According to Judaism, are the miracles of other religions imaginary?
According to Jewish belief, are the “miracles” that Christians believe in, such as “miracles of Jesus” and Muslims believe in, such as Muhammad’s flying horse and miracles that exist in other religions (I don’t know any more, but I believe there are other religions with all kinds of miracles) actually inventions and one big nonsense?
From what I’ve talked to a devout Christian once in my life, it seems they have lots and lots and lots of books and a very extensive theology – so it’s all just one big blunder, a kind of really advanced science fiction?
And if that’s the case, what does it mean to respect someone’s religion? That is, if I’m standing next to someone who believes in fantasy and science fiction – how am I supposed to respect him? So I understand that it can also be said about me – how can someone, for example, an atheist, respect me for believing in the miracles of the Bible but from his point of view they are also fantasy, but right now I’m asking about me personally.
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It seems to me that the question was not about the psychological factual level, that is, whether a person is equipped with the ability to hold such and such beliefs (in this case about miracles). According to one part of your answer (“No one can tell you what you believe”) it seems that you understood it that way. Indeed, it is not possible to “engineer consciousness” totally. That is a fact.
In my opinion, the question was on a different factual level: What is the basic Jewish norm (i.e. the one that appears in the Torah)?
According to other parts of your answer (“I don't know what the “papfi ha-Jewish faith” means and ”What should you believe in. Form your own position and decide”) you probably think that there are no basic faith norms in Judaism, not even regarding the status of miracles.
This position not only contradicts the attempt to formulate a “thin” theology but also contradicts the basic Torah position (even if there is room to discuss the details about this).
According to the Torah position, miracles - which it believes in their factual existence - have meaning. This is especially true of the mega-miracle of God's revelation at Sinai. All of this necessarily also projects the miracles of non-Jews, as well as the question of the asker.
You are right about respecting others.
This is a factual question, and as such there is nothing to discuss in terms of authority and obligation. Is there a binding Jewish view of miracles? I don't think so (just as I don't think there is such a view of the vast majority of issues). I appreciate that there were miracles, but if a person interprets the Torah in such a way that the miracles that occurred there were metaphorical, or allegorical, I don't see how the legitimacy of his position can be denied.
I have already written more than once that regarding the status of Mount Sinai and the obligation derived from it, I think that this is indeed a founding condition (without which your view is not Jewish).
If this is your answer, I don't see how you solved the problem. We agreed that it was a factual question, but we apparently disagreed about its nature. It is a factual question about the norms in the Torah. Specifically, this is a factual question about the desired norm in the Torah regarding miracles - to believe in them or not? If so, in which miracles? What is their practical weight (religious, moral?) and other questions. These questions, contrary to what you say, have a weight, even if indirect, of authority and obligation. It is of course difficult to extract any meaning from them, so what?!
Regarding the metaphorical interpretation of miracles, I think you have turned the order upside down. In the deepest sense, the Torah opposes the relevance of miracles to the life of faith and the life of action. Its concern, in the end, is to tear down the barrier between the natural and the supernatural, and therefore, by and large, it seems to me that it encourages the metaphorical interpretation more.
Miracles are not something “Jewish” In essence (although of course most Jews throughout history could not live with such an anti-miraculous norm… hence the centrality of repression in Jewish existence).
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