Tomás de Torquemada (1420 - 1498) was a fifteenth century Spanish Dominican, first Inquisitor General of Spain, and confessor to Isabella of Spain. He is known for his campaign of persecution against the Jews and Muslims of Spain.
Dr. James J. Pearce, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Illinois Central College, has worked out a logical proof to show that "any way you look at it, it is better to be Jewish than Christian."
1. God is infallible. (Axiom 1, true by most traditional Western definitions of “God.”)
Commentary on Axiom 1: To say that “God is infallible” means that any beliefs held by God are true, and that any decisions or choices made by God are right. Hence, it is not possible for an infallible God to hold a false belief, nor is it possible for any choice or decision made by God to be wrong. Any God who holds false beliefs or makes bad decisions is clearly not an infallible God. It could be objected that God does not have beliefs. But if God is a “living God,” and if God is a “judging God,” then God has something like cognitive states capable of sustaining truth values. For simplicity’s sake, these states shall be referred to as “beliefs.”
2. If an infallible God chooses a belief or a set of beliefs, it is necessary that the choice is right and the beliefs are true. (Corollary of Line 1.)
3. Either Jesus is God or Jesus is not God. (Axiom 2, law of excluded middle.)
Commentary on Axiom 3: This axiom means exactly what it says, and neither entails nor implies any more than it says. Either Jesus is God (as most Christians believe), or Jesus is not God (as most non-Christians believe). Note that Axiom 2 is a formal tautology, and is therefore logically (i.e., necessarily) true.
4. If a person is born of a Jewish mother, that person is Jewish. I.e., the property of “being Jewish” is matrilineal, hence, all people born of Jewish mothers are Jews. (Traditional tenet of Jewish ethnicity.)
5. God chose that Jesus would be born of a Jewish mother. (Matt. 1:20-21; Luke 1:28-33.)
6. In choosing that Jesus would be born of a Jewish mother, God chose that Jesus would be Jewish. (Lines 4, 5.)
7. Suppose that Jesus is God. (Postulate, from line 3.)
8. If Jesus is God, then, in choosing that Jesus would be Jewish, God chose to be Jewish. (Lines 6, 7.)
9. If God is infallible and God chose to be Jewish, then God’s choice is right and God’s beliefs are true. (Lines 1, 2, 8.)
10. If God’s choice (to be Jewish) was right, and God’s (Jewish) beliefs are true, then Judaism is true. (Lines 2, 9.)
Commentary on Axiom 10. This claim cannot be contradicted by asserting that God’s covenant made with the Jews through Abraham is cancelled or nullified by the covenant made with the gentiles through Jesus, because on at least four occasions (Gen. 17: 7-19) God asserts that the Jewish covenant is “everlasting”; if the Jewish covenant is cancelled or nullified for any reason, then God is a liar.
11. If Judaism is true, then any beliefs which contradict the beliefs of Judaism are false. (The Law of Contradiction.)
12. It is better to hold true beliefs than false beliefs, and it is better to hold beliefs which are possibly true than beliefs which are certainly false. (Postulate.)
13. It is better to hold the beliefs of Judaism than to hold any set of beliefs which contradict those of Judaism. (Lines 10, 11, 12.)
14. Christian beliefs frequently contradict Jewish beliefs. (Common knowledge, but consider, e.g., the Jewish rejection of the entire New Testament.)
15. It is better to hold Jewish beliefs than Christian beliefs. (Lines 13, 14.)
16. But, suppose that Jesus is not God. (Postulate, from line 3.)
17. If Jesus is not God, then it does not follow that, in choosing that Jesus would be Jewish, God chose to be Jewish. (Lines 8, 16.)
18. If God him/herself is not Jewish, then God’s infallibility does not entail anything regarding the truth of Judaism. (Lines 1, 2, 17.)
19. If God’s infallibility does not entail the truth of Judaism, then Judaism is possibly but not certainly true. (Lines 17, 18.)
