this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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I've been doing a lot of research into Judaism. They seem to encourage asking tough questions and taking the answers seriously, which is good.

After reading a bit of the Torah, it got me thinking, why aren't there any references to people who could not have been known to its followers at the time? No mention of East Asians or Native Americans. Did God just forget about them when he talked through Moses? Or he thought they weren't important enough to mention?

Then it got me thinking some more. What about science? Wouldn't it be effective to convince followers of legitimacy if a religion could accurately predict a scientific phenomenon before its followers have the means of discovering it? Say, "And God said, let there be bacteria! And then there was bacteria." But there is nothing like that. Anywhere, as far as I can tell. Among any religion.

I'm not a theologian and I'm always interested in learning more, so any insights would be helpful.

Edit: A lot of responses seem to be saying "people wouldn't have had a use for that knowledge at the time" seem to be parroting religious talking points without fully understanding their implications. Why would God only tell people what they would have a use for at the time? Why wouldn't he give them information that could expand the possibilities of what they were capable of? Why does it matter if people had a word for something at the time? Couldn't God just tell them new words for new things? If God was only telling them things that were relevant to them at the time, why didn't He say so? Also, how come he doesn't come back and tell us things that are relevant now, or at least mention that he isn't coming back?

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[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

God of the gaps: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

The Quotes section is great.

People think that epilepsy is divine simply because they don't have any idea what causes epilepsy. But I believe that someday we will understand what causes epilepsy, and at that moment, we will cease to believe that it's divine. And so it is with everything in the universe.

[–] Fandangalo@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

http://www.thelastquestion.net/

The God of the Gap will always live at some level.

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Nice... this reminds me that I need to finish Robot Dreams.