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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Arthur Pewtey)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Basic differences
Message-ID: <1081@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Jun-85 11:07:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1081
Posted: Thu Jun 13 11:07:13 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Jun-85 05:37:47 EDT
References: <2640@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: The Chartered Accountants Who Want to Be Lion Tamers Association
Lines: 46

> 		Take a look at Dvarim, Perek 4, Possuk 32-35.
> 	(Deuteronomy 4:32-35). I won't translate it, it's always
> 	better to look at the original. Moshe there is telling the
> 	Bnei Yisroel that Hashem SHOWED them that he exists, they
> 	must know -- no excuses. Where's the proof? Moshe says
> 	that Hashem did two things with the Bnei Yisroel -- no
> 	other people will experience them and no other religion
> 	will even be able to CLAIM experiencing them.
> 
> 		1. An entire nation (3 million people) hearing
> 			G-d's voice at the giving of the Torah.
> 		2. An entire nation taken out of bondage from
> 			another nation through miracles, with
> 			the slave-nation losing its slave mentality
> 			and immediately becoming a free and moral people.
> 
> 		No other religion has even claimed a mass revelation.
> 	It has always been one prophet or a small group -- "you can't
> 	fool ALL the people". When the Jewish people became a nation,
> 	it was based on the foundation that every single Jew saw and
> 	heard with his own senses. This, by the way, can get us into
> 	a whole new topic concerning Masores and the oral tradition.
> 	This knowledge has been passed down, father to son, teacher
> 	to student for thousands of years. Don't think Moshe was a
> 	tremendous speaker that could move the masses. He had a speech
> 	defect. Don't think that our forefathers in the Sinai desert
> 	were easy people to convince --	they were a stiff-necked people
> 	and not easily persuaded. But even they were shown with such
> 	clarity, that the Jewish people have laid their lives on the
> 	line for that truth ever since. 

All you have shown is that the basis for Judaism is indeed different.  The
claims are more "persuasive", in that they would appeal to you more because
they involve "mass revelation" instead of single prophets.  But recognize
that while you have shown the difference between the claims of Judaism and
the claims of other religions, you have skirted the fact that different or
even "better" claims (as in advertising) do NOT prove the point of the claims
unless you already accept their sources as factual.  These claims are no more
or less viable than those that Christians offer from the Gospels.  The amazing
empty tomb.  The virgin birth.  All of these things are marvelous claims.  If
you base your choice of religion on who makes the "best" claims that appeal
to you most, it is no different than buying laundry detergent based on what
you are told in the commercial.
-- 
"Wait a minute.  '*WE*' decided???   *MY* best interests????"
					Rich Rosen    ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr