Rational Approach To Divine Origin of Judaism

A RATIONAL APPROACH TO THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF JUDAISM KELEMEN: The topic that I wanna discuss today is whether it might be possible to establish some sort of a rational basis for the perspective, the concept that God spoke to the Jews at Mount Sinai, 3300 years ago. The approach of my take is based on some work I did as an undergraduate when I was an undergraduate at UCLA. My degree was in 17th Century Christian Literature. And my approach to studying these groups, I confess, was one of skepticism, that is... I approached every religion I studied with the assumption it was not true. And my goal was to find a way to undermine the religions that I was studying. Was that the most objective approach? When I was doing my undergraduate work, I developed an algorithm. Using this algorithm, I believe, enables you to unravel almost any religion on the planet in about a minute and a half. The way the algorithm works is this. When you approach a religious group, and you say to them, "Why should I join your group?" Invariably, they will give you a long list of the benefits you can gain by joining their group. You can achieve a sense of internal peace, oneness with the universe, a front row seat in the next world, better professional life, better personal life... Each group offers its own list of benefits. Now, if you ask the particular group that you're speaking to, if you ask them, "Can I derive these benefits from any other religious system?" Invariably, they will tell you, "No! Of course, not. Only with us." Which means, they possess secret information, information that nobody else has. So then you go to the next step and you say to them, "So, let me ask you something. Where did you get this information?" Then they would reveal to you something which I have dubbed "The Revelation Narrative." A revelation narrative is the story of how any particular religion came to achieve the secret information you need to achieve their benefits. All revelation narratives in every religion I experienced follow a pattern. If I was doing a four-day seminar with you, I would actually schlep you through twenty or 30 or 40 revelation narratives, you can see the pattern. But I'll just describe the pattern to you and as you go out on your own and research religions, you'll notice the pattern immediately. Christianity begins when Paul... His name was actually Shaul, he was a Jew, is walking alone on a road, on the way to Damascus, and he has this revelation, Jesus appears in front of him, tells him the whole story of his life. At this point, Jesus has been dead for 30 years, -according to the Catholic church. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] Jesus appears and tells the whole story of his life, Shaul, the Jew, converts on the spot to become a Christian, changes his name to Paul, comes back from his lone walk and tells the world, "I discovered Christianity." That's the beginning of the religion. One man's lone experience on the road to Damascus. Islam begins when Muhammad dropped to the ground in what looks like an epileptic fit, gets up from the ground, wipes the foam from his mouth, [PEOPLE LAUGHING] and explains that that was not an epileptic fit. Really, that was a prophecy, and this is what God told me. Not you, of course. You were not privy to this prophecy, but I was told. And these prophecies continued for many years and during this time, Muhammad dictated the messages that he found in his head after his experiences, and this became the Quran, the collection of Suras, the collection of these records of revelation. Again, one lone man's experience. Buddhism begins when a wealthy Eastern prince, Siddhartha Gautama, settles beneath a Bodhi tree. With his body sitting beneath a Bodhi tree, his soul ascends the eighth stage of trance inside. He achieves the knowledge of all that is to be known and becomes a Buddha. A God of sorts. Now with the kindness of his heart, he came back down into his body, so he could spread this technology among mankind. There have been other people in Buddhism who experienced what Buddha experienced, what Siddhartha Gautama experienced. In fact, in the history of Buddhism, according to some groups, there were as many as 44 people who achieved the state of being a Buddha. But, of course, we only know that, because Siddhartha Gautama told us. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] There is no other persons ever met any of these other people who made it to the eighth stage, besides Siddhartha Gautama himself. So again, you have an entire religion passing through one man. The same is of course true of the modern cults. Whichever modern cult you investigate, whether it be the Mormons with Joseph Smith Jr, hiking alone in the mountains, discovering these golden tablets, translating the tablets with a diction of the tablets written in reformed Egyptian, which is a language only known to Joseph Smith. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Thank goodness! Right next to the tablets, there was actually a dictionary that translated from reformed Egyptian to modern English, -which was very convenient. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] And, when he was done translating the tablets, he then destroyed the tablets and the dictionary and only brought back The Book of Mormon, because why do you need tablets for, anyways, you know? And that was the launch of the Mormon religion. All the modern cults start the same way. One or two people have revelations and persuade others to follow. And in all of these cases, the credibility of the religion rests on the credibility of its one or two founders. If they're telling the truth, the religion is true. If they're telling a lie, the religion is a lie. From an academic perspective, from the perspective of the analysis of religions, we call this "zero credibility". There's no more reason to believe it than to not believe it. Given that's the case, it's just a wild claim and the level of credibility is zero. For the first time, I applied this algorithm, this system for completely undermining the credibility of religion by analyzing the revelation narratives to a major world religion which I'd never tried to destroy before. I never tried to destroy it because I was brought up in this religion. I was brought up as a Jew and from the time I was a little kid, it was obvious that Judaism is a joke. So, I felt like from an academic perspective, it was a little bit dishonest to set up this strawman Judaism and then knock it down using my algorithm. Nevertheless, when I graduated university, I applied the algorithm to Judaism and everything just sort of fell apart. And that's what I want to try to describe to you. I bought a copy of the Torah and I opened up the book and I started to read. And it really reads like any other revelation narrative. It reads like all these other religions. It opens up and says, "God spoke to Abraham." Yeah, right! [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Then God spoke to one man, Isaac. -Aham. