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I recently published a book (Ktav/Urim) entitled Six Days of Cosmology and Evolution: A Scientific Commentary on the Genesis Text with Rabbinic Sources. The theme of the book is that the text of
ReplyDeleteGenesis 1 is compatible with cosmology, geology, and evolution. The creation of the universe took both six literal days, as counted from the Beginning looking forward in time (Ramban), and billions of years looking back by man from planet Earth. Time differs from place to place in the universe (Einstein). Both measures of time are equally valid.
The book is available on Amazon
I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but I'm (strongly) of the opinion that the tension between evolution (and the big bang - which are completely different, and non-dependent, theories) and the Torah is completely manufactured.
ReplyDeleteJust one interesting note, and to answer footnote 3, is that the first day of Bereishis (read literally) is completely in line with the Big Bang theory. Look it up. The universe started out as a primordial soup of plasma. As it cooled, photons (light) formed, but could not travel through the opaque soup. There was this glowing cloud, with pockets of light and dark interspersed. Then it cooled further, and the very first particles in the universe were these photons that could now travel, filling the universe with light - in the visible spectrum. Space stretched, and this light went out of the visible spectrum. The universe got dark, until much later when stars formed. We can still see this primordial light, with the right equipment, as the cosmic background radiation.
Another thought I like to share. The Jewish day starts at night, and ends at the end of the day. Erev and Boker, are very specifically evening and morning, not night and day. The day does NOT end after the Boker. It is impossible to read the pasuk literally, and translate 'yom' as day.
Regards,
Shalom Weinberg