Q&A: The attitude toward a tradition of another revelation
The attitude toward a tradition of another revelation.
Question
Hello Rabbi. There are thousands of religions in the world. Wouldn't the validity of the tradition of some religion amount to a zero-sum game with Judaism? That is, if there is some religion among all the existing religions that claims a revelation from God, and it is possible to verify the validity of its tradition in one way or another, and their tradition also claims that God was revealed only to them, and that they are the chosen people—wouldn't that undermine the validity of the Jewish tradition?
I claim that such a religion could exist, and in my humble opinion ruling such a thing out from the outset is an argument from ignorance, unless someone has actually gone through all of them.
Thank you very much.
Answer
So? Is there such a religion?
Discussion on Answer
Yes, but the Rabbi's example is far-fetched at the level of claiming that maybe there is a person who says that a celestial teapot is orbiting Mars, and he has very good evidence for it—and therefore you can't rule out from the outset the claim that such a teapot exists. In that case, obviously there's no point in paying attention to such a claim.
But I think my claim is a bit different and maybe more reasonable. Since it really could be that among the existing religions, there is one that meets the criteria I mentioned.
Just as in order to hold a certain philosophical conclusion, it's important to know whether there is some philosopher who argues the opposite.
Is this hair-splitting going anywhere?
To the conclusion that the assertion that the Jewish tradition is true may be undermined as long as we haven't examined other religions that don't contradict it.
(I'll note that I'm 18, next year I'm going to Gush Yeshiva, and I'm debating this issue because it intrigues me and it's important for me to know.)
Sorry if I'm going on and on 🙂
With all due respect, but you really are going on and on. What's the point of dealing with hypothetical questions about whether maybe someone says something? When you bring such a person, we'll talk.
I claim that there may be a person who met the Holy One, blessed be He, and He revealed to him that it's all nonsense. If such a person exists, that undermines things… and ruling him out is an argument from ignorance (ad ignorantiam).