Menachem Ben David

Metaphysics vs Scientism II

Dr. Edward Feser is a well known Catholic philosophy professor and Aristotelian who seems to be arguing for the revival of Metaphysics. I am inclined to support some of his Metaphysics ideas as they highlight the major flaws in what today we would call “scientism” and materialism. Dr. Feser has explained that “scientism is the view that science alone gives us knowledge of reality.” In contrast to scientism, “Metaphysics is the rational investigation of the general structure of reality and the ultimate causes of things”.

Dr. Feser has explained that Metaphysics is “the most fundamental discipline of all, more fundamental than epistemology, physics, biology, or any other philosophical or scientific discipline”.

I recommend Dr. Feser’s excellent book “Aristotle’s Revenge” – “The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science”. Studying that book has opened up some new intellectual vistas for me. Dr. Feser’s book explains in clear modern English some of the (previously) mysterious concepts in medieval metaphysics that I had encountered while studying Maimonides’s extraordinary the book Guide to the Perplexed sefer.

Reading Dr. Feser’s book, initially mysterious metaphysical concepts such as potential and actual, matter and form, and efficient cause and final cause started to come to life for me.

I found especially fascinating Dr. Feser’s eloquent criticisms of modern science for its abandonment of ancient Metaphysics concepts. It appears that this abandonment of metaphysics paved a clear road for modern science to promote atheism, materialism, and contempt for religion.

The ideas in “Aristotle’s Revenge” have alerted me as to a possible significant factor in the large scale abandonment of Judaism by many Jews who, in the last few hundred years, have been greatly influenced by modern atheist “science” and materialism. I have become more aware of the necessity for religious Jews to become reacquainted with certain Metaphysics concepts, and thus hopefully reinvigorate Torah monotheism that has been under attack by atheist modern “science”.

Metaphysics vs Scientism

Before the modern era, many philosopher/scientists studied what people in the modern age would call “metaphysics”. Metaphysics” might be roughly defined as the study of the most general structure of reality, along with the study of the ultimate causes of the various forms of existence.

Scientism might be defined as a a philosophy and world view where science is assumed to explain EVERYTHING we know about reality and the Universe. In truth though scientism has no ability to do so. Modern “scientism”, which developed in the last four hundred years or so, has created a system of “mathematical materialism” and abandoned any of the useful concepts of “Metaphysics” that were included in scientific thought of the past. In modern “scientism”, the only reality recognized are material phenomenon that are observable and describable with mathematical equations.

By abandoning Metaphysics concepts, and focusing science solely on developing mathematical, material explanations of Nature, modern science has actually created gaping holes in the ability of man to comprehend the Universe. This approach has resulted in the current world view that has been called “scientism”.

If metaphysics can be reintroduced, we will much more able capable of increasing our understanding of the Universe than we would be by relying on “scientism”.

Evolution Group Think

The American academic environment has degenerated into an atmosphere of totalitarian atheist group think where all heresies against the prevailing Darwinist religion are being ruthlessly suppressed.

The excellent video documentary (produced several years ago) “Expelled: No intelligence allowed” contains a great expose of the totalitarian group think among the university evolution fundamentalists. It also exposes the connection between evolutionary theories and Nazi genocide: “… educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired for the crime of merely believing that there might be evidence of design in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.”

These same leftist professors who persecute their colleagues who express any heretical ideas against the Darwinist religion are often also virulent enemies of Israel. Evolution is atheist junk science that can in no way explain the origin of life, nor can it explain the origin of a speaking being with intellect such as man. I believe Darwin clearly indicated his motivations for inventing the evolution religion were to minimize the necessity for any supernatural Creator.

For those looking for an antidote to the evolution Kool-Aid, I recommend reading the essays of Dr. Georges Cuvier, a brilliant scientist who is mentioned in the “Drush Or HaChaim” treatise of the Jewish sage Tiferes Yisrael. Unlike today’s dope addled leftist professors who follow the evolution drumbeat like sheep, Dr. Cuvier was a true intellectual with a knowledge of human history and respect for the Bible. Dr. Cuvier’s brilliant discourse provides strong evidence against evolution group think and in favor of an ancient flood, but has been suppressed by the politically Darwinist liberals of recent times.

Evolution is a faith based atheist religion which violates scientific principles (such as the laws of entropy) and for which there is no real evidence in the fossil record. For example, the fossil record clearly shows that species appear suddenly and then later disappear without any significant change. Evolution is at a complete loss to explain the origin of life. Despite numerous experiments, no scientist has ever produced life from non-life in a laboratory.