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] Then he spoke to Jacob. Yeah, sure. And this is classic, classic myth. I finished off the first book of the Bible. It was quite interesting. Got to the second book, interesting stories about the places in Egypt. Bit difficult for me to understand, but okay. Mythologies can be passed along. Then I get to the section on the Torah, called Parashat Yitro. And, for the first time, I see verses dealing with the Sinai event. And it's clear as you read the story, this is the genesis of Judaism. And of course, what the verses there say is that approximately 600,000 adult men who were married to approximately 600,000 adult women, that's 1.2 million people between the ages of 20 and 60, and about 1.8 million seniors and children, a total of about three million people... stood at the foot of a mountain called Sinai in the middle of a desert and all three million people, every single man, woman and child in the Jewish people heard God speak. I realize this has to be a lie. This can't possibly be true. It's a mythology like all the other mythologies. What struck me as interesting was the level of chutzpah those Jews have. Yes, to make such a claim that they actually believe that as opposed to all other religions that started with one or two, the Jews of course, believe that theirs started with three million. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] My only question... was, how did they start this lie? And I want to be very specific. What we used to do in the analysis of religions was we would come up with very practical, very reasonable, very concrete and detailed scenarios describing exactly how the religion started. Muhammad gets up off the ground and says, "It really wasn't epilepsy, it was really prophecy." That's very concrete, you can imagine him then telling a group of people that I experienced prophecy and here's what I heard. Joseph Smith Jr comes back with his book and says, "I read the golden tablet and destroyed them, and here's the book." What I needed to do was, in order to unravel Judaism, I needed to come up with a concrete reasonable scenario which will describe how the initial lie was told. We know there was an initial lie told because every copy of the Torah that you find in any orthodox, conservative, reform, reconstructionists, nudist group... -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] -Yeah, in every place of the planet. All of their copies of the Torah read the same. Three million people heard God speak. So at some point, somebody told that lie. Now, what I wanna know is, what did the scene look like concrete when this person or group of people told the lie that three million people had heard God speak? After several months of analysis, I came up with the following idea. I believe that the initial lie that launched this mythology called Judaism must have taken one of three forms. It either had to be what I call the past lie, the present lie, or the future lie. I'll now explain exactly what I mean. Let's start with a simple scenario. The simplest of these is the middle scenario, the present lie. And then, from there, I'll move to more complex scenarios, the past and the future lie. In the present lie, what happens is... A charismatic cult leader, or group of leaders comes to a group of cult followers, and he says to them... This is the present lie. "You just now heard God speak." And he said these words. Then I'm gonna quote the lines from the Torah. You heard him say, "I am the Lord your God." "You shall have no other gods before me." "Moses, Moses come up to the mountain. I'll give you the rest of the Torah." This is what the Torah's claims that every single Jew heard these three things. "I am the Lord your God." "You shall have no other gods before me." "Moses, Moses come up to the top of the mountain "and I'll give you the rest of the Torah." Now, how do I pull this off? Whatever, I'm a very charismatic leader, you're crazed slaves, whatever the scenario is, somehow I persuade you to buy this. You say, "Amen!" and the whole thing is up and running. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] That's the present theory. We'll come back to the analysis of it shortly. Let's move to past theory. Past theory works as follows. In past theory, I come to you and I say to you, "You heard nothing. "Zero." However, long ago, your ancestors stood at the foot of a great mountain in the Sinai desert and there, they heard God speak. All of your ancestors were there. And they heard God say, "I am the Lord your God, "You shall have no other gods before me, "Moses, Moses come up to the mountain." And at that point, they all became orthodox Jews. They realized this is a lie. This is just what I'm telling you. Somehow I persuade you of this. You might ask me then, "Why doesn't my mother know? Why doesn't my grandmother know?" And of course, the true answer to that is because I just made this whole thing up -15 minutes ago in the other room. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] But I claim the reason your mother and grandmother doesn't know is because after the Torah was given and your answers accepted, they all became orthodox Jews. Then, the Torah was carried for a period of three or five or ten or 15 generations and there was a disaster. What happened was... Fill in the blank. There was an earthquake, there was a war, massive assimilation, whatever scenario you wanna come up with. And the tradition was entirely forgotten from all of your families, which is why don't bother asking your mother about it. She won't know. Don't bother asking your grandparents and great grandparents. They won't know. And now, I... My name is not gonna be Moses now, my name is... Fred! [PEOPLE LAUGHING] I've come to give you back your tradition, your heritage, the Torah. which I think the ink is just about dry on, and then I hand it to you. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] There it is. Present theory. The Sinai event just took place, there's past theory, the Sinai event took place long ago. There's one other possibility... And I'm including this just for the sake of completeness. The other possibility is what I call future theory. In future theory, I come to you and say, "You heard nothing and your ancestors heard nothing. "However, some day, "your descendants will sit at the foot of a mountain called Sinai, "There, they will all hear God speak, He will say these words, "I am the Lord your God." "You shall have no other gods before me." "Moses, come up to the mountain." Moses will then go to the top of the mountain, he will receive the Torah, and here, I'm giving you guys an advance copy! And then, I hand you the book. