Q&A: The Uniqueness of the Jewish People as Evidence
The Uniqueness of the Jewish People as Evidence
Question
The Jewish people have displayed throughout history all kinds of unique phenomena that were not observed among other peoples: the surprising survival of the Jewish people and the preservation of the commandments, maintaining a single identity despite being scattered among the nations (and the very fact of that dispersion), prosperity and success everywhere, the constant and relatively baseless hatred toward the Jewish people, immigration to the Land of Israel, etc. These details are surprising in themselves, but the very fact that all of them were predicted in prophecies in the Torah that are relatively unambiguous and hard to interpret otherwise strengthens the reasoning to assume that there is indeed a non-natural phenomenon here. A survey of these phenomena appears here, for example:
Do you think this evidence is sufficient as evidence for the existence of God, without connecting it to the deistic arguments (the cosmological and physico-theological ones, etc.)?
Answer
I wrote that in my opinion, yes. But I do not base the proof on mysticism or on naturalness. Our culture helped our survival, and that itself supports the claim regarding its superiority and correctness.
Discussion on Answer
The fact that people hate us proves something about us? I didn’t understand this strange thesis.
A. I explained.
B. I explained.
But there are also negative features in the culture. For example, antisemitism and our remaining a small people are negative features; they do not contribute to the claim that our culture is better. On the other hand, because they were predicted in the Torah, they do contribute to the thesis of supernatural intervention (or at least to the predictive ability of the Holy One, blessed be He). Therefore:
A. Why, in your opinion, is the fulfillment of these prophecies not evidence of supernatural intervention, or at least of the existence of the Holy One, blessed be He (since there is someone with such supernatural predictive ability)?
B. Why, in your opinion, is the culture superior if some of these characteristics are negative, as I described?