Most evolution fundamentalists simply gloss over and ignore the massive scientific evidence against Darwinist evolution. The great rabbinic authority Tiferes Yisrael, whose famous “Drush Or HaChaim” sermon argues for an ancient earth, but not evolution, brings opinions of the renowned scientist Dr. Georges Cuvier. Dr. Cuvier firmly opposed evolution and believed that species appeared and disappeared in the fossil record without significant changes.

A very scholarly book released several years ago that powerfully and brilliantly refutes Darwinism is “Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design” by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer.

How Man Serves God

Man created in the image of God enables Man to serve God by imitating God’s ethical behavior in this world.

Many of the ideas about God revealed in the Jewish Bible were considered radical ideas by much of ancient Man. The Jewish Bible emphasizes how God created the species Man, and He is not a capricious and irrational God. He is concerned with the well-being of Man, He is concerned that Man adhere to His moral principles, and God judges the world according to His moral code. In Genesis 18:20-21, we read that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has been “very grave”, and God will “descend” to see if those cities are acting in accordance with the outcry they are making. Such ideas about God as taught in the Book of Genesis radically conflicted with many of the ancient pagan cults whose false gods in their behaviors tended to represent the absolute worst aspects of human flaws.

Maimonides in his book Guide for the Perplexed 1:54 explained a profound principle, which is that the greatest virtue of man is for man to imitate to the extent possible God’s actions.

“For the utmost virtue of man is to become like unto Him, may He be exalted, as far as he is able, which means that we should make our actions like unto his…”

Man’s purpose must be to serve the Creator, and NOT serve any of the Creations. Man’s purpose is certainly not to serve the totalitarian regimes and ideologies that attempt to replace worship of God with worship of dictators and tyrants.

A corollary to the concept of Man serving God is the concept that Man must not serve any objects in the Creation, whether natural or Man-made. Man does not exist to serve the all-powerful utopian “progressive” state.

For the West to survive without conquest by Islam or Marxist, it must seek purpose in embracing Biblical values. Man is not an animal. Animals cannot serve God, they can only exist the way God created them. Man has free will to serve God by imitating Him in doing good in the world as stated by the Biblical prophet Jeremiah:

“But only in this should one glory: In his earnest devotion to Me. For I the LORD act with kindness, Justice, and equity in the world; For in these I delight —declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23)

What is True Freedom

The cruel, depraved behaviors of the ancient false gods encouraged and legitimized such behavior among humans who worshiped such false gods. The Bible’s denial of the ancient false gods who engaged in the most depraved aspects of human behavior, and the replacement of those false gods with one incorporeal, ethical God for all of mankind, was a great step forward for mankind.

The Jewish Bible’s “radical” and “innovative” concepts of ethical monotheism caused a great advancement in human civilization. An advancement from the cruel and primitive pagan barbarism that prevailed in the ancient world to societies that recognized the uniqueness and dignity of Man as a being created in the Image of his Creator. The ideas taught in the Jewish Bible promoted a universal morality, a morality that recognized objective standards of good and evil within the world. Man became aware of the possibility of an ultimate purpose and meaning to human existence, as opposed to humans simply seeking gratification of their physical senses in this world. Man also became aware of the possibility of non-physical human existence after death, and the possibility of the judgment of Man for his actions in this world, when he reaches the next world.

The concept of Man being created in the image of God can also be understood as man’s ability to contemplate God’s actions in the Universe and then imitate and serve Him.

God’s free will to create the Universe allows for Man to have free will to know good and evil, and to choose between them.

The concept of “freedom” must not be perverted into a Westernized libertarian concept of “libertarianism”, where man has no ethical restrictions imposed on his behavior. True freedom must be embraced as freedom from oppression and freedom to find one’s meaning in life through one’s philosophic or religious convictions.

True freedom in the Biblical sense must be understood as man’s freedom to serve God without oppression or interference from government or political forces, from criminal or terrorist forces, or from totalitarian religious or philosophical forces.

Biblical Unity of All Mankind

Chapter 10 of the Biblical book of Genesis contains genealogical lists of the descendants of the Biblical prophet Noah. The book of Genesis lists seventy nations that descended from Noah’s sons after the Biblical flood, ie Shem, Yefet, and Ham. These seventy nations represent many geographic, ethnic, linguistic, and racial groups. According to Jewish tradition, all of present mankind is descended from Noah and his family, even if not all of the original seventy nations listed in the Bible are still identifiable today.

