Joining The Minority Among Science Researchers: Thinking Outside The Box

It is too early for science to be so bold in its claims with respect to carbon and radioactive dating, which the Rebbe explains in his letter, “The Age of The Universe.”  As I once wrote, we don’t have a working Theory of Everything in science.  We don’t know how oxidative stresses such as corrosion may interact with many of the current various means for dating the universe.  When I read the about the Exodus, I think that it is a sign of maturity to not just discard the story in favor of science.  Remember Proverbs, “Fools rush in.”  It is better to try to be creative, and to ponder ways science and the Bible might both be true.  Perhaps, due to corrosion the Exodus was recorded in the fossil record, in a way that has baffled scientists.  Outside of radioactive and carbon dating, the fossil record show two mass exoduses from Africa, but as you know the dates don’t match given our present understanding of science.  Yet, it is too far of a leap to say that the dates do not match at all.

Judaism and Creationism: What Came First, The Chicken or The Egg?

It is said that Adam and Eve were created with the appearance of being 20 years old in the Garden of Eden.  How can this be so?  If Gd created the universe with the appearance of age, isn’t that deceptive?

The very meaning of deception is to create something that looks a certain way such that one would only think that it would be a certain age through analysis.  In the answer, there is an unfolding of the very meaning of age.

The world was made not with the appearance of age, but with the appearance of perfection, because the L-rd Gd would only create something perfect, and leave it to us to keep it that way.  And, He promises that eventually earth will be like it was in Gan Eden.  The only requirement is massive amounts of righteousness.  Gd did not make a world where Adam would look at a tree and think, wow that tree looks old.  That was not the intent.  Gd’s intent was for Adam to look at a tree and think, not about its age, but just simply, “Wow!!!  That looks perfect!!!”

We know this because the L-rd Gd is good.  His ways are worthy of emulation.  Because Gd is good we can know that the world was not created to deceive us that the world was old, and aged.  That would be an action not attributable to a Mighty Deity.  The Almighty Gd created the world to look perfect in an ageless way.  We humans often place too much emphasis on the beginning and ending of things such as life cycles.

Torah does not lead us to believe that things were created with the appearance of age.  However, Torah does lead us to believe that the world was created in a state of perfection, Gan Eden.  Things where not created with the appearance of age; they were created in their ideal state; something time does not know.

Chances are that we didn’t grow up in the Garden of Eden.  The world we grew up in was imperfect.  However, that perfect way that we probably never knew was outside of age because usually we associate age with death and dying, but yet the Garden of Eden had neither of these things.

In Judaism, our souls are eternal, such that birth is merely a state of the soul.  As time passes, we gain deeper understanding to the world at birth, so it is true that birth is an earlier state of life, and that infants aren’t born with much more than they need to know, and primarily what they do know revolves around motivating parents or care takers to feed them and change their dirty diapers, etc., through crying.  However, it is such that before we were on earth we did not know of age, and we came down to earth, and suddenly time became a very important issue of our lives; in fact for most of us, too important!  Our slavery to the clock in fact is one sign that we live in a fallen and imperfect world.  Gan Eden didn’t last long!

So, looking at a perspective; did the chicken come first or the egg is that chickens were created before they came into being, before time, as what we would call before an earthly state, but that the first chicken came to earth at a state of the universe known as the Garden of Eden where everything was perfect.

It is such that probably Gd probably started with a flock of chickens some with their eggs ready to hatch in the Garden of Eden with grandiose splendor.

On the Age of the Universe: I haven’t a clue as to the age of the universe, but…

We can extrapolate from science that there is a created order.  This is not a world of which miracle chaos has no part, and yet there is a periodic table and various physical equations where we feeble humans can gain grandiose opinions of ourselves, especially if we have an aptitude for such things.

From the perspective of some it is uncertain whether something intelligent created that order (or not), or if that order was created intentionally by an Intelligent Being.

I believe the universe was created by Gd, as it would be odd for humanities obsession to with Gd to be accident, if there was no Gd.  If the universe is indeed ordered, as the scientists say, then naturally worship is part of that order, as what else could it be?

Thus, my opinion: Gd grants grace to scientists like Richard Dawkins despite their atheism, as they still approach their work in the way that is pleasing to Gd, emulating Him voraciously in their discipline they resemble an all consuming fire, giving purpose to an atheist.