Skepticism - Elderly Jewish men love hearing the sound of their own voice

Just let that be known. The need for skepticism is fueled by skepticism. Skepticism is a parasite eating away at our peace of mind. Just because something brings up more internal questions of reason and understanding of God and/or the world around us, does not make it more fruitful. I don’t want to lead my life with a constant feeling of never understanding, of unending angst. Why have we accepted persistent skepticism as the only way to truly see reality for what it is? I refuse to accept that this self-flagellation of believing that “you’ll never understand, but you can never stop trying to understand” is the only way to pursue a spiritual well-being adequately. Do I need to feel a neverending, punishing, sense of pursuit towards understanding God and what he expects of us in order to be a good Jew? I don’t think so. I reject it, actually.

The Nuer people in the Sudan have a, according to E. E. Evans Prichard, cut-and-dry view of the divine, what they can expect from the supernatural and what is expected of them. Their axis-mundi is their cattle; things are okay as long as their herd is okay. Punishment from their ancestors occurs to their herd. There is no ambiguity. The anthropological explanation for the Nuer having an easy understanding of their place within reality and concerning the divine is twofold. Firstly, they don’t have any internal structure problems as they don’t have a ruling class or subservient class. There is no chief and followers. There isn’t a question of placement within the structures of their society, so why would there be a question of their placement within the metaphysical reality? Secondly, they didn’t have a war mindset ingrained in them. They have always had fairly mundane struggles with neighboring tribes. When a war-like comportment isn’t plaguing people, they don’t need to be at war with themselves either. Peace is the basic understanding of life.


As far as we have come in making strides away from a Euro-centric idealism of a secular, intellectual understanding of the divine, we, Judeo-Christian Europeans, are still burdened by this justification for our suffering. As John Murphy said in the greatest TV show ever: The Leftovers, “Well we can’t just be going through all of this for nothing man”. John Murphy saw his daughter fall victim to a cult and then get drone striked by the U.S. government, so I can get why he needs further justification for this life. He needs more than just something is wrong with his herd of cattle. The skepticism that feels so natural to us is a justification for reality we have constructed around us. It is a justification for war and societal inequalities; its a justification for our suffering. I refuse to accept suffering and unending angst. I’ll be skeptical until I don’t need to be anymore, and that is a fact not wishful thinking.

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