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Now, again, just for the sake of completeness, realize there cannot be another theory. Because, since it says in every copy of the Torah on the planet, that three million Jews heard God speak at Mount Sinai. At some point, somebody must've told that lie. When they told that lie, where did they place the Sinai event? The only possibilities are past, present, and future. Therefore, there cannot be another theory. What I wanted to know is a very initial, superficial analysis of these three theories pointing out at, what I can say to be light problems, not significant problems with all three theories. And then, I'm gonna introduce you to what I call "The Bomb," which is a difficulty which I think unravels all three theories in one shot. First, the light problems. Let's start with present theory. In present theory, I come to you and I persuade you that you just heard God speak and I hand you the Torah and you accept it. Now, to appreciate why this theory is not accepted on any university campus, that is there are no modern, secular, biblical critics who believe in present theory. And the reason is because of a small problem called "Applewhite Theorem." And I'll try to explain how this problem works. A few years back, there was a gentleman by the name of Marshall Applewhite. Marshall Applewhite was one of the most talented cult leaders in California's history. And if you made it in California, you're doing good as a cult leader. -Yeah. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] And he started two small cults. These cults serially exploded because Applewhite suffered from terrible fits of depression. And after he started his first small group, he was very successful, was actually making a lot of money, had access to a number of women, which I think was also a part of his goal. He slipped into this depression and the whole thing fell apart. Then he started a second cult, that lasted for a couple of years, and that fell apart as well. And then Marshall Applewhite pretty much disappeared off the face of the planet until he appeared in Rancho Santa Fe, California. This is down near San Diego, in La Jolla area, and there he started a new cult. And the way the cult began was this. Marshall Applewhite had a vision, he claimed. He said that... "We don't have to live these lives of quiet desperation! "There's a better life, a better place and we can get there. "We can get to heaven, "if we can just pass through... "Heaven's Gate." Marshall Applewhite told this vision over to a few dozen people, and 40 people actually joined his group. Marshall Applewhite then had a second vision. In the second vision, Marshall Applewhite saw that the only way to walk through Heaven's Gate is wearing black Nike tennis shoes. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] And all 40 members of the Heaven's Gate cult went out and purchased black Nike tennis shoes. Applewhite then had a third vision. Three out of four. And in this third vision, he explained that women are going to have a much easier time passing through Heaven's Gate than men. Because there is this one part of human anatomy that gets in the way of Heaven's Gate. So, one night after this vision, he invited the entire group to this mansion that they purchased in Rancho Santa Fe. He handed out bottles of Chloraseptic spray. It's a very effective topical anesthetic. And the guys just, [BUZZES] a couple of spritzes, they had their X-Acto blades, and there was... [PEOPLE LAUGHING] [YELLING] "Oh, my God! Quickly!" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Every man who was a member of the Heaven's Gate cult just removed that one small piece of anatomy. [SPEAKING LIKE A GIRL] And then they all felt much better. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] The group continued for a few more months, and then Marshall Applewhite had his final vision. I don't know if you remember, but a few years back, there was a comet that passed Earth, called the Hale-Bopp comet. So the Hale-Bopp comet had a long tail, at the end of the tail, there was a little bobble. And there was a discussion among astronomers about what that bobble was. Was it another meteorite? Was it hot gases? What exactly was it? And Applewhite told the group that the bobble at the end of the Hale-Bopp comet is the spaceship that's coming to pick us up! [PEOPLE LAUGHING] And he had a meeting of the group. Thirty nine out of the forty members of the cult made it to that meeting that night. There was one member who didn't know it was gonna happen and couldn't make it that night. And Marshall Applewhite declared on video... In fact, they videoed most of the meetings, so we have great records of this group. Marshall Applewhite declared on video that the time had come to ascend into the spaceship. And the only way to ascend to the spaceship was to consume a lethal dose of phenobarbital and then tie a hefty plastic trash bag over your head. So, on video, there were 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult who declared their faith in Marshall Applewhite, consumed a lethal dose of phenobarbital, tied a plastic trash bag around their head and lay down and died. At which point, Marshall Applewhite was slipping into depression at that time, said on the video, "Ha ha... what a joke!" Then consumed the phenobarbital himself and lay down and died. The reason that you all or many of you probably heard of this group... I'm curious, how many have heard of Heaven's Gate? Yes, most everyone in the room. The reason you've all heard this is a total fluke that this whole event happened to have happened twenty minutes from UC San Diego. And UCSD happens to have one of the best research departments on cults on the planet. And they dispatched a team from UCSD to follow the investigators around as they're cleaning up the mess at the Heaven's Gate cult. UCSD ended doing this whole research project on Marshall Applewhite and his group. And what they discovered was this. Every single member of the Heaven's Gate cult had an undergraduate degree. There were many members of the Heaven's Gate cult who had advanced degrees, Masters degrees, Ph.Ds, JDs, MDs... These were highly intelligent people. More, they found that not one member of the Heaven's Gate cult had any record of psychological counseling before joining the cult. So, there's one of two possibilities for this. One possibility is that these people were so not well that they didn't know to go get counseling. And the other possibility is that they were so well that they were not part of that 50% of the population in America that actually goes at some point to get counseling. So, in order to clarify which was true, the researchers spoke with the families and turned out the families said their relatives were completely normal. Totally, 100% stable before they joined this group. We're talking about completely normal, psychologically stable people, well-educated, highly intelligent, who one day went nuts. People are gullible, and given a charismatic leader, they will believe anything, even something that asks them to act self-destructively. Clause A. People are