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?

  • Sasha [They/Them]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    21·
    2 days ago

    I got a free copy of the Qur’an last year and it’s packed with stuff like this, it’s kinda annoying because I just wanted to understand the actual text. It’s all the same stuff I’ve seen Christian creationists talk about, obviously false if you understand the basics but it’ll probably deceive lots of people who don’t.

      • Sasha [They/Them]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        1·
        3 hours ago

        When I say the basics, I mean understanding logic and reasoning and what constitutes scientific evidence. Much of it is word association at best, the example that comes to mind is the claim that the pillars of creation prove that creationism is true.

        In one example in my copy of the Qur’an, they point to a journalist using the word smoke to discuss the state of the early universe as proof that the Qur’an predicted modern cosmology because heaven was smoke before Allah commanded it to exist. It’s an unproven claim, they’ve just drawn a vague connection and decided that counts as evidence.