Letters II - Aug. 2011

Complexity Requires a Designer?

Moshe Ben-Chaim

Reader: How would you respond to my friend's argument: 

"If complex things must have been intelligently designed by something more complex than themselves, then anything posited as this complex designer (i.e. God) must also have been designed by something yet more complex."

Rabbi: The rejection of his argument that God requires a more complex maker, is threefold:

1) The "B created C, A created B" argument, cannot go back ad infinitum. For if this cycle goes back in time infinitely, the present would never arrive. But it has.

2) This argument above denies any beginning to the cycle, which means it didn't start. And that which never started, does not exist.

3) There are no grounds to equate a physical item, no matter how complex...to the Creator. This is because any equation requires the one making the equation to know both objects of the equation. But no one knows what God is.

The Selling of Blessings

A Reader

I have seen reputed sites like Torah.org and Aish.com advertise "Blessings for a suitable match on Tu bAv." 

Can blessings be bought at a price?

Are these rabbis justified in duping the ignorant Jewish brethren of doing this so called selling of blessings for a match?

Do the reputed web sites not spread the wrong message that we too, like the Christian brethren, need intermediaries to pray on our behalf? Does not God say that we should approach Him directly. 

Shouldn't such websites have a moral responsibility to check the credentials of ads and then allow it on be published? No doubt money is an important factor for running a web site...but at what cost?