gullible. They will believe anything, even something that asks them to act self-destructively. Clause B. As long as the lie cannot be checked, people who are gullible will believe anything. Even something that asks them to act self-destructively. Key. As long as the lie cannot be checked. When Marshall Applewhite said that he had a vision, that the only way to ascend to the spaceship that's coming to pick us up is to down a lethal dose of phenobarbital. Is there any way to check that lie? -ALL: No. -No. Which is why it was believed. Now, the truth is, Applewhite theorem explains the genesis of every religion you've ever heard of. Paul comes back from a walk to Damascus and says, "I just met Jesus on the road." Can you check that lie? ALL: No. KELEMEN: Siddhartha Gautama says, "I just came down from the eighth state of trance inside." Can you check that? Muhammad says, "I just had a revelation." Joe Smith says, "I found these golden tablets." With all of these religions, they conform to Applewhite theorem, that is, they all begin when one or two people have a revelation, that revelation is not checkable. The leader is charismatic and everybody believes it. Let me ask you a question. Why didn't Marshall Applewhite say, "The spaceship that dropped you off here is coming to pick you up. "Have some phenobarbital."? [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Why didn't he say, "The spaceship dropped your mother off here"? "It's coming to pick us up. "Or your grandmother." So of course, the answer is because someone told you a lie! Your mother was dropped off by a spaceship which has come to pick you up, so have some phenobarbital, you might make a phone call. And if one of you makes a phone call, your mother says, "That's a cult!" So, you're gonna be out of there immediately, as soon as the lie can be checked. You'll spread the word and the entire cult will disintegrate. The theory is any group that ever attempted to start with a lie that does not conform to Applewhite theorem exploded. That's why we have no record of them. Because you cannot get away with a lie that is checkable. The main problem with present theory is that it does not conform to Applewhite theorem. In present theory, how does it work? I, Moses, come to you, the Jewish people, and I say to you, "Yes! You all just heard God speak. "He said, 'I am the Lord your God, "'you shall have no other gods before me, "'Moses, come up to the mountain.'" And what can I do? He called. I had to go. I came down, here's the book he gave, let me give it to you. But ladies and gentlemen, before I hand it to you, I wanna give you a preview of coming attractions so you're not shocked when you get to page 78. Yeah, we'll start off here. This is one for the guys. Listen, guys! There is a man handing exacto blades. Each one of the guys please take one, yes. It says here what you're supposed to do is, this is on page 78 of the Torah scroll. It says, what you do is spread your legs shoulder-width apart, that's correct. Then, hold the exacto blade in your right hand and then, with a smooth downward motion, [SCREAMING] that, like that. It's over. [PEOPLE LAUGHING LOUDLY] Calm down! It's only the end you have to cut off, it's not the whole thing, yes! What do you mean why should you do this? Well, the Gods who you heard speak told me to tell you this. Now, ladies and gentlemen, can you imagine being a little... I'm sure men can imagine... Being a little bit hesitant to believe this? If you hadn't heard God, you might not want to take this on. Here's another way. There are dozens of these. Ladies... Listen, don't worry. We're not gonna be walking through this God forsaken desert forever. Eventually, we'll be out of the sand come to the land of milk and honey. Ladies, you're all gonna get apartments in Haifa and Beer Sheva and a quarter million getting in Har Nof. Come, it's gonna be wonderful. Just follow me, but listen. I wanna warn you ladies, when you get to page 237 in the Torah scroll, there's this commandment I should tell you before I hand you the book. It says here that, three times a year, at preannounced periods, that's Passover, Sukkot, and Shavout. So, all of us able-bodied men, anyone of fighting age, we are going to abandon you on the borders. And we're gonna go to Jerusalem and have a party. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Oh, ladies, I know what you're worried about. You're concerned that perhaps the Egyptians, or the Lebanese, or the Jordanians, or the Syrians are gonna come pouring over the borders and rape, rob and pillage. Ladies, don't worry! The God that you heard speak is gonna protect you! [PEOPLE LAUGHING] You can imagine someone being a little hesitant. Here's one of my favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, listen, when you get to page 592 of the Torah scroll, realize this is going on in 1200 BCE. At this point, there is no electricity, there is no freeze drying. In those days, when there was good crop, people lived. When there was a bad crop, people starved to death. So it says right here in the Torah, the book I'm about to hand you, that, yeah, once every seven years, we're not gonna plant. No, you misunderstood what I meant. You thought I meant that you'll plant the first year, you'll plant the second year, you'll plant the third year, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, the seventh. This way we'll rotate our crops and the land will always be fertile. No, that's not what I meant. What I meant was once every seven years, none of us will plant. [ALL LAUGHING] Isn't that a great idea? [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Because of Applewhite theorem, this was rejected in secular circles. In secular academic circles, this is considered to be a joke. Now there are people who don't have a background of religions, who try in some way to make this whole present theory fly despite the problem with Applewhite theorem. People come up, people who don't have a background, don't know what works and it doesn't work. In human psychology, we say, you know, like, they were a bunch of crazed slaves and there was mass hysteria and they were hallucinating and whatever. They just believed what he said because they were all fools. If you've not actually experienced in the world of religions, you come up with all sorts of crazy ideas of what will work. I'll never forget. One of my favorite theories was... He's the only person with a Ph.D I've ever met who actually believes in present theory. Despite the problem with Applewhite theorem, I said to him, "How can you possibly believe in present theory, "given the problem with Applewhite theory?" He said, "I'll tell you how it happened." He said, "Isn't it true that Abraham "went to sacrifice his favorite son Isaac?" I said, "Yes, that's what the book says." He said to me, "Would any normal person "got to sacrificed their favorite son? "Obviously Abraham wasn't well. "Now, isn't it true that Isaac, "at the time of sacrifice, was an adult?" So, I said, "Yeah, according to the book, he was an adult." And he said, "And he cooperated?" I said, "Yes, that's the indication of the book. He cooperated." He said, "Would any normal person cooperate "and stretch out his neck so his father can slice it? "Obviously, there was developmental disabilities "that was passed from Abraham down to Isaac. