Does Jewish scripture show a preference between non-belief or erroneous belief?

Question

Obviously, Judaism maintains that it is best to follow Judaism or, for gentiles, the Noachide laws. But I'm curious as to whether, according to Jewish scripture, it is preferable to not believe in G-d, or to believe the wrong things about G-d. That is to say, is it better to be an atheist, or a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Shintoist, etc? This question is about belief, not practice.

I'm also assuming that the nonbeliever in question is a good person. He or she treats other people with respect and compassion, cares for the less fortunate and the afflicted, and is in all respects an admirable human being. He or she simply doesn't believe in G-d.

Note: I'm deliberately leaving out Islam, because I have been led to understand that, at least theoretically, Islam is considered to be preferable to the other non-Jewish options.

Answer 1

As acknowledged in the question, Judaism only requires that non-jews keep the seven Noachide laws (plus some miscellaneous laws which are beyond the scope of this answer). Seeing as the first of these is the prohibition against idolatry, it is clear that belief in any polytheistic religion is definitely a problem. That the prohibition extends to belief in addition to action can be seen from the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim 9:2.

What about atheism? Is atheism less problematic?

Jews (according to most classic opinions) have an explicit mitzvah to believe in God. There is no such mitzvah amongst the seven Noachide laws. Only the prohibition against idolatry. In the past, I inferred from this that there would be no problem with a non-jew being atheist. After all, one can be atheist and keep all of the seven Noachide laws. The problem with this is a halacha found in the Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 8:11, which states that a non-jew who keeps the seven Noachide laws because of his own moral calculations instead of because of God's commanding them doesn't get full credit for them (note that there are two variants of this halacha. See the Frankel ed. The above point stands according to both though). We thus see that the behaviour of a non-jew who doesn't believe in God is deficient regardless of how good his behaviour is. Apparently then, belief in God is some sort of prerequisite to the seven Noachide laws. This would also explain why the Rambam mentions this halacha immediately before listing the seven Noachide laws and their various details.

It appears then that atheism would also be a problem for non-jews, albeit a less severe one than polytheism.

What about Christianity* which professes to be monotheistic? The classic sources generally think that Christianity is idolatrous, for example, the Rambam explicitly says so in Hilchot Ma'achalot Assurot 11:7 (see the Franked ed. for the uncensored version) as well as in other places. There is however an often quoted Tosofot to Sanhedrin 63b which states that it is permissible to force a christian to make an oath with the name of God because the christian is only "associating" (shituf) God with his idolatrous beliefs and this is permissible for non-jews to do. There is significant discussion regarding whether Tosofot means that shituf is generally permitted for non-jews or only in the context of making oaths. To summarise then, according to one school of thought, Christianity is as problematic as any polytheistic religion while according to others, there may be no problem depending on how you interpret the aforementioned Tosofot.

Even though the question explicitly excluded Islam, it seems appropriate to deal with it here anyway because it will give us an insight into other religions in general. Classically, Islam has been assumed to not be idolatrous. This can for example be seen in the previously mentioned Rambam, Hilchot Ma'achalot Assurot 11:7. This however only addresses one side of the issue. From a theological perspective, Islam is apparently not idolatrous. Does this make it into an acceptable belief system for non-jews? The answer is unequivocally no. See the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim 10:9 where he explicitly brings a prohibition for non-jews to create their own religions to serve God. In his language - אין מניחין אותן לחדש דת ולעשות מצות לעצמן מדעתן - or in english - "we do not allow them to create a religion or to create mitzvot for themselves based on their opinions". As such, assuming that Muhammed wasn't actually a prophet of God, it turns out that subscribing to Islam and in fact any non-jewish religion would also be problematic for non-jews.

To summarise, from best to worst, we have the following types of belief in God for non-jews:

1. Belief in God as described by Judaism (i.e. singular, omnipotent, omniscient, etc.) without subscribing to another religion
2. Belief in God as described by a non-jewish genuinely monotheistic religion such as Islam.
3. Atheism
4. Belief in God as described by Christianity according to some opinions
5. Polytheism (and Christianity according to other opinions)

(Note: There may be some room to argue for swapping the order of 3 and 4)

*If I am not mistaken, different denominations of Christianity can have very different beliefs about the divinity of Jesus and other potentially idolatrous beliefs. I'm not familiar with any classic sources which bother to distinguish between the denominations though so I have no way of categorising which denominations are less problematic and which are more.

Answer 2

There is a dispute at to whether שיתוף (believing in G-d AND another power; the trinity included) is permitted for gentiles. See Is Christianity Avodah Zara? for the differing opinions. There's no need to go through it again. I heard from a Rabbi who's actively involved in spreading knowledge of the 7 Noahide laws that most contemporary rabbis hold that שיתוף is allowed, although not preferable).

As for whether gentiles are required to believe in G-d, while many versions of the 7 Noahide laws say not to deny G-d, others say not to do idolatry instead. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=UEzgAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA591&dq=Tosefta+Avodah+Zarah+noah&hl=en&sa=X&ei=np7zVKTPJ-3fsAShq4LwBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Tosefta%20Avodah%20Zarah%20noah&f=false It explains here that believing in G-d is likely included in the law against idolatry, and even if it's not, it's been clarified in later commentaries. I'm not aware of anyone who says that they don't need to believe in G-d. Either way, Maimonides, even though he counts idolatry (kings and wars 9.1), he still says they need to believe that G-d commanded them through Moses (ibid 8.14) [Note: Idolatry is worship, (Hebrew: avodah zarah, strange service. So for your question about belief, not practise, you wouldn't have a problem of idolatry. I'm just demonstrating that believing in G-d is necessary.)

(Additionally, Abraham fought hard to get gentiles to recognise G-d (I can bring sources if necessary).)

So, to summarise, best is to believe in G-d, believing that he is the One and Only power.

Next, שיתוף, (including believing in the trinity). While some say that this is allowed for gentiles, others say it's not.

Next, atheism, which it seems everyone, or at the very least, nearly everyone, holds isn't alright for gentiles.

Answer 3

generally speaking Christianity is better than Atheism since it's based on the Tanach. (though it could be exploited by bad people as we saw in the spanish inquisition). Here's a source.

Kovetz Maamarim 69 - The holy Chafetz Chaim would say: "if the torah study has stopped then perforce the faith will also stop. And without faith the world cannot endure". This is explained in the verse "only there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife" (Gen.20:11). The intent of "only", is that there is nothing in the world which has the power to hold back the animal in man besides the fear of God. In our times (world war II) where denial of God has spread throughout the world, human beings have become snakes which bite each other, and the proper (metukan) countries among the nations are those which believe in the holy writings (Tanach).