Godol has yet another thoughtful post where in he elaborates on his beliefs vis-à-vis contradictions between science and Torah. It is a well written, sincere, and rational argument for Emes, something he seeks to find, as I do.
As I have written in the past, the struggles he has, I have too. But I do not come to the same conclusions he does, namely that experts in various scientific and literary fields have proven that much, if not all of the Torah must have been written as allegory by men who were never-the-less “divinely inspired”.
As I have said before I do not accept allegorizing the bible as the answer every time an event therein recorded, seems to be contradicted by lack of scientific evidence for it. To me “lack of evidence” is not the same as “hard evidence” to the contrary. So, for instance, when it comes to the age of the universe where there is ample hard evidence of an aged universe, allegorizing the six days of creation makes sense and there is precedent for it in Chazal, Rishonim, and Achronim. When it comes to the Mabul, or Ma’amid Har Sinai, ...that there is no hard evidence of its occurrence does not mean it didn’t happen.
And let’s face it. There is no hard evidence at all that any of the entire five books of Moses happened. Are we therefore to reject the entire Torah from any form of literal interpretation? Is the entire Torah written by man