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] "And the genetic component went right into Jacob. "Jacob passed it to the tribes. "The tribes multiplied each and there "was an entire nation of retarded people. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] "Moses said to them, 'You heard God speak,' "and they said, 'We heard God speak.' "And that was it. The whole religion was up and running." So, I said to him, "Listen, about you, I believe this. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] "But how do you explain that the highest "per capita frequency of Nobel prize winners comes from "the descendants of only known retarded nation in history?" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Someone told me, when they left Egypt, it said in the book that they each walked out with only one box of Matzos. Now, even with the constipation factor, how long is that supposed to last? [PEOPLE LAUGHING] So they were starving, they're walking through the desert, someone said, "Hey! There's mushrooms! Let's eat!" -"Whoa, man! We heard God speak!" -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] It's a national drug trip. When you speak to laypeople, you hear all sorts of interesting ideas in the world. In the academic world, none of these things fly. We know that it can't work. But, we know that it can't work because of Applewhite theorem. But, nevertheless, for the minute, any idea that occurs to you that might keep present theory alive, keep it on the board, because when I drop the bomb, that'll go, too. One light problem with present theory is Applewhite theorem. Let's see what future theory is. Future theory is very problematic for the following reason. In future theory, I come to you and say, "You heard nothing. "And your ancestors heard nothing. "But some day, God will speak to your descendants." Now, to appreciate the problem with this theory, let me show you a strength of past and present and you'll see the weakness of future. Let's say at present, I come to you and say, "You heard God speak." Let's say somehow I persuade you. What do you tell your children? Four words. ALL: I heard God speak. KELEMEN: I heard God speak. What does your child tell his child? My mother/father heard God speak. What does your grandchild tell his child? My grandparents, my great grandparents, my great-great grandparents, my ancestors heard God speak. So, you see, the present lie would create a sociological phenomenon that we find in the world today, that is, walk up to any Jew on the planet, reform, conservative, orthodox, secular, anybody, and ask them, "Excuse me? "Did you ever have an orthodox ancestor?" What would this person say... They have to say yes. Because 200 years ago, there were no such things as reform, conservative, etc. There was only orthodox. So, given that's the case, they will say yes. That means, every Jew alive today, unless they're a convert or the child of a convert, every Jew alive today, within 200 years, can trace their family back to some person that believed with all their heart and soul that God spoke to the Jews at Sinai. That's the first link in a group of links going back in this chain to the point when the lie was told. We have to explain the sociological phenomenon, this chain of people going down through history who believed with all their heart and soul that God spoke to their ancestors. We're assuming it's a lie. But what was the lie that would've started this chain coming down through history? Present lie could have done it. Because in the present lie, you tell your children and they tell their children and there is this rumor started that your ancestors heard God speak. Go to past theory. In past theory, I tell you, you heard nothing. But your ancestors heard God speak. I persuade you. What do you tell your kids? "Our ancestors heard God speak." What do they tell their kids? "Our ancestors heard God speak." We have a chain coming down through history that exists. A group of people saying, "Our ancestors heard God speak." Now watch. Here's the problem with future theory. I come to you and say, you heard nothing, your ancestors heard nothing. But some day, God will speak to your descendants. What do you tell your kids? "We heard nothing." Some day, God will speak to our descendants. What'll they tell their kids? Same thing! What'll they tell their kids? Same thing. You'll end up in a chain going down through history saying, "God never spoke." Some day he will, but he hasn't yet. That chain does not exist. The future lie cannot explain the sociological phenomenon that we're facing, which is this link of people going down through history, all claiming their ancestors heard God speak. Do you see the problem with future theory? So, a light problem with present and a light problem with future. One more, the past theory. The past theory is where all of the serious academics I've ever met, put their eggs. And the reason is this. I come to you and I say, "You heard nothing." That's good because now you know that I'm lying. You heard nothing. But long ago, your ancestors heard God speak. But don't try to check. Because there was some sort of disaster and the tradition was forgotten from your people. And I, Fred, now return to you. Can you check that lie? No. I say, the tradition was lost 500, 1000 years ago, 2000 years ago. The farther back I put, the bigger the gap. The more untestable my lie is and therefore more secured it is. This lie could actually start Judaism. Which is why, all the academics I've ever met who doubt the Torah's divine origin put their eggs in the past theory basket. A light problem with past theory is as follows. In the synagogue that I grew up, there was, I think it was called the Cohen Chapel. There was the Teitelbaum Social Hall. I remember the Schwartz Restroom. