evidence for Judaism

My opponent says," My opponent's point that one does not need to become Jewish so as to discourage biased voting is confusing. A better reason I would think is that it is unethical, unfair, or ruins the point of debate." I did not state the reasoning behind the point as that is irrelevant, rather I stated the reason why I made the point. Quoting my opponent, "My opponent's third point does not logically follow from his first two as if a and b are both infinite then the value of c is of absolutely no importance as it cannot possible change the value of a or b as they are both infinite." I fail to understand my opponents' objection, so all I can do is attempt to clarify my point. I am using a form of argument called Reductio ad absurdum. What I am saying is that a and b cannot be infinite. Next you argue with my assertion that if there is a god there is no paradox, by saying that time is an inherent part of the universe. To that I argue that time is relative, according to Einstein's theory of relativity, and has been proven in experimentation. My opponent next criticizes my evidence of 1st cause (i.e. Cause of gases, and their movement); by stating a question is not a proof. To this I respond a question can be evidence when the question is answered by the idea being purposed. God created the gases and set them in motion. With regard to my opponents' statement that this doesn't prove specifically the Judeo-Christian god, He is correct in his statement however I will point out that I do not believe I implied that it was. This was evidence of god in general not a specific one. Regarding the evidence of complexity my opponent asks for proof. I am uncertain of what needs proof. 1st I will reformat for clarity sake. And ask my opponent to clarify. (1)The universe is caused or uncaused. (2) Complex things are most likely caused by an intelligent being (3) the universe is complex. (4) Therefore, the universe is most likely caused by an intelligent being If it is the fact that the world is complex that needs proof I believe that is preposterous for an intelligent human to question. If the universe isn't complex what is. I believe this is obvious and probably not my opponents problem. So I will leave it at this if necessary I will elaborate. I would rather not go on trying to conceive what my opponent is thinking so I will wait for his response. Regarding my evidence of an all powerful god my opponent writes:" What a fun piece of circular logic my opponent has provided! My opponent claims that because something is impossible that simply reinforces that his god is all powerful. This is like claiming that because an apple fell from a tree it means that there is an invisible man has a grudge against the ground and thus throws apples at it. My opponent's answer provides no answers." I would like to fix his wording for clarity sake since god did something imposable that shows he is all powerful. Now in your analogy you prove an occurrence based on an observation, using the fact that the stated occurrence explains the experienced event. What I have done here is quite different, I'm considering that god created the universe as a given as I have already provided evidence. I am using this occurrence (i.e. God's creation of the universe} as evidence of one of his characteristics. Next regarding miracles my opponent states 2 criticisms a) failure to give specific examples. B) That I used miracles of other religions. He is right in his 1st point and in defense of myself I thought it was obvious that there are millions of claims. I will now respond with specifics, but 1st I would like to get the 2nd issue out of the way. True, my primary evidence is from those miracles claimed to have happened to Jews. However I consider all miracles to be evidence of god bec as I stated earlier according to Judaism god does not demand that all people follow Judaism. I will now get into more specifics with regard to miracles; however, due to the exhaustiveness of the issue I would like to get the last issue out of the way before delving into this topic. My opponent wrights "My opponent's last piece of "evidence" is that a lot of people believe something is true. I will ask my opponent not to commit the fallacy of the argument from popularity and actually bring real evidence of his religion to this debate." I am afraid I have been misunderstood I am not stupid enough to use numbers as evidence if that were so Christianity and Islam would be much stronger than Judaism. The evidence is experiential the message being passed from, by, and to millions is not one of belief rather one of experience. I hope I have sufficiently clarified this point. I can elaborate in the next round if necessary. Now back to miracles: The 1st miracle is the miracle of creation, see above. God created an extraordinarily complex and intricate universe from nothing. If necessary I may elaborate on this in upcoming rounds. The next miracles I present are the plagues in Egypt. Evidence for this can be found in exodus chapters 7 to 12. I have a feeling you won't like this so I will try to bring additional evidence but in your response please state if and why you don't like this evidence so I may deal with it further.. Some other evidence follows: The following is a paragraph taken from Wikipedia: Archaeology There is archaeological material that some Christian archaeologists, such as William F. Albright, have considered historical evidence of the Ten Plagues; for example, an ancient water-trough found in El Arish bears hieroglyphic markings detailing a period of darkness. Albright and other Christian archaeologists have claimed that such evidence, as well as careful study of the areas ostensibly traveled by the Israelites after the Exodus, makes discounting the biblical account untenable. The Egyptian Ipuwer papyrus describes a series of calamities befalling Egypt, including a river turned to blood... Another quote: One more piece of evidence is the oral message like that of the revelation at Sinai. Next miracle is exodus from Egypt: As before the main source is the bible, exodus chapters 12 to 16, with elaboration from commentary and midrashic sources. Again to quote outside sources I quote Wikipedia: Extra-Biblical accounts Main article: Moses in Hellenistic literature The earliest non-Biblical account of the Exodus is by Hecataeus of Abdera (late 4th century BCE): the Egyptians blame a plague on foreigners and expel them from the country, whereupon Moses, their leader, takes them to Canaan, where he founds the city of Jerusalem.[46] More than a dozen later stories repeat the same basic theme, most of them with a marked anti-Jewish tendency... Lastly as before there is an oral tradition of the exodus of an enslaved nation escaping Egypt with miracles such as the splitting of the sea. (For anyone interested in the topic I herd of a book on the subject called Israel in Egypt by James Hoffmeier. In addition there is an accurate account of the plagues and exodus written in novel form called let my nation go by Yosef Deutsch) Next miracle is the revelation of god at Sinai primary source is the bible exodus chapter 19. In addition to it is the oral tradition as stated earlier. If you would like elaboration please ask I'm trying to keep it short. Anyone interested in more can find a wealth of information by goggling "evidence of revelation at Sinai", and an accurate account in novel format called "Let my nation serve me" by Yosef Deutsch.) Lastly for organizational purposes I would like to quickly mention that I already responded earlier to my opponents criticism of the tradition of revelation at Sinai. Briefly I clarified that I wasn't sighting evidence based on # of believers but rather experiential evidence that has been preserved both orally and in writing. From, by, and to millions in a continual chain. I apologize if I wrote too much, I left out alot of what I wanted to wright.