Q&A: According to Judaism, are the miracles of other religions imaginary?
According to Judaism, are the miracles of other religions imaginary?
Question
According to Jewish belief, are the “miracles” that Christians believe in, like “the wonders of Jesus,” and Muslims, like Muhammad’s flying mare, and miracles found in other religions as well (I don’t know any others, but I assume there are other religions with all kinds of miracles) basically made-up nonsense and one big pile of gibberish?
From the one time in my life that I spoke with a devout Christian, it seemed like they have tons and tons and tons of books and a very extensive theology—so is it all just one big pile of nonsense, a kind of very developed science fiction?
And if so, what does it mean to respect someone’s religion? Meaning, if I’m standing next to someone who believes in fantasies and science fiction—how am I supposed to respect him? I understand that the same could be said about me too—for example, how could an atheist respect me when I believe in the miracles of the Hebrew Bible, which from his perspective are also fantasies—but right now I’m asking on a personal level.
Answer
I don’t know what “according to Jewish belief” means. Nobody can determine for you what you believe and what you ought to believe. Form your own position and decide. By the way, Rabbi Kook writes in his book To the Perplexed of the Generation that there is no reason one cannot say that there were miracles among non-Jews as well.
I also don’t know what it means to respect something. You can agree or disagree. Every person should be respected, but that doesn’t mean agreeing with his beliefs.
Discussion on Answer
This is a factual question, and as such there is nothing to discuss about it in terms of authority and obligation. Is there a binding Jewish view regarding miracles? I don’t think so (just as I don’t think there is such a view regarding the overwhelming majority of issues). I assume there were miracles, but if someone interprets the Torah such that the miracles described there were metaphorical, or parables, I do not see how one could deny the legitimacy of his position.
I’ve written more than once that regarding the revelation at Mount Sinai and the obligation that derives from it, I do think that this is a constitutive condition (without which your outlook is not Jewish).
If that is your answer, I don’t see how you solved the problem. We agreed that this is a factual question, but apparently we did not agree about its nature. This is a factual question about the norms in the Torah. Specifically, it is a factual question about the Torah’s desired norm regarding miracles—should one believe in them or not? If so, in which miracles? What is their practical weight (religious, moral?) and other such questions. These questions, contrary to what you say, do carry weight, even if only indirectly, in terms of authority and obligation. It is of course hard to derive practical implications from them, but so what?!
As for metaphorical interpretation of miracles, in my opinion you have reversed the order completely. At the deepest level of the plain meaning, the Torah opposes the relevance of miracles to the life of faith and to practical life. Its ultimate concern is the tearing down of the partition between the natural and the supernatural, and therefore, broadly speaking, it seems to me that it actually encourages metaphorical interpretation.
Miracle-centeredness is not something essentially “Jewish” (although of course most Jews throughout history could not live with such an anti-miracle norm… hence the centrality of repression in Jewish existence).
It seems to me the question was not about the factual-psychological plane, meaning whether a person is equipped with the ability to hold this or that belief (in this case, about miracles). Based on one part of your answer (“Nobody can determine for you what you believe”), it seems that’s how you understood him. Indeed, one cannot totally “engineer consciousness.” That is a fact.
In my opinion, the question was on a different factual plane: what is the basic Jewish norm, meaning the one that appears in the Torah?
From other parts of your answer (“I don’t know what ‘according to Jewish belief’ means” and “what you ought to believe. Form your own position and decide”), you apparently think that Judaism has no basic norms of belief, not even regarding the status of miracles.
This position not only contradicts the attempt to formulate a “thin” theology, but also contradicts the Torah’s basic position (even if there is room to discuss the details).
According to the Torah’s position on miracles—which does believe in their factual existence—they have significance. This is especially true regarding the mega-miracle of God’s revelation at Sinai. All this necessarily also affects the questioner’s issue regarding the miracles of non-Jews.
Regarding respecting others, you are right.