20. Most forms of Christianity affirm the divinity of Jesus. (Common knowledge, but cf. e.g., Mark 9:2-8.)
Commentary on Axiom 20. Forms of Christianity that do not affirm the divinity of Jesus – for example, Unitarian Universalism – are immune to this argument.
21. If Jesus is not God, then most forms of Christianity are certainly false. (Lines 16, 20.)
22. If Jesus is not God, then most forms of Christianity are certainly false, but Judaism is possibly true. (Lines 16-21.)
23. It is better to hold beliefs which are possibly true than beliefs which are certainly false. (Corollary of Line 12.)
24. It is better to hold Jewish beliefs than Christian beliefs. (Lines 22, 23.)
25. If Jesus is God, it is better to be Jewish than Christian. (Lines 7-15.)
26. If Jesus is not God, it is better to be Jewish than Christian. (Lines 16-24.)
27. Any way you look at it, it is better to be Jewish than Christian. (Lines 25, 26. Q.E.D.)
28. Conversion information is available from your local Rabbi.
9 comments:
It would follow that it is better to be a man than a woman, since he made Jesus a mad, that it is better to have dark skin, since Jesus had dark skin, that it is better to have his hair, his pimples, his blah, blah, blah, since god made Jesus with all these attributes.
If that isnt a reductio, I dont know what is.
If Christian thought is incompatible with Jewish thought (line whatever), then the whole thing is inconsistent, since Jesus is Jewish, and by definition, Christian. So God must hold inconsistent beliefs, and they must all be true (by line whatever). Ergo, the law of contradiction is false, and anything follows (classic law of logic).
Two Reductios for the price of one.
great resource! thanks for creating this website, mr. finnell.
This was funny. I don't know if that was the intention, but still...
As long as Unitarians are immune, I am safe.
1) It would indeed follow that it is better to be a man, to have dark skin, etc., IF JESUS HAD BEEN GOD. Your reductio is a refutation of the divinity of Jesus, but it has little connection to the argument.
2) Jesus is not by definition a Christian, Jesus was a Jew plain and simple. During his lifetime there was no such thing as Christianity, which was an invention (post mortum relative to Jesus) of Paul and the boys. Hence, there is no inconsistency in God's beliefs, no challenge to the law of contradiction, but a marked lack of historical background on Hanno's part.
1) would still be a reductio, but reductios do not tell you which premise is false, just that some premise is. One obvious candidate for false premise is that any feature of Jesus, even if divine, is as perfect as God. Indeed, since Jesus is also human (dont ask me how he is both, I dont know either) it is easy to assume that not all attributes of Jesus are perfect, and hence 9 seems false. If the infant Jesus believed the earth was flat, so what? There is no claim that Jesus is all knowing. And certainly the infant Jesus, fresh from the womb, did not know the world was round, or that E=mc2. Thus Jesus could be God, and Jewish, but in no way would this be a theologically significant thing. Jesus' Jewish nature could be relevant in other way, of course, in that they did shape his religious views. But no one is required to hold that Jesus is infallible.
On 2)the separation of Jesus' thought from Christianity is problematic. Are the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel compatible with Jewish thought? By definition, the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel is Christian. But their compatibility is denied in line whatever. BTW, Jesus teachings are both not rejected by all Jews (witness Paul, Mathew, etc.), nor rejected when he said them. The rejection develops over 100 years. So at some point, Christian thought was part of Jewish thought...
Hey, maybe I do know something of the historical background.
There is no certain evidence proving that God exists. How, then, can anyone, short of belief, possibly accept that there was a man who was a Jew whose name was Jesus, and this man now exists as God? Can we grant the metaphysical passages of the Bible any authority without begging the question? Probably not. There is no way, then, that anything predicated on Jesus being God proves that Judaism is better than Christianity.
I should have said: there is no way short of belief that anything predicated on Jesus being God proves that Judaism is better than Christianity.
Post a Comment