It’s not the only thing that matters, hence no paying attention to Scientology apologetics. But the non-existence of Moses is well-enough established to justify saying, “Hopless case! Next!” when it comes to Jewish apologetics.
Sorry, I was unclear. My question is, given the title of your post “What can we learn about psychology...”, why would it matter if the original event was real or made-up? You can fruitfully study the psychology of the apologetics either way.
I think what’s going on here is a misinterpretation of your intention with the “Judaism is in the unfortunate situation...” comment. You were indicating why in the past you had not thought about them, and not that they would be any more or less illuminating for this purpose… right?
Why is the nonexistence of Abraham and Moses anymore established than the nonexistence of Jesus? And anyway, Abraham and Moses are also considered prophets by Christianity and Islam, so if their nonexistence was a problem for Judaism, it should be a problem for Christianity and Islam as well.
It’s not the only thing that matters, hence no paying attention to Scientology apologetics. But the non-existence of Moses is well-enough established to justify saying, “Hopless case! Next!” when it comes to Jewish apologetics.
Sorry, I was unclear. My question is, given the title of your post “What can we learn about psychology...”, why would it matter if the original event was real or made-up? You can fruitfully study the psychology of the apologetics either way.
As already explained, long before this post I spent a lot of time reading Christian apologetics for other reasons.
I think what’s going on here is a misinterpretation of your intention with the “Judaism is in the unfortunate situation...” comment. You were indicating why in the past you had not thought about them, and not that they would be any more or less illuminating for this purpose… right?
Yes.
Why is the nonexistence of Abraham and Moses anymore established than the nonexistence of Jesus? And anyway, Abraham and Moses are also considered prophets by Christianity and Islam, so if their nonexistence was a problem for Judaism, it should be a problem for Christianity and Islam as well.