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Each place that could put a plaque, they put a plaque, and of course, why was this because Jews historically have been compulsive about giving credit where credit is due. Not only in financial areas where people make financial contributions. Even more when it comes to theological or literary contributions. If you go up to any non-Jew getting a Ph.D in Jewish Studies from any university on the planet, and you ask him, "Excuse me? "Can you tell me, according to the traditional Jewish mythology, "the orthodox mythology, can you tell me the name of the guy "who went up on the mountain and brought the Torah down?" So, they'll say, "It was Moses." Everybody knows it was Moses. The famous name that made the great contribution. So... tell me something else, Mr Johnson. Mr Johnson, please tell me... What's the name of the guy who led the Jews into the Land of Israel? Was that Moses? No! That was Joshua. Everybody knows that. Okay, let me ask you... What was the name of the guy who brought the Jews back from Babylonian exile into the Land of Israel and started the second temple period? Well, that was Ezra. Okay. The name of the man who codified the Mishna? See, that was Judah the Prince. Okay, tell me, what's the name of the guy who put together the Gemorah? "That was two fellows," Mr Johnson would say, "That was Ravina and Rav Ashi." These are all famous names. We know the names of everybody who made a great contribution to Jewish history. Now, think about this for a minute. The single most important person ever in Jewish history according to past theory is Moses. For Moses went up the mountain, received the Torah and brought it down. He gave it to the Jews, the Jews accepted it, and they all became religious. They carried it for several generations. Then, there was a disaster and it was lost. And for 2000 years, nobody knew about the Torah. Until the second most important person in Jewish history arrived on the scene. And his name was... Fred. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Now, the problem here is... In an otherwise comprehensive Jewish history, there is no record of the greatest crisis ever in Jewish history, that is 2000 years and the Jews knowing nothing about the Sinai event. And there's no record of the second most important person in Jewish history... Fred. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] I actually ran a little experiment. This is actually quite entertaining for me. I went to an elderly Rabbi in Jerusalem, someone who has a consistent tradition going all the way back to Europe, and I asked him, "All this Jewish stuff... How do you know if it's true?" And he said to me, "I heard it from my Rabbi." So I asked, "What's your Rabbi's name?" He said, "My Rabbi's name is Rabbi Yerucham Lebovitz." I said, "When did he live? When did he die?" He gives me the birth dates and death dates, I check it. I find several books that actually indicate a relationship between Yerucham Lebovitz and this guy. And I accept there probably was a relationship, this man probably existed. Then I start doing the research. Who was Yerucham Lebovitz's Rabbi? And I find several Jewish books, all saying that Yerucham Lebovitz was a student of Simcha Zissel Ziv. I trace it back. Who was Simcha Zissel Ziv's Rabbi? Well, he learnt from a fellow by the name of Yisroel Salanter. And I can find from four dozen sources that there actually was a relationship. And so I played the game until I produced this document. It was a fascinating document. On the bottom right is Yerucham Lebovitz, the Rabbi of the man I was speaking to. On the top left, is Moses at Mt Sinai, with birth dates and death dates. Now, this is one of thousands and thousands of Torah traditions you can produce. Now, I'm not telling you, God forbid, that this is true. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] What I'm telling you is this is what those orthodox Jews believe. I got this from their sources. And what's strange is, every single year in the 3300 year old tradition accounted for, there's no record of a gap. And there's no record of a man, anyone in this list, who after 2000 years brought the Torah back to the Jews. So, one problem with past theory is... If it started when I told you that yes, we just recovered from a 2000 year old gap and I'm restarting it, you might mention that to your children. And they might mention to their children. There would be such a record in Jewish history and no such record really exists. Which made me question, whether or not, in fact, Fred could have ever existed. So, there's a light problem with present theory, Applewhite theorem, there's a light problem with future theory. It wouldn't start the sociological phenomenon that we're looking at, which is a group of people moving down through history, believing that God always spoke to their ancestors, and there's a light problem with past theory, there's no record of Fred. But none of these impress me until I hit the bomb. And here, I'm going to conclude. Imagine that I hold up for you a solid gold, 14 carat gold pen, And I assure you this pen is not only 14 carat gold, but it writes with 14 carat gold ink. So you say, "You know, Leib, "that's a nice pen but you're a Jewish teacher. "Where did you get one of those?" So, I say, "Right, on my side. I can't really afford this." What I did was, I have this handy-dandy chemical equation which enabled me to convert blue plastic into 14 carat gold. Alchemy! I did it. Here is the formula. And you say to me, "Leib, how interesting. "Could I borrow that for a few minutes?" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] And you ran off with this thing and you copy it and you hand it out to 50 groups of chemists and physicists to see if I was lying, or if I told the truth. And you take this document, you give it to them all, and for 30 years, three times a day, these 50 groups of physicists try to reproduce my experiment, to see if I was lying or telling the truth. And at the end of 50 years, they all come back and they throw the paper on the table and they say, "It didn't work." Tell me, what do you conclude? Was I lying or telling the truth? I was lying. You're right. Now, let me explain how you know that I'm lying. Because all of you accept as the fundamental principle of science, the backbone of the scientific method, that anything that is natural will happen more than once. I can't say I just got lucky. If it happened once, it will happen twice. And if you can't do it a second time, it's because it can't be done naturally. I did my work at UCLA at what we called north campus, north campus where we deal with Humanities. I had friends on south campus. On south campus, everyone was well familiar with this principle of science, "Anything normal will happen more than once." On north campus, we adopted the same principle. I had friends who were in History department there. I know that some of you studied History. Within history, they borrow this principle that "Anything that's normal will happen more than once." And they come up with their own algorithm, their own theorem. And that is three words. History repeats itself. Anyone who's ever studied history know that it's true. Now, not in gruesome detail. There was never another Napoleon and there was never another French Revolution. However, events like the French Revolution have happened over and over and over again in history and men doing things generally like Napoleon did, do repeat. That is, the generic themes happen over and over again. The itsy-bitsy details you don't see more than once, usually. We, in the study of religions... borrow the same principle. In fact, one of my assignments at some point was to try to isolate the minimal number of themes I could come up with which would allow me