metatronics | how not to believe in god

metatronics | teaching | prozdor curricula | how not to believe in god

How not to believe in God

Teacher's note: As of the date of this posting, this course is still ongoing. It's interesting to see the students
respond so negatively to certain ways other people believe in God -- the ontological argument almost became
a fistfight. I think they are figuring out that 'Belief in God' is a functional category, and the content of the
belief has to shift as our reality maps change. Sometimes this course gets a little too abstract; I question to
what extent teenagers can really be taught sophisticated spiritual teachings. Intellectual, emotional - yes.
Intuitive-spiritual - yes. But sophisticated spiritual - I'm wondering if they have the experience for that.

Do you believe in God? If not, you are in the majority of American Jews. But what is the
God you don't believe in? In this class, we will take a close look at the arguments for and against
the existence of God, spending the most time trying to figure out what "the existence of
God" means in Jewish and other religious sources. Clearly, a lot of people, including very smart
people, believe in God. How? Why? What does the term mean to them? What does the belief
do for them? Does their notion of God differ from the one we were taught about in elementary
school? We'll spend time with – among others – Maimonides, the Kabbalah, Nietzsche,
Schleirmacher, Hillel, Buddha, and Heschel, and we'll ask some of these questions. As for
answers, that part will be up to you. Or God, if there’s a difference.

Here are some of the topics we’ll be covering this semester. Some will take more than
one class; some maybe less. There will also be a quiz at some point to keep you honest, so
taking notes is warmly encouraged.

     1.   Introduction: Our God-Concepts
Does it matter if we believe in God? Is belief the essence of Judaism? What does “believe in
God” mean? What are “God-concepts” and how do they function in the people who hold them?
What is the God you don’t believe in? How have God-concepts evolved and changed over time?
          Text:     Hafiz, The Gift
Samuel Hirsch and Abraham Joshua Heschel on Judaism
Excerpts from Exodus and Kings
Karen Armstrong, The History of God

2. God and Philosophy
Can we prove the existence of God? Should we? What is the “god of the philosophers” and how
does it seem to differ from the Biblical God? What can we say, if anything, of this God?
Theistic arguments for the existence of God
Anselm, Proslogion and commentary
Maimonides, Guide to the Perplexed

3. “God is Dead” – or at least some God
What does it mean that ‘God is dead’? How does that relate to God-concepts that change over
time? What do we think that “God” means to people who believe in God? What are the reasons
people believe in God? What is “religion”?
Text: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyous Wisdom
Franz Rosenzweig on the Sambatyon and the Main
Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone
Friedrich Schleirmacher, On Religion

4. Saying and knowing ‘God’ properly
If nothing can really be said about God, then how do we get away from particular God-concepts
and to God? Is the term “God” even useful? If nothing can be known about God through
conventional means (contrary to the people in part two, maybe), but God can nonetheless God
can be known, how does that work?
Text: Echkart Tolle, The Power of Now
Excerpts from Rav Kook, Moshe de Leon, and others
R. Abraham Abulafia, texts and practices
The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
Zen tales of enlightenment

5. One God or fewer: Basic principles and consequences of Jewish pan-theology
If God is everywhere, what is the difference between religion and atheism? What is it that
believers believe that non-believers don’t believe? How do we understand the origin of the
Torah and mitzvot if we don’t have a traditional God-concept?’
Text: Thich Nhat Hanh, Interbeing
R. Schneur Zalman of Liady, Tanya
Jay Michaelson, Trying to Count the Stars

6. The Universe Coming to Know Itself
Assuming we have now gained enlightenment regarding God/not-God, what is the point of it all?
Other than how it may or may not make us feel, is there any point in God-practice? Is there any
point to human existence?
Text: Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality
Jay Michaelson, What the World is and What to do About It
Rav Kook, The Fourfold Song
More poems by Hafiz