The Mental Security Blanket of Fatalism

The big, bad world is scary. So people seek mental refuge, something to reduce the uncertainty. If we were blessed enough to have a stable family, then we learned this at a young age: it’ll all be OK if we listen to our parents and surrender to their will.

I think religion can be like that. I was reminded of this when I saw a video being played to kids in English schools: “There is no god but Allah.” The video beautifully catalogs how every animal praises Allah, and it includes this gem: “They do their best, and Allah fulfills. What is due for me is already written, so surrender and say ‘To Allah I belong.’” The video is both visually and aurally attractive. It meets the needs of any child – or adult - who instinctively seeks the assurance that “it will all be okay.”

Islam is not the only religion that insists simultaneously that everything is in G-d’s hands but we still have a part to play: we must do our best, or surrender, or obey, or believe. Many Christians and Jews believe it, too. Fatalism is the mental state for most of the world’s population, either consciously or unconsciously.

There is a massive cognitive dissonance at work here. You cannot have it both ways: If everything is in G-d’s hands, then there is no logical reason why we should (or should not) choose any faith, or act in any specific way. I have heard all the arguments brought by my co-religionists, and they all amount to a hill of beans, wrapped in a mountain of sophistry. I cannot fathom how billions of people cannot seem to grasp this very basic concept. Either what we do matters, or it does not.

It is not complicated: the G-d of the Torah gives us commandments because our choices matter. The text makes this point repeatedly, all the way from Adam and Eve through every character that follows. At no point does the Torah suggest that the choices made by Adam, Noach, Avraham, Moshe (or anyone else) were pre-destined. On the contrary, G-d responds to our words and deeds, reacting and changing based on what people do.

Which means that if G-d cares what we think or do or say, then we matter. And if we matter, then the world is not all pre-ordained. Thus, any faith that preaches both that man is powerless, but that nevertheless we are supposed to act in a certain manner, is nonsensical.

The Torah makes it clear: Each person has a divine spark and the ability to help influence our own futures and that of those around us. G-d, by creating man, devolved power to us, giving us both freedom and responsibility to make the most of the opportunities we have.