YouTube, here.]
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