Ehav4Ever
Well-Known Member
Greetings. Actually, when it comes to Jews the situation is different. Not speaking for the bible in translation and not speaking Christianity but the Hebrew text of the Torah found among Jews does provide the ability for someone to develop scientific thought, even though the Torah, as a written text, was not given to be itself a science text book. (It can more be compared to the Cliff Notes) As Jews, our ancestors received the Torah which included an oral component to accompany the written text which included how to make decisions and work through challenges and advancements.
Also, there are things in the Torah that were not meant to understand w/o having a valid transmission of oral Torah to understand the written text. I.e. some things are done literally as they are written and others require that a person has access to the oral transmission that Jews maintained from the time that the Torah was given till the modern era to know how to actually do them. For example, the Hebrew text of the Torah tells a Jew to circumcise sons on the 8th day but it never describes where and how. The wording in Hebrew is an ambigious word (עורלה), normally which is used to describe fruit, and doesn't even define the actual part of the body to be circumcised.
For example, you mentioned ancient peoples who beleived that the heavens were spheres in the sky. The reality is that Jews, as a whole, did not beleive this. If you read texts like Tehillim (Psalms), the Talmud, the Guide to the Perplexed, the Ramban's Commentary of the Torah, the Zohar, etc. in Hebrew there are various ideas presented that are the same or similar to current scientific findings and thought found in the modern era. For example, the idea of an expanding universe is mentioned in several of the above mentioned sources as well as the material of the universe being compacted in a singularity and then expanding outward.
In fact, Rabbi Mosheh ben-Maimon went as far as to state in the Guide to the Perplexed that the a person who is closest to the Creator is one who knows Torah and Jewish law along with chemistry, phyiscs, mathematics, philosophy, geology, astronomy, etc. It is further stated in Jewish sources that when Moses asked to see the Creator he was really asking to understand how the Creator works within reality. I.e. how does the creator make reality work.
Besides Jews there were other ancient peoples who had similar ideas of astrology that is held in the current scientific world.
For example:
Ancient Babylonian Astronomers Were Way Ahead of Their TimeAncient Babylonian Astronomers Were Way Ahead of Their Time
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I used to be more outspoken too, but not rude. Since I have been on various forums for over seven years I have learned a lot about how to communicate with people and how NOT to communicate with people. It has helped me immensely to be more humble. I think my character has improved more in that last seven years than ever before, but of course life is a constant journey and there is always room for improvement. I am not much for socializing in person so I was pretty isolated before I discovered forums.
