Thursday, November 29, 2007

Excerpt Two: Framing the issues for a productive discussion -The four questions

Taken from FROM Part 2

4 questions for BeyondBT -from comment section of Naftali Zeligman’s essay


  1. Does Torah contain statements of fact (use any definition you choose) that can be proved or disproved by an objective outside observer?
  2. If it does, what are they - formulate them. If it does not, any claim that the torah is true is mere opinion, but tautological, devoid of content- -an empty assertion, sort of like "Jesus is God, read the bible," as I've seen on some bumper stickers.
  3. If you are willing to assert that Torah has at least some truth to it, i.e., contains factual and provable statements, would you also be willing to take the next step?
  4. If so, would you to draw up a list of verifiable Torah statements, preferably such that, if disproved, would change your attitude to Judaism.