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Principle of Faith: The Existence of God


Question:

Maimonides lists thirteen Principles of Faith. What is the first principle he mentions?



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

The Existence of God

There is a completely perfect Being, Who is the cause of everything else.  He created everything, everything exists within Him, and all continued existence depends upon Him.  If He did not exist, nothing else could exist. However, if nothing aside from Him existed, He would continue to exist as before, without any deficiency, because He does not need anything outside of Himself. Everything else, whether spiritual or physical, is dependent on Him. This principle is stated in the verse, “I am the Lord your God, Who took you out of the Land of Egypt.” 

Theme:  We believe that God exists and that He is absolutely self-sufficient, not dependent in any way on human desire, belief or consensus. This belief is the basis for our dedication to a system of absolute morality and absolute values. If God is the source of our values, they are not subject to change and cannot be relative. If morality is a human invention, then it is nothing more than a matter of preference and taste.  As Dostoyevsky’s Ivan says, in The Brothers Karamazov, “If God does not exist, all is permitted.”  Throughout history, moral systems created by human beings have been bent and molded to fit convenience and desire. It is significant that three of the most ruthless murderers in history, Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot (who led the Khmer Rouge in a slaughter of millions of Cambodians), were all violently opposed to God and religion.  Judaism maintains that in order to build a consistently moral society our worldview must have God at its center.


 
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