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Could it be that there is no contradiction at all between evolution and Judaism?

ResponseCategory: Torah and ScienceCould it be that there is no contradiction at all between evolution and Judaism?
mighty asked 3 months ago

Hello,
I am writing to you not as a scientist or a rabbi, but as an ordinary person, who has carried with him for over a decade an idea that refuses to let go. I believe, perhaps like you, that there is no real contradiction between science and Torah—quite the opposite:
When the basic concepts are defined correctly, the two complement each other.
I will present an alternative explanation for one of the most obvious contradictions – the date of the creation of the world, and in addition, a new verbal definition that helps explain the creation story through scientific eyes. I would love to know what you think about them.

  1. The date of the creation of the world. Already in the second verse of the Torah it is written, "And the earth was formless and void..." In other words, the Torah recognizes that the story does not begin 5785 years ago, which was something before. On the other hand, Archaeological research points to a “consciousness explosion” that occurred about 5,000–6,000 years ago, with the advent of writing, burial rituals, and institutions of law and morality. The Torah marks this period as the creation of man, and I see this as an interesting overlap between scientific findings and religious tradition. So what exactly changed and what was created in the Book of Genesis? The emergence of human consciousness. This is the creation of man as told in the Torah. The creation of the conscious, thinking man. What makes him different from other animals.
  2. A small change in the definition that connects Torah and science.
    Here I will use the tool of giving another name to an existing concept. My proposal is simple: to use the word "God" or in the plural "God" as a general name for everything that we do not know how to explain — but know that it exists. The unknown. The unexplained.
     
    Examples:
     
    "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
    The unknown created what is – a fact. It is here. Science also confirms: it is unknown how matter, time and space appeared. So for now we will call it God.
     
    "And God said to Noah" – something spoke to him from within. Today we call this an inner voice, intuition, gut feeling, dream, moral impulse – science cannot explain their origins – and therefore they too: God. 

    With such a simple verbal change, the verse becomes as logical for those who do not believe in God as believers do. Giving the name "God" to the "unknown" makes parts of the biblical story possible from a scientific perspective. After all, who can refute the fact that it is "unknown" what created the stars, or the cow, or the eggplant? This change is a verbal change but important in recognizing that there is some higher power, a power that cannot be denied even by science, which if we call it "God" would explain much of what is written in the Torah, and also of the reality that we experience. This is not a "God in the gaps" theory, because in my opinion God is in everything. In what has been revealed to us in science, and in what has not. In what we have discovered how He was created, and given Him a new name, and in what has not been discovered - the unknown - which according to my system has no other name than God.
     
     
     

My theory is very clear to me but it's hard for me to explain because it's too broad, and I'm not very good at writing or expressing complex ideas in writing. So I started with two points that I thought I could put down in a relatively clear way. I'd appreciate your opinion.
thanks

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1 Answer
Michi Staff answered 3 months ago

1. An Olympic leap between the formation of social institutions and the formation of consciousness. You can, without this leap, claim that the first man was the social man. Urges.
2. If you empty the religious tradition of its content, you can also adapt it to Feng Shui. The secular gets along with the Bible even without such artificial adjustments. It is a literary work that is not examined on the level of factual truth. So this artificial move is unnecessary.

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