evidence for Judaism

Unfortunately it seems that the lines of communications are not working so well. Regarding your 1st point please read carefully as I did respond to your "refutation". I will however try to put it another way which just occurred to me. Just as infinity has no beginning it also has no end. If the mass was in gas form for an infinite amount of time and infinity has no end it follows that it is still in gas form. Regarding 1st cause, your analogy is not analogues bec. Your question is not a paradox, mine is, this is a classic argument. Regarding "miracles", my opponent brings up the big bang and evolution as "better" alternatives. I don't have space to deal with it fully, one point I will make is the challenge of missing links. I fail to understand why Wikipedia is a "unindependant" source. I will however bring some other sources for validity of bible in general, I give shmuel Waldman credit for these sources 1) W.F. Albright in his book "From the stone age to Christianity", …So many corroborations of details have been discovered in recent years that most competent scholars have given up the old critical theory… 2)Will Durant in "The story of civilization", "Each passing year adds to our store of knowledge and provides us with more and more documents, inscriptions, monuments, and excavations which confirm the bibles historical Accuracy…Science is now in a position to state categorically that the bible is factual till proven otherwise." Regarding evidence of national revelation it is a piece of evidence that I too used to reject for years until I appreciated its validity. I therefore ask the reader to read and think carefully and objectively, and I will try to explain. Any comments are greatly appreciated so I can deal with them in the comments section or final round. (Contrasts are not meant as rejections rather as a tool for clarification purposes.). Many beliefs are based on a few people making a claim and people believing them and more people believing them and so on and so forth. (This may or may not be valid evidence; it is irrelevant to this debate.) In contrast Revelation at Sinai was experienced by hundreds of thousands (perhaps even over one million) of people who told their children who told their children and so on and so forth. What was transmitted was not just belief of a few people's claims. Rather it was a mass testimony of over 600,000 people experiencing an event. Those hundreds of thousands of witnesses testified on a yearly basis what they experienced to their hundreds of thousands of children. What is being transmitted is not just a belief based on a claim by some people. But a national experience of god by hundreds of thousands of witness ancestors, those hundreds of thousands of witnesses themselves gave over testimony of the event that they themselves experienced. They didn't simply believe it, the 1st generation experienced it. The next generation heard from those 600,000 witnesses who were their parents, ect. This testimony is based on a solid foundation. I apologize for repetition and length it is difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what is bothering my opponent. Number of believers alone is not enough; a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If a belief was started by a claim by a few witnesses that is how strong the claim is no matter how many people believe them. A national experience is not based on a claim by a few people; it is a testimony of a nation experience. I hope I have made myself clear, feedback is appreciated. To summarize the main difference of revelation at Sinai is its base its base and beginning. Its base is over 600,000 witnesses its transmission has been from those 600,000 witnesses to their children in the form of a yearly testimony, and the testimony has been passed down in that way ever since. I would now like to get to some other points particularly a combination of prophesy regarding the uniqueness of the Jew with quotes to show the realization of these prophesies. Survival of the Jew: I would like to open with a quote from mark twain in his work entitled "Concerning the Jew": "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" We see from these quotes the impressive eternity of the Jew. This has been foretold in the bible Genesis 17:7, Malachi 3:6, Leviticus 5:18, Jeremiah 5:18. For the next quotes I give credit to simpletoremember.com: "I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe..." - John Adams, Second President of the United States (From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society) "If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history." - David Gelernter, Yale University Professor "Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world." - Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of Great Britain There are more quotes but I choose these, as I am running out of space. The "Jewish light unto the nations" was foretold in Isaiah 42:6 end, ibid.60:3 genesis 12:2, 3. Next is the correlation between fertility of the land of Israel and its inhabitation of the Jews. Again I quote mark twain I don't have space to quote it in its entirety so the reader is encouraged to look it up "Innocent Abroad or the new pilgrim's progress", vol.2 pp.216-359. Mark Twain wrights of the desolation and unsuitability of the holy land. As we see today the land of Israel is now an agricultural land following the return of the Jews. The sources for this prophesy are Leviticus 26:32, 33 duteronamy29:21, 22 Jerimia9:10 Ezekiel33:28, 29 all predict the desolation of the land. The return is predicted in Deuteronomy 30:3-5 and its following inhabitation and fertilization in Ezekiel36:8-11. We see here the prediction and realization of the Jews miraculous return followed by the lands mysterious revitalization. I thank Shmuel Waldman for all biblical sources. Alas I near the end of my allotted words so I am forced to stop. I await your respons