If theres two things I’m not well versed in, they’re theories involving religious concepts, and commenting in Great Debates, let along starting a thread in it, I’m sorry if this doesn’t quite belong.
Anyway, recently I’ve been reading a lot of the information provided on the site Jewfaq.org and came across a part about the Jewish calendar that had another link in it to an article by some Dr. Gerald Schroeder apparently about making connection between the Torah’s idea of the age of the universe, and modern sciences. It winds up with what it at least wants you to assume is a very similar definition from both of them, both equalling out to about 15 3/4 billion years.
Now maybe I’ll get to the point of this, I consider myself an agnostic who’s in a perpetual state or religious confusion, as well as not being a physicist I’m kind of left in the dark with this article.
What is the opinion of Judaism on this one? Also, what do those of you who are skeptical, or physicists think of this concept?
I’ve skimmed through Dr. Schroeder’s full-length book on the subject, though I haven’t read it in its entirety. It’s a hugely interesting concept. While the Jewish community hasn’t formed real opinion, I (as a decently but not very well informed orthodox Jew) don’t see any reason for there to be any incongruity between this idea and Jewish belief. However, I’ve been told that Dr. Schroeder’s ideas have since been scientifically disproven. I haven’t had the opportunity to verify that, but it’s what I heard.
I have also written a quick sketch of my own immensely uneducated thoughts on the subject in this thread:
These are just statements of possibility; I don’t have a concrete scientific basis or a hugely extensive knowledge of the Jewish concept of creation (just what they teach in yeshivah). But my basic point is, yes. There are definitely ways to reconcile science’s views of the origins of the world with the Jewish concept of creation.
There is no such thing as “Judaism’s concept of creation”, any more than there is a “Protestant concept of creation.” Each group, and indeed each individual within those religions has their own individual “concept of creation.”
Just like within the Christian religions, there are many Jews who try to interpret the bible literally (or very close to it), who look for some fairly wild stretches to try to reconcile the bible’s account of creation with scientific theory. You will also find many Jews and many Christians who reject the biblical version altogether in favor of science, and others (like me) who take the bible as poetry and don’t see any problem reconciling a poetic and scientific version.
Yeah, I know, it wasn’t exactly the best way to word it, but its what came to mind first. So I just kind of went with it, sorry if it is misleading from what I’d intended.