There is profound significance to the enumeration of all the nations of mankind in the Bible. The listing of seventy nations includes Eber, who was ancestor of the ancient Hebrews, but the Biblical list does not even mention the Jews who descended from Eber. The Bible is emphasizing that the God of the Bible is the God of all the nations and He has a relationship with all the nations of the world. The God of the Jewish Bible is not just the God of the Jews, and He is concerned with the well-being and destiny of all of mankind.

In Chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, it explains how God scattered mankind all over the face of the Earth in response to men committing a sin by building the Tower of Babel. There is a clear lesson from this. The Jewish Bible does not teach that all nations should dissolve their identities, or become Jews, or convert to Judaism. Each nation should maintain its distinctive language, national identities, and culture.

The Jewish Bible does seek a united world and is not obligating non-Jews to convert to Judaism. However, that world unity must be based on recognition of one God as the Creator of the world, and a universal acceptance of His Biblical commandments that define a moral code for all mankind.

About the Author

About the Author of this Site

Menachem Ben David is an engineer and a freelance writer in the USA.

Menachem is a traditional Jew who has studied Torah in various yeshivot in Israel and the US for a number of years.

Menachem writes articles and books with thought-provoking perspectives on various subjects including Jewish philosophy and ethics, Jewish father’s rights, and Torah and science issues.

What is Creation Ex Nihilo

The term “creation Ex Nihilo” refers to the concept that the Universe was created by God from absolutely nothing.

“In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

In Maimonides’s the book Guide to the Perplexed II:13, Maimonides explains that “the opinion of all who believe in the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu is that Hashem brought the Universe into existence after the Universe had been purely and absolutely nonexistent.”

As explained earlier, if the Universe was created from any existing material or existing “being”, great doubts would be created as to the validity of monotheism, or else doubts about Hashem’s control over the Universe.

Maimonides also explains in the book Guide to the Perplexed II:19 that Aristotle’s opinion on the creation of the Universe in a cause and effect manner means that the Universe exists solely by necessity and not by purpose. What exists out of necessity can have no purpose, and thus according to Aristotle, the Universe can have no purpose.

In contrast to Aristotle, the Torah viewpoint is that the Universe does not exist out of necessity, but was created in the finite past by Hashem for a purpose.

There appear to be serious conflicts (about fundamental issues) between what the Rishonim (medieval rabbinic authorities) taught and what the later Kabbalists taught.

A few years ago I had a long, interesting discussion with a senior Chareidi rabbi in Lakewood about apparent inconsistencies between certain popularly accepted Kabbalistic concepts and the opinions of earlier rabbinic authorities. This rabbi requested that I not mention his name publicly for various reasons.

One such apparent inconsistency involves the concept of beriyah yesh mi-ayin (creation ex nihilo). The concept that Hashem created the Universe ex-nihilo seems to be widely accepted by various rabbinic sources such as Maimonides, the book Chovot HaLevavot, the Ramchal’s Daat Tevunot book, and other sources.

The Lakewood rabbi explained to me that the Kabbalists are really teaching that Hashem created the Universe from “part” of Himself, a process that cannot be considered beriyah yesh mi-ayin as Maimonides and many other great rabbis had taught.

Since Chabad’s Sefer Tanya is a popular explanation of Kabbalistic principles, I decided to consult it as to the issue of beriyah yesh mi-ayin. In several places in the Shaar HaYichud section of the Tanya, the Tanya does state that the heaven and earth were created yesh mi-ayin. However, the Tanya also explains that as a result of the contraction process the Kabbalists refer to as “tzimtzum”, a concealed chiyus (life force) from Hashem enables the continued existence of the Universe.

The Lakewood rabbi I spoke with seems to have a valid point on this problematic issue of beriyah yesh mi-ayin. The concept of beriyah yesh mi-ayin taught by Tanya would seem to be a Universe that Hashem created from “part” of Himself, but it is not a Universe that had been absolutely non-existent before its creation as taught by Maimonides.

The implications of Tanya’s concepts may be quite serious. At least some Chabad Chassidim I have spoken to consider the Universe to be an “illusion” as they believe the only thing that exists is Hashem. It is rather questionable as to whether certain radical Kabbalistic concepts can be considered consistent with many non-Kabbalistic rabbinic concepts.

