I’ve been doing a lot of research into Judaism. They seem to encourage asking tough questions and taking the answers seriously, which is good.

After reading a bit of the Torah, it got me thinking, why aren’t there any references to people who could not have been known to its followers at the time? No mention of East Asians or Native Americans. Did God just forget about them when he talked through Moses? Or he thought they weren’t important enough to mention?

Then it got me thinking some more. What about science? Wouldn’t it be effective to convince followers of legitimacy if a religion could accurately predict a scientific phenomenon before its followers have the means of discovering it? Say, “And God said, let there be bacteria! And then there was bacteria.” But there is nothing like that. Anywhere, as far as I can tell. Among any religion.

I’m not a theologian and I’m always interested in learning more, so any insights would be helpful.

Edit: A lot of responses seem to be saying “people wouldn’t have had a use for that knowledge at the time” seem to be parroting religious talking points without fully understanding their implications. Why would God only tell people what they would have a use for at the time? Why wouldn’t he give them information that could expand the possibilities of what they were capable of? Why does it matter if people had a word for something at the time? Couldn’t God just tell them new words for new things? If God was only telling them things that were relevant to them at the time, why didn’t He say so? Also, how come he doesn’t come back and tell us things that are relevant now, or at least mention that he isn’t coming back?

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
    121·
    4 days ago

    Wouldn’t it be effective to convince followers of legitimacy if a religion could accurately predict a scientific phenomenon before its followers have the means of discovering it?

    No, those were called witches and they burned them out of fear.

    That was also just never the purpose of religion. Religion fills gaps in our knowledge and addresses the existential crisis by promising us some form of afterlife because humans really struggle to accept that they’re random and meaningless and that their consciousness just dies with the body.

    There’s theories that the talking burning tree was probably a weed tree and they were just tripping balls, and that wouldn’t be the first religion spawned from accidental or intentional use of psychedelics.

    It’s also very likely the origin stories are just that, stories. Most likely because storytelling was just how language worked: like the Darmok episode of StarTrek TNG. Or just kids: we don’t infodump on kids, we tell them stories because stories bring context and narrative.

    My belief is that at least all the judaic religions are just a metaphor so far detached its true meaning is lost to time, and interpreting any of those further is a complete waste of time. Any scientific prediction is equally likely to just be a coincidence than evidence of divine knowledge.