Q&A: The Revelation at Mount Sinai as an Alien Manifestation
The Revelation at Mount Sinai as an Alien Manifestation
Question
Hello,
I wanted to hear the Rabbi’s opinion about the famous conspiracy theory that the revelation at Mount Sinai (and the other miracles performed then) were done by aliens who managed to trick the human mind into thinking that this was a revelation of God.
There are many arguments for this; I’ll present the strongest among them.
- A revelation of God is something so far-fetched that we have no reason to assume that God really revealed Himself.
- Also, it is not clear with certainty that there is in fact a Creator of the world.
- Unlike aliens, whose existence we assume because it is plausible that evolutionary development occurred on other stars that were formed before our planet (the materials that make life possible were formed over 10 billion years, and another 5 billion remained before our planet was created).
- Within hundreds of millions of years we have already become very technologically advanced, so we can estimate and suppose that those aliens would be very, very, very advanced—certainly advanced enough to perform the miracles of the Torah.
- The heart of man is evil from his youth, and among the worst things is to lie and deceive another person’s senses, to make him do foolish things (commandments), etc….
That is, from points 1-2 we see why it is implausible to assume a revelation from God.
In contrast to points 3 and 4, where we see that aliens have both the ability and the opportunity. And point 5 shows that they also have motivation to create the biggest lie in history.
What does the Rabbi think of this claim?
Isaac.
Answer
What is so far-fetched about it? The existence of aliens is far more far-fetched. Their existence is, of course, supposedly so plausible, yet somehow from then until today nobody has ever met them (and this is not comparable to the Holy One, blessed be He, since Him one cannot in principle encounter).
2. Do these plausible aliens of ours also, in your opinion, create the world? Did they evolve within it and then go back and create it retroactively? See the fifth notebook about the fact that the revelation at Mount Sinai does not stand on its own.
Discussion on Answer
Of course you didn’t claim that they created the world, but I am claiming that they did not create it, and therefore there is a God who did create it. And if the tradition says that He revealed Himself, there is no reason to assume that these were aliens speaking in His name. So even if they did exist, it still would not be right to assume that they were the ones who appeared. But with all due respect, this discussion seems bizarre. If anything, there might be room to discuss an implanted myth. The discussion about aliens is bizarre. I suggest we end it here. Sabbath peace.
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D
2. I read it, and I didn’t claim that…. I absolutely did not claim that they created the world.
1. My claim is that in order to prove something you need three things:
Motivation, opportunity, and ability.
As for motivation, the doubt between the two is identical. (There’s even an advantage for aliens—see point 5, “the heart of man,” etc.)
As for ability, I also claim that it’s equal. And the same goes for opportunity.
Only you argue that it’s not certain that aliens exist.
But it follows from what you say here that if you did know that they existed, then you would agree that this is indeed the preferred explanation. (Especially since we should remember that it’s also not certain that God exists, so it’s still equal.)