"He went off the derech for intellectual reasons. He had questions".
Here is MY question. Now that he is no longer religious and goes clubbing on Friday nights - is he going to find an answer to all of his questions? I mean, the questions are there whether he keeps mitzvos or not so how does not keeping mitzvos answer the questions??
The universe is shrouded in mystery. No scientist has offered a plausible explanation how the whole thing started. How nothing created everything. How chaos formed such incredible order. There are countless mysteries. Not keeping mizvos solves none of them.
Only religion presents questions? Atheism has no questions? Agnosticism has no questions?
Is there ANY philosophy or religion that clearly, logically and rationally answers ALL of the questions and upon which there are no questions? Not even close.
The Torah asks questions on G-d. Look at Avraham and Moshe and other prophets arguing with Him. Look at the entire Sefer Iyov. Look at Yoma 69b. Look at Brachos 7a. Is everything smooth and easy? Never. Only non-thinking people have it easy. [Empty, dry, pathetic and meaningless - but easy.] We ENCOURAGE questions.
Maybe that is one of the attractions of dropping Torah - one doesn't have to think anymore. Being a true, Torah Jew forces one to think CONSTANTLY about EVERYTHING. And we don't always have ready pat answers. The Holocaust is a rough one. So is the Spanish Inquisition. So are birth defects. So is the oncology ward in every hospital.
But the benefits of living as a Torah Jew far outweigh the difficulties. For one - life has meaning and as such does not just necessitate a futile exercise in contriving artificial purpose. For another - there is a concrete moral code. People without Torah have to invent one [which works really badly, to date].
One day all of the questions will be answered. We can have questions in the meantime and still keep kosher and Shabbos. When people go off, one of the first things that goes are the boundaries between the genders. Sleeping around answers no questions but somehow people "with questions" often find themselves doing just that. Shouldn't a library [or a yeshiva] be a better place to find answers than a bedroom??
"When man abandons G-d, G-d is not alone. Man is."
