Extraterrestrial life in Judaism

roza

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 3:56 pm

I came a cross an interesting article by Arie Kaplan on the topic of Extraterrestrial life. He brings some Torah sources and elaborates on them.
http://www.torah.org/features/......html

I wonder what's your opinion, or what do you know or heard in lectures or from some Torah teacher on the topic? Please share.

Last edited by roza on Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

First Lady

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 3:59 pm

Roza, I'd love to choose "don't know" but without the "and I don't care" Smile

Motek

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:02 pm

Prof. Velvel Greene was employed by NASA in the early years of the space program. He once told the Lubavitcher Rebbe that despite all their research, scientists had found no sign of extra-terrestrial life.
"Shouldn't we stop looking?" the professor asked. "After all, is it not a point of faith that there is no life outside Earth?"

"Why put limits on G-d?" the Rebbe answered. "Continue looking! Whether or not there is life in outer space is a question for the scientists; it is not an object of faith."

roza

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:04 pm

Cool, thanks Motek Smile

Motek

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:05 pm

The Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that there is support in Torah for the notion that life exists on other planets. Furthermore, we can know something about that life through deduction from what the Torah tells us. Here is his argument:

In the Book of Judges 5:23, Devorah the prophetess sings about the victory of Barak over Sisera. In her song, she says, "Cursed be Meroz! Cursed, cursed be its inhabitants, says the angel of G-d!"

Where is Meroz, and who are its inhabitants? The Talmud gives two explanations, one of them being that Meroz is a star or planet. The heavenly bodies had also come to help the Israelites, as Devorah stated just one verse earlier, "From the heavens they fought, the stars from their orbits..." This star, however, which was the dominant star of Sisera, apparently did not come to their aid. And so, General Barak penalized Meroz -- and its inhabitants.

Are these inhabitants intelligent? Intelligence is defined by Torah to mean the capacity to make decisions with free will. Free will is only possible where there is Torah, whereby the Creator offers His creatures more than one possibility and asks that they make the appropriate choice.

So, if there would be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, those creatures would have to have Torah. Could they have a different Torah than us? This is not possible, since Torah is truth, and there cannot be two truths.

Could they then have the same Torah as us? This also seems impossible, since the Torah itself describes in detail how the Torah was revealed on this planet, and that account itself has a strong impact on how the Torah is to be fulfilled.

It therefore appears that, although it is quite possible there is life on other planets, that life would not be intelligent in a way similar to human life and culture.

roza

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:07 pm

First Lady wrote:

Roza, I'd love to choose "don't know" but without the "and I don't care" Smile

good point, I fixed the poll and added "don't know" option.

TheBeinoni

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 4:36 pm

WoW! we were just speaking about this over Shabbat. I dont know much about it (we just discussed it briefly) but it is my understanding that things like this are brought down in Sefer HaDorot, as well as dinosaurs and other creatures of the like.

First Lady

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 6:39 pm

Thanks Roza, Perfect. I see I'm not the only one too. Smile

greenfire

Sun, Jul 06 2008, 6:40 pm

whose visiting me on mars Nervous