Q&A: Contradictions Between Science, Torah, and Faith
Contradictions Between Science, Torah, and Faith
Question
Hello Rabbi,
1) For some time now I’ve been coming across all kinds of different arguments—archaeological, biological, and so on—that don’t line up with what the Torah presents.
I’ll ask about the issue that, in my view, is the most essential and basic for every religious person, and really for every person in general—evolution.
I understood that the Rabbi (correct me if I’m mistaken) accepts evolution, and I would really be happy to know how that fits together with the Torah. I’d appreciate a relatively simple and general explanation; I’m not really versed in these topics…
2) I got to all these topics because of questions that kept coming up and a desire for answers, even though many people tell me not to dig into this because it can lead to heresy, and that I should only look for answers in “kosher” places, so to speak. But in order to understand the overall picture, I feel I have to be exposed to both sides. So the real question is whether what I’m doing is reasonable and called for, or whether I’m supposed to just believe without trying to ground it too much. I should mention that I personally know people who don’t need this, because they’re more spiritual by nature and don’t look for rationality. Are they really more believing than I am? Because when I really think about it, if people weren’t rational, we as a society wouldn’t advance anywhere.
3) Do you know Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen? He has a lecture on YouTube in which he explains, from several angles, the argument from testimony—that the Torah was transmitted from father to son, and that this proves its truth—and it resonated with me מאוד, and I highly recommend it. My question is: is that the connection people mean between God as the cause of the universe and that same God from the revelation at Mount Sinai, where the Jewish people received the Torah? In the end I have these two ideas—is that the link between them?
Thank you very much.
Answer
Hello.
These are questions that require elaboration, and this isn’t the place for that, so forgive me for answering briefly.
1. There are several ways to resolve this. In my view, the most plausible is that the Torah is not giving us historical information. It is meant to convey Jewish law, and everything else in it is an educational myth (see Rashi’s very first comment on the Torah, where he wonders why the entire book of Genesis was written at all). From the Torah’s perspective, the description of the world’s formation is in six days, but that is not necessarily a description of what actually happened. These are stages described metaphorically as days. The sequence may express the hierarchy among the various creatures. From the day the plants were created, evolution began, and the following days describe evolutionary stages in a popular, non-technical way. Various commentators (such as Nachmanides on the Torah) already noted that the chapters of creation have no plain meaning but only secret meaning, and what they mean is that they are not meant to report facts literally, but to convey a message.
2. The claim that one shouldn’t dig into such questions because it might lead to heresy is ridiculous and foolish. What they’re really telling you is that you don’t truly believe anyway (because if you dig, you’ll discover that you don’t believe), and therefore it’s better to bury your head in the sand and not be aware that you don’t believe. By the same token, the teachers of pagans tell them not to dig, because they might discover that monotheism (and Judaism in particular) is true. Is that a reasonable demand? A person has to form a position. The fact that I was born somewhere is no guarantee that my educators are right. Everyone is born somewhere, and even the conservatives who scold you would admit that most of the world is born in places that do not educate toward the truth. So who says I was born in a place that does? That is something I have to discover through thought and analysis. See columns 6 and 576. Also see column 74.
Those “spiritual” people who don’t need to think and dig are usually (though not always) people who deceive themselves, and they are less believing than you are.
3. I don’t know him. The connection between the philosophical God and the religious God is explained in the fifth conversation in my book The First Existent. Of course, they are not the same thing; one can believe in the first without the second (and perhaps also vice versa). But once I have reached the conclusion that there is a philosophical God, the tradition about a religious God already sounds much more plausible. This is not the place to go into more detail.
Discussion on Answer
The central part of the book of Genesis comes across like a factual story. Creation looks like a myth. I didn’t say there is no factual dimension in the Torah, only that not everything it says is factual.
It definitely is a contradiction. But someone who lives with certainty is deceiving himself or deceiving us. Nobody in the world has certainty. A religious person is also a human being, and has no way to know anything with certainty.
The Sages instituted a blessing over earthquakes, and also lightning and all kinds of natural phenomena:
“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who performs the work of creation.”
But in the Torah, the creation story doesn’t mention earthquakes or lightning.
So clearly even the Sages, with the limited science that existed then, understood that such a serious process of creation also included stages of earthquakes and the like.
And the fact that it isn’t written in the Torah?
That didn’t trouble them.
And since they were sure there were stages of creation not written in the Torah, they instituted a blessing over these natural phenomena as the work of creation no less.
So who are we—mere gnats, sons of mosquitoes, orphans of orphans—that we should argue with the Sages, who were sure that creation includes parts not written in the Torah?
Adi, in the context of evolution there’s a very interesting book by Abraham Isaac Green called Radical Judaism, and he develops a theology in which evolution stands at the center of the spiritual world. It might interest you.
Thank you very much. Regarding the first question—I understood that some parts of the Torah actually are archaeologically confirmed, but the idea that it doesn’t give us historical information in a general sense definitely resolves a lot of things. As for the faith issue, one small question—I understood from your words that it’s impossible to know with absolute certainty that God exists. On the other hand, the lifestyle of a religious person (even if not a conservative one) is conducted with an air of certainty; that is, a person from the outside understands that he is sure of it. In your opinion, isn’t that a contradiction?
And again, thank you very much for the answer.