Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Previous Document: Question 12.2: Can one doubt G-d's existence and still be a good Jew? Next Document: Question 12.4: Does modern science contradict liberal readings of the Torah? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge the Torah? Answer: Probably, but science is getting better all the time and one can expect agreement eventually... Seriously, there are numerous neo-traditional readings that put new interpretations on various commentaries and are allegedly compatible with Orthodoxy. Judaism has a long tradition of not interpreting the creation narative of Genesis 1 literally. Rambam [Maimonides], for example, warns at the beginning of his [5]Mishneh Torah that the literal reading of the opening of Bereshis [Genesis] is for the masses. [The non-literal reading he had in mind was metaphysical, not scientific. See [6]The Guide for the Perplexed.] Both literalism and non-literalism have a long history, yielding a variety of resolutions of the problem of creation and science. Here are some solutions: * Rejection of scientific data. Since, as one opinion in the Talmud has it, Adam was created as a fully mature man of 20, and trees were created fully grown, it is clear that this opinion would hold that the universe as a whole was formed with a history consistant with a natural, scientific, progression. This opinion has three dificulties: (1) It implies that G-d created dinosaur bones and light from stars further away than 5758 light-years (for otherwise how could the light be reaching us yet) for no reason other than to provide evidence against creation. (2) What would stop a similar argument that the world is 5 minutes old, and all our memories, books, and so on have been faked to imply a history. (3) How can one ascribe a time to creation? It can't be on the Creator's clock, since G-d exists outside of time. Therefore, when we speak of "when" creation happened, we mean the begining of the universe's timeline. So then how could we talk about G-d creating the universe at some point in the middle of the line, allowing history to go in both directions -- past and future -- from that point? Actually, the former is resolvable if one can provide another motive for G-d "planting" dinosaur bones. Perhaps because the effects of any event carry through in time. For example, had G-d not created light that was as if it already left the stars, the earth's sky would be nearly black. Perhaps there is no way to have teva today without the illusion that the laws of nature always held. * Conflict resolution. Invoking relativity or whatnot to show that 15 billion years can be 5758 years in another frame of reference. Perhaps relavity justifies the differences between frames of reference. The "birds" of day 5 are actually dinosaurs, which are most similar bilogically to birds of any thing living today. Creation of the sun on day 4 is actually about the sky clearing to the point the sun could be seen on earth, etc... A number of books have been printed out in the past few years promoting this kind of position. * Multiple creation times. This is the approach of the Tiferes Yisrael (R' Meir Simchah of Dvinsk, 19th cent). He cites an opinion of the tannaim (mishnaic period rabbis) that Hashem created worlds and destroyed them before this one. Dinosaur bones and starlight are legacies of these earlier worlds. In Gen 1:1, G-d creates ex nihilo (matter from nothing). Then, before verse 2, these other worlds (in this opinion, epochs) rose and fell. Then, there was "chaos and emptiness" from which our world emerged. The universe as a whole, even the planet, can therefor be older than 5758 years. Since current theory is that the world started as a singularity -- in other words, not within the purvey of science, it is all a matter of faith if the ex nihilo was with the intent of the Creator or not. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan quotes R' Yitzchak of Akko (a student of the Ramban, late medieval) who concludes from the Zohar that the first creation was 15.8 billion years ago -- the age astronomers and physicists seem to be converging on, given multiple ways of measuring the age. The Netziv (R' Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin), in his commentary on chumash, argues against the idea that these earlier worlds left physical evidence. It doesn't fit the precise translation of the quote, that G-d "created worlds umachrivam -- and destroyed them". Instead, the Netziv points to a medrash in which it is explained that the fall of morality in humanity in the days before the flood reflected itself in nature. Even animals interbread, leading to the monstrosities that archeologists find. * Rejection of a literal read of the Torah. This is much easier, halachically, than it sounds, as there is a long tradition, including the Rambam and the Vilna Gaon, teaching that Genesis 1&2 actually convey deeper truths via metaphor. The gemara, after all, limits the number of students (to 2) that one may teach the secrets of the Act of Creation -- so clearly we can't just take the text at face value. Another commonly sited proof for non-literalness is that the word "day" precedes the creation of the sun. Therefor, it can't be used, at least in this narative, to mean our 24 hour period. 4a-The Maharal (1st intro to Gevuros Hashem) teaches that creation is so alien to human experience that we don't have a comparison to it. Therefore prophecy, which is transmitted by visions, can not describe it. (The World to Come is similarly explained. This is why it only appears in Tanach as "your days will be prolonged". Continued existance we can understand. The rest of the details, no.) However, creation is also so alien that we can not understand it by extrapolation, either. There are some Orthodox Jews who believe that Creation occurred over 5700 years ago and that it took precisely six days. However, today many Orthodox Jews believe that it is an open question as to how long each of those "days" and "years" were, relative to today's time intervals (considering that time itself is one of G-d's creations). One can find an array of Orthodox views on the age of the universe, the age of the earth, and views on evolution, in "Challenge: Torah Views on Science and Its Problems" edited by Aryeh Carmell and Cyril Domb, and in Gerald Schroeder's "Genesis and the Big Bang". These works attempt to reconcile traditional Jewish texts with modern scientific findings concerning evolution, the age of the earth and the age of the Universe. Prominent Orthodox rabbis who affirm the veracity of scientific findings in these areas include Aryeh Kaplan, Israel Lipschitz, Sholom Mordechai Schwadron (the MaHaRSHaM), Zvi H. Chajes, and Abraham Isaac Kook. Remember, the current scientific perspective is simply our best understanding of what G-d did. Two hundred years ago, that best understanding was different than it is today, and two hundred years from now, it will be different again. In effect, we believe in the Torah, and we use science as the current "best bet" (but certainly don't take it as seriously as we take the Torah). A rabbi in the Los Angeles area mused that perhaps the year count is based on the end of creation, when mankind had achieved intelligence. Certainly all of man's recorded history fits within the almost six thousand years. The time before "year 1" can be considered before the system was in multiuser mode :-). What about Dinosaurs, you ask. Well, there are midrashic sources that certainly hint at the possibility of dinosaurs (or, at least, of some critters that were parts of earlier "creations," in the tradition that G-d created Universes before our own). You should also consult [7]the section in the general part of the Reading Lists on Science and Judaism. There you will find books that explore the relationship of Judaism and science. User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Previous Document: Question 12.2: Can one doubt G-d's existence and still be a good Jew? Next Document: Question 12.4: Does modern science contradict liberal readings of the Torah? Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: SCJ FAQ Maintainer <maintainer@scjfaq.org>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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