But which human could have made predictions about list of non kosher animals, birds, and all the fish who have scales must have fins?
I blogged about some of these points as well.
I’m assuming your referring to the “proof” of the four non-kosher animals with only one kosher sign and the proof fins and scales. I’m not aware of any proof involving kosher/non-kosher birds — if there is one, please present it.
As to the rebuttal of this proof, I’ll simply quote what I wrote two years ago. The argument deals with the fins/scales proof, but it applies just as equally to the four animals proof.
This time, the author brings a Gemara in Niddah which tells us that all fish that have scales also have fins. Only a Divine Being, the argument tells us, with knowledge of every fish species in the world could possibly have made such a statement. After all, the ancients certainly didn’t know of every species of fish on their own. Heck, we’re still discovering new species of fish today. Hence, such a definitive statement could only have come from an all-knowing God. No non-omniscient man could possibly have made such a statement.
To the best of my knowledge, the statement is correct. Although I am not a marine biologist, I am not aware of any species of fish that has a fin but no scales. Pretty convincing, no?
Again, however, the author is making the leap from asserting that if one statement of the Torah is true, it must all be true. There is simply no basis for such an assertion. As with the period of the moon, the *most* that it can prove is that God told the ancients secrets of marine biology that they could not have otherwise known.
But it doesn’t even prove that. This is yet another case of begging-the-question and assuming that a Divine authorship before proving it. To illustrate, let me give you an example. I’m going to make a statement right now: Every star (barring collapsed, dead stars) conducts nuclear fusion in it’s core. Now, fast forward 1000 years, a million years or even a billion years and suppose we find that, indeed, every star that they’ve ever found fuses atoms in its core. Does the fact that I made that successful prediction make me Divine? After all, I certainly didn’t examine every star in the universe. How could I possibly know that there are no stars that don’t fuse atoms?
The answer, of course, is that I simply extrapolated from what I do know and made a general rule. Since I know that every star we’ve found so far fuses atoms, it’s not too hard to make a rule that all stars conduct nuclear fusion. Similarly, an ancient, examining the fish around him, could easily notice that every fish that has scales also has fins and make such a rule.
“Ah, ” the true believer will counter, “but wouldn’t he be afraid of being caught? Wouldn’t he be afraid to make such a statement if there was even a possibility that someone in the future might disprove him? Surely someone making such a statement would have to be 100% sure, or else face the possibility of being disproven.”
This, however, is another example of begging the question. The believer is assuming that the person making the statement would be afraid of “being caught.” But is that the only possibility? Perhaps he wasn’t concerned about being incorrect. Perhaps he simply thought he was correct just as I think I am about stars. Perhaps he was simply making a general rule without regard for exceptions. In short, you can’t prove that this statement came from a Divine source and you certainly can’t prove from this that the entire Torah is Divine in origin
As to your last statement:
Or make such claims as shmita.
I’m assuming your argument goes something like this: Only a Divine Being could make a promise that you won’t starve if you don’t plant crops for a year. And, furthermore, if the Torah were written by man, wouldn’t the people have rebelled once the first shmittah passed and they were starving? The fact that there is no record of such a thing happening indicates that the promises were kept — hence the Torah was written by God.
The problem with this argument is that, again, you’re making unwarranted assumptions. If you posit that the Torah wasn’t written until much later, then it doesn’t matter what the Torah promises, does it? The “proof” only works if you assume that it was written at Mt. Sinai (or, perhaps, before they entered Eretz Yisroel). Once you toss away that assumption, the “proof” falls apart.
The Wolf