From the viewpoint of Jewish tradition, the Bible was delivered from God to the Jewish prophets and was intended as a book of ethics and law, not as a scientific treatise. The Bible is teaching that the Universe has a purpose, and Man has role and purpose within the Universe. However, science cannot provide any ethics or meaning or purpose to the Universe. The Bible picks up where science leaves off.

The “work of creation” was described obscurely in the first few chapters in Genesis. Those chapters were not read literally by the ancient rabbis. The “work of creation” was considered a great secret. In fact the rabbis prohibited the public teaching of the secrets of the “work of creation”. Therefore, a literal reading of the Bible will not reveal the secrets of the “work of creation”. The medieval rabbis did teach that space and time were created from nothing in the finite past, and the Universe is not eternal. But the creation ex-nihilo process cannot be understood by man.

Make America Great Again

A Political and Spiritual Revival is Required to Make America Great Again

We should certainly strive for the goal of “making America great again”. Electing a conservative, pro-America, anti-globalist president and Congress is a necessary first step to “Make America Great Again”, but it will not by itself be sufficient to achieve the goal.

If we intend to make America (and the West) great again, this goal cannot be achieved by political change alone. This goal also requires spiritual changes in the West.

We must restore ancient Biblical principles of ethical monotheism within ethical Democratic political systems. This means that society must walk in God’s path, not in the paths of the totalitarian Red-Green Axis.

Democracy alone cannot solve man’s spiritual or ethical problems. Democracy can be useful but only when it is implemented and restrained in a society with Biblical religious values. Democracy fails when not restrained by any Biblical values.

The Talmud mentions how the ancient Jewish sage known as Rabbi taught Biblical principles to a decent Roman emperor known as Antoninus. This represented a valid complementary service to the world, IE the physical power of the Romans was united with the spiritual power of the Jews.

We must maintain the First Amendment in the US and allow citizens to worship or not worship a Creator as they please. However, bloodthirsty barbarians who do not accept the basic ethical rules of Western civilization (derived from the Bible), IE Thou shalt not murder, and who promote an ideology advocating mass murder of alleged infidels, must be imprisoned or ejected from America, Israel, and all civilized countries.

Secular “democracy” cannot replace religious beliefs that satisfy man’s spiritual and philosophical aspirations. Western progressivism and secularism have abandoned any value systems and they cannot distinguish between right and wrong. Totalitarian “progressivism” has often become a substitute religion for ethical monotheism.

The “Red-Green Axis”, the alliance of Marxists, jihadists, atheists, and globalists, is working very aggressively to destroy the spiritual and political foundations of America and the West.

Atheist, barbarian movements seek to destroy the civilization created by Shem and Yefet, the sons of the Biblical prophet Noah. Islam exploits bogus religious justifications to wage brutal war and terrorism against civilization.

The only hope for the West to overcome all anarchy, turmoil, totalitarianism and jihadist Islam is to return to an ethical monotheism based on Biblical values.

For Western Civilization to survive against the onslaught of the “Red-Green Axis”, there is a need to embrace the common Biblical, ethical, social, and family principles among Jews, Catholics, Protestants, even if their theologies differ.

Noachide Laws Are the Foundation of Biblical Morality

According to normative rabbinic tradition, six Biblical commandments were commanded to Adam, the first man:
1) the prohibition against idol worship and worship of false gods;
2) the prohibition against cursing God;
3) the prohibition against murder;
4) the prohibition against illicit sexual relations such as the prohibition on a Noahide man having sexual relations with his mother, his father’s wife, a married woman, his sister, a male, or an animal (the converse of these apply to Noahide women);
5) the prohibition against theft or robbery, whether the Noahide stole from a non-Jew or a Jew;
6) the commandment to establish laws and courts of justice, IE the commandment to establish judges and magistrates in every major city to render judgements concerning the other six commandments and to admonish the people regarding their observance.

A seventh commandment was given to Noah, that is the prohibition against eating flesh torn from a living animal, as Genesis 9:4 states: ‘However, you may not eat flesh with its life, which is its blood.’

Thus in Jewish tradition, the Biblical prophet Noah, a non-Jew, was commanded by God to observe seven basic commandments.

These Seven Noahide Laws are considered by Jewish tradition as being universal laws of ethical monotheism that are obligatory on all mankind until this day.

Observance of these Seven Noachide Laws are the key to resolving the present turmoil and societal anarchy within the world.