Belief

This past Sunday my wife and I were on a guided tour of an art history museum with our kids. We didn’t see it coming, but the museum had in it some actual idols from an ancient civilization that they worshipped. We never would have imagined. I wanted to take my family and leave the building promptly. I asked the guide if we could leave early, and he said for security reasons, he could not let us wander around the building unescorted. We were stuck inside the museum for another half hour before we were allowed to depart. If that situation were to arise again, what am I supposed to do?

It seems that the words of Chazal have absolute authority in Judaism. 'Chazal says' means 'end of discussion'. I also agree that all Chazal are outstanding tzaddikim, but a tzaddik can also makes a mistake. Chazal are also imperfect individuals like us who do human errors. Then, why does the word of Chazal have so great an authority? Isn't it a bit "dangerous"?

What is the Jewish view of laziness? Does G-d abhor laziness? To be honest, I am a very lazy person myself. In my heart, I wish I could fulfill a lot more mitzvot than I really do. But I don’t because I find myself too lazy, simply lacking the physical and mental energy. I am too lazy to go to synagogue most of the time, too lazy to daven by the deadline or sometimes at all, too lazy to bensch after meals, too lazy to study as much Torah as I wish I could. I know many other religions consider laziness a serious sin. In their views, I would be a terrible sinner.

I recently had a halacha question that i asked a friend much more learned than me and he gave a wonderful answer; full of details and citations. We continued discussing it when all of a sudden he tells me he does not believe in God. I was shocked for a moment because for the last 20 minutes we were discussing different rabbinic opinions and not only that, he keeps shabbat, kosher, wears a kippah and was even growing his beard out for the omer. But he doesn't believe in God. Blew my mind. It doesn't seem like its from a lack of emunah per se but just that there is no solid proof of God's existence. I studied philosophy, specifically ethics, in college at the same time as I started learning Torah. When it comes to arguing for God's existence, I have all the arguments ready to go from Creator -> God ->HaShem and im very passionate about it. The beauty of mitzvot? I can talk about those too. I've continued my Torah and philosophy studies for a few years after college, even now, as well but I never ran into this situation where someone keeps the mitzvot so well, knows quite a lot, but does not believe in God. I want to keep expanding my knowledge and ability to converse with different type of people but I have no idea what field of Torah/philosophy this would be. I thought about perhaps learning more about emunah but emunah has an emotional root to it and I believe my friends case is more of an intellectual one. Is there something else besides emunah that I can read up on? Does it make sense to ask: Outside of the 13 principles of faith and first commandment, can a person be religious/observant if they don't believe in God?

In the Tanakh, there is a concept of the Holy Spirit. For example: "the spirit of God dwelled on David strongly". Is there the power of the Holy Spirit according to Judaism? Also, is there the power of the "evil spirit"?