to produce every revelation narrative, every religion on the planet... And are actually produced every religion on the planet with 25 puzzle pieces. That is, if you give me 25 themes, the themes that I specify, general themes, I can create any religion on the planet. There's the man who achieves great wisdom and then comes down and heals people. There's the person who becomes God incarnate. Right, with this... 25 themes, I can create any religion you want, except for one. There's one religion I can't create. This one unique claim which is not specific, which is generic. That is only once in 4000 years of recorded human history was there ever a group who said, "God spoke to a group of people." Doesn't have to be three million at Sinai. "God spoke to a group of people." That only happens one and a half times in human history. Once by the Jews and once half-time in another case, I'll describe momentarily. How does this work now? Let's apply the theorem. Let's say you come to me and say, "I'll tell you how it happened. It was national drug trip." So I say, "Great gosh! "Why didn't I think of national drug trip? "That could do it! Let me ask you something. "Is national drug trip a natural event?" Now you want to defend your theory, so you say, "Yes! It's natural." I say, "Let me ask you a second question." Do natural events happen more than once? You say, "Yeah, of course." Ask a third question, "Did that ever happen again? "Was there ever another group in history "because of a national drug trip, "all thought they heard God saying the same words?" You say, "No." Then I say that's not natural. So wait, I'll tell you what happened. It was an evolving mythology. They first said it was one person who heard God speak, then ten people, after five generations, it was a hundred people, 50 generations later it was 10,000 people, then it was a whole nation... I said, "Wow, why didn't I think about evolving mythology?" Let me ask you something. Is it natural for mythology to evolve that a group of people heard God speak? You say, "Yeah, that's natural." I say, "Oh, let me ask you this. "Do natural things happen more than once?" You say, "Yeah!" I say, "Did that ever happen again?" No. Then I say, "That's not natural." You say, "Okay, I'll tell you how that happened." This way, and you come up with any theory you ever hear in your life. Anything you ever think of when you leave here, any challenge anyone ever throws at you. And think of Calvin saying, can I ask you a question? This theory we just came up with, is that natural? Person says, "Yeah, that's natural." You say question number two, "Do natural events happen more than once?" "Sure!" "Did that ever happen again?" "No." Well, then it's not natural. And any theory anybody ever comes up with will fall apart as you apply this analysis. Now, there's a potential counter-argument I'll just go over very quickly. Some could say like this, "It's a natural event, "but extremely unlikely. "So unlikely that it's only happened once so far in 4000 years. "But it could happen again any second." And it is natural, just so outrageously unlikely, that it hasn't happened yet, since that one time. So just to borrow from statistical theory for a minute. We can say it in the layman's terms or mathematical terms. If the odds of an event taking place naturally, are one in a million, what are the odds the event did not take place naturally? That is, what is the odds the event is somehow rigged? It's 999,999 out of a million. What are the odds of me taking a couple of dice, throwing the dice on the table and, I tell you I'm the luckiest guy in the world, watch this. I throw the dice on the table and boom! Double sixes pop up. What are the odds that would happen? One in 36. One in 36 that I'll get double sixes. Now, let's say, "Table, that's nothing. "You wanna see really lucky?" I take the dice, pull them back again. Boom! Throw 'em again. [GROWLING] And they come up double sixes the second time. What are the odds of getting double sixes twice in a row? So, the odds are one in 1296. Now, if I threw double sixes twice in a row, how many people in this room would believe, in fact, I'm the luckiest guy in the world? Okay, a couple of people. Now... I didn't throw the dice a third time, so that's nothing. Watch this, right? I toss them again. Boom! Double sixes three times in a row. The odds of getting double sixes three times in a row are one in 46,656. There is now one in 46,656 chance these dice are not loaded, and there's a 46,655 out of 46,656 chance these dice are loaded. How many people believe I'm the luckiest guy in the world? I throw the dice a fourth time and I get double sixes. I tell you I'm really incredibly lucky. The odds of that happening are one in 1,679,616. At this point, how many people believe that I'm just incredibly lucky? Raise your hand. Good. A few guys, still. Fine. Okay, now, I throw the dice another hundred times in a row, getting double sixes. At this point, the guy behind the craps table has called the police. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] And I'm just telling you I'm really, really lucky, you know? Okay, well, I'm up to 175 double sixes in a row. So, the police are putting on the handcuffs and they're dragging out of the room and I keep saying, "Guys, what's the problem? "There is one in 14,000,560,000,000 chance that I just got lucky. "Why are you doing this to me?" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Then, standing in front of the judge, I say to him, "There is a one in trillion chance." And the reality is that if any of you ever witnesses an event, and the odds of that event taking place naturally are one in trillions, then you would have to be crazy to believe that event just took place naturally. And that is why the judge doesn't believe it. I say, "Listen, there is a one in trillion chance!" He says, "My friend, you're gonna see 30 years in prison now." I believe there's a one in trillions chance, but no rational person believes that. The exact same thing is true here. If it is outrageously unlikely that a natural event led to the Jewish belief that God spoke to the Jews at Sinai, then it must be outrageously likely that it was not a natural event, but a... supernatural event, a miracle, which actually created this mythology, or actually, the story. So, it would turn out then, that if you want to argue that in fact, it was a one in trillion chance and that's how Judaism started. You could do it. But you have to say it like this. Since you're betting on the one in trillions instead of the trillions in trillions, you're betting on the 0.00001% instead of the 99.99999%. There's a 0.00001% chance it was natural and 99.99999% it was a miracle. So, if you wanna say it was a natural event, you have to say it like this. You have to use this language. You have to say... [YELLING] "I believe!" