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Old 07-14-2005, 07:13 PM
bossJJ bossJJ is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 303
Default Re: Last Question From Me Regarding Religions

"Does your religion allow for the possibility of intelligent, conscious, beings existing on other planets?"

Yes, Judaism allows for this possibility.


"If yes, are these beings, if they exist, as important to God as humans?"

"If yes to the above two questions, would these beings be offered your own religion (suitably changed for the circumstances) regarding prayer, good works, afterlife, etc."


Regarding these two questions, I can't answer with something like "Judaism believes..." or "according to Judaism..." God hasn't told us one way or another. There is certainly no "official" Jewish belief about this, nor even a widely accepted opinion, not being discussed much at all.

As you know, accept for the general commandment to believe in God, Judaism tells us what to do, not what to believe. There are of course some general beliefs that are widely accepted within Judaism, like these, but no official dogma or creed. Regarding many issues, we have wide latitude to essentially believe what we want. The important thing is whether one is doing the right thing. This is an area (intelligent life on other planets) that has no practical applicability for us, and an individual Jew can believe whatever he wants regarding this topic.

Having said all that, there has been a little discussion of this. The following opinions have been expressed (and there may be others): If these intelligent beings have free will, they would need Torah or something like it. The Torah does give the view that man is God's most important and cherished creation. Could Torah really exist on other planets? Yes or no (both expressed). If no, this means that those intelligent beings don't have free well and man is unique in this sense.

example 1

example 2
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