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CALDWELL
FURNITURE COMPANY
LENOIR, N. C.
Manufacturers Of
BEDROOM AND
DINING ROOM FURNITURE
Warehouses maintained in Lenoir, New York,
Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles & Philadelphia
PERMANENT EXHIBITS:
Chicago, New York, High Point, Lenoir
San Francisco, Los Angeles & Dallas
COLONIAL BAKING CO.
Dothan. Alabama
Estates Managed — Rents Collected — Loans Negotiated
BUILDING — LAND DEVELOPMENT
WE BUY
AND SELL
ON
233-5025
- X Realtors* 7/
232-5371
COMMISSION
PUTIN# SflL'M#
112 Congress St. West
Savannah, Georgia
232-6292
DR. SAMUEL SILVER
Can
We
Prove
Existence
Of
GOD
7
(A Seven Arts Feature)
How can we prove there is
a God?
We can’t.
The existence of God is a
hypothesis, that
i s a n assump
tion, but one
which rests on
logic.
If it doesn’t
rest on logic,
we are not
asked in Ju
daism to accept
it.
But think for a moment.
Everything in the world re
flects a maker and a purpose.
Shall we say that the only
thing in the world without a
maker and a purpose is the
world itself?
fiecause we cannot beTfold
God does not mean that He
does not exist. We cannot see
electricity, yet we know there
is such an entity, for we use it.
We cannot see intelligence, yet
we measure it.
We know there is electricity
and intelligence because we
see their results.
So we think we see the re
sults of God’s work: in nature,
in human nature, and in the
orderly symmetry of the uni
verse. Look through a telescope
and you see system: look
through a microscope, and you
see system. The author of these
intricate systems, as well as of
life itself, with all of its com
plexities, we call God.
Some Jewish philosophers
have said that God laid down
certain rules which He will not
transgress. For example, He
will not mane tomorrow yes
terday or make two and two
equal five. To us the greatest
miracle is not the stoppage of
nature, but the regular pro
cesses of life.
God also, according to a
point of view held by some
Jewish thinkers, limits himself
in another way. He will not
force you and me to believe
in Him or to accept His com
mandments.
He wants us to be good. He
wants mankind to be peaceful.
But he does not treat us as
though we were puppets. He
lets us know what is right,
and the way that we discover
what is right is through our
conscience (which is fortified
by religious teachings) is also
something of a miracle. But
then He permits us to choose
whether we, or society, will
obey Him.
This is called Freedom of
Will, and implies that man
kind must decide to walk the
path leading to equity and
justice, brotherhood and har
mony. This means that Judaism
does not accept such ideas as
predestination or determinism.
You might look up these words
in the dictionary.
Judaism contends that God
is good, and that evil comes
to the world when we disre
gard the instructions we got
from God.
Of course, the Jewish idea
of God is that He is invisible,
of a form that is beyond our
imagining, and that He is ab
solutely One, not zero, not two,
not three, but One.
30
The Southern Israelite