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Because it is a wild leap of religious faith to put all your faith in the 0.00001% chance. And anybody today who remains calm and rational will say, "I'm putting my eggs in the 99.99999% chance." In fact, natural events happen more than once. But this event never repeated itself, because it's not a natural event. I've given this lecture all over the world in the last 15 years, mainly in universities, most often to academics. I've never heard a counter-argument, although I would love to hear one. In a lecture about... Now it's going back about seven years ago, I mentioned in the lecture that I felt there were holes in my qualification to give this lecture because although I'd traveled to many countries, I've never had the opportunity to visit India and the oldest pagan group on the planet happens to be in India. I believe that the oldest religion, continuous religion on the planet today is the Hindu group in India. I'll tell you the name, but don't jump to conclusions. It's not what you're thinking of. They're called the Hare Krishnas. And, it's not the Hare Krishnas that you know. The Hare Krishnas here in America are fakers. They're monotheists. They messed up the whole system. The original Hare Krishnas in India are polytheists, the original polytheists. They were probably the same sort of religion that Abraham was watching when he was growing up. Once, after a lecture, a fellow came up to me in Jerusalem, and he said to me, "Did you know that Hare Krishna's "opened an outreach center in Tel Aviv?" I said, "It's not possible. "They don't do this sort of outreach and they would never come to Israel. "It's got to be the American Hare Krishnas." He said, "No, it's the original guys from India. "I know it's the original guys from India." So I checked it out. I ended up meeting with... basically, the director of the outreach for their group. And, sure enough they were the original Hare Krishnas from India. And the guy's name... I can't tell you his name for reasons you'll understand in a minute, but the guy's name sounded like Shrudloo Goldberg. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] No, he was not a Voltorb of sorts, yes. He was actually from birth a Hare Krishna. -His parents... yeah. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] His parents grew up in New York. Like any intelligent person looking for spirituality in New York, -they went to India. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING] There they discovered Hare Krishna, and they became Hare Krishnas, and there they gave birth to Shrudloo, who grew up from birth as a Hare Krishna. When they needed to send a team to do outreach in Israel, they picked Shrudloo Goldberg to be the man. So he came and I'm sitting with him, I said, "Shrudloo, let's cut to the chase. "I just wanna know what your revelation narrative is." Shrudloo says to me, [POLITELY] "Oh, no, Mr Kelemen, that's not how we do things." Okay, I had to adjust a little, but I said, [SPEAKS LIKE A GIRL] "Okay, Shrudloo... [PEOPLE LAUGHING] "How do we do things?" Shrudloo says to me, "Here, we share." He says, "Mr Kelemen, first, you tell me your revelation narrative." Like, this is unbelievable. Shrudloo Goldberg. What's the other Jewish revelation narrative? I just loaded my rifle and fired with both barrels. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Poor guy! For an hour I told him the entire lecture that I told you. I didn't mean to come drag some Jew back to his heritage, but, like, what can I do, God brought me here, you know. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] The man is calmly listening to me. He doesn't seem moved at all by anything that I'm saying. At the end of the hour, I said, "Don't you see, Shrudloo? "Judaism is true, your religion is true!" [PEOPLE LAUGHING] Shrudloo looks at me and says, "Mr Kelemen, "well, it might be true that your religion is true, "our religion, Hare Krishna, is also true." I exploded and I said, "Shrudloo, you can't know that yours is true. "Ours you can know!" Shrudloo says, "No, no. "We can also know that our religion is true." I said, "How?" He says, "We also have a mass revelation." And what bothered me was the man was so sincere. And I said to him, "What are you talking about?" And he says, "Haven't you ever read the Bhagavad Gita?" And I said, "You're darn right, I've read the Bhagavad Gita. "It's a famous Hindu tract. "It's about a battle between two peoples." He said, "Mr Kelemen, at the battle of the Bhagavad Gita, "how many people were present?" "There were... "three million." He said, "Yes, Mr Kelemen, and we have an oral tradition "that the battle of the Bhagavad Gita, our chief God, "K-R-I-S-H-N-A, "descended in the sight of all three million people. "He spoke to them and all three million people dropped dead, "just like your people at Sinai." So I turned white and I didn't know what to say. I was trying to picture, how am I gonna look in a toga. [PEOPLE LAUGHING] And I told him the whole thing about God spoke to us and we dropped dead, and got back up again, the angels revived us, and he spoke to us again, we dropped dead, and we said, "Please, Moses! You get the Torah." I said to him, "Let's go and see, God spoke to them, "they all dropped dead, what happened next?" He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "God spoke to them, "they all dropped dead, what happened next?" He said, "Well... "They lay there..." [PEOPLE LAUGHING] I said, "They didn't get back up again?" He says, "No." So I said, "They were all dead?" He said, "Yeah." So I said, "Then how do you know the story?" So he says, "Well, many, many years later, "that God came to one guy, told him, and he told everybody else." [PEOPLE LAUGHING] I wanna close with a beautiful section from the Torah. I opened up a Chumash on this spot, I had the Chumash there and I read him this passage. This is Deuteronomy 4:32. "You might inquire about times long past, "going back to the time God created man on Earth, "exploring one end of the heavens to the other." This is basically what I did. "See if anything as great as this has ever happened... "Or if the like has ever been heard." Like what? What's the choice, Torah's challenger? What's so amazing? "Has any nation ever heard God speaking out of fire, as you have, "and till survived?" The Torah understands it is very easy to start a cult saying that everyone heard God speak, they dropped dead and there's no traces left. But every single person sitting in this room can trace themselves back to a person who believes in all their heart and soul that God spoke to their ancestors at Mt Sinai. From there, it's straight shot going back 3300 years. And there is no way such a lie can be started, it cannot be a lie. Because if there was some way for that sort of a lie to be started, you would find some trace of it in some other religion on the planet. Thank you. BY: LAWRENCE KELEMEN [People applauding] MAN: For more, please visit: simpletoremember.com hand picked Jewish articles, audio and videos. Only the good stuff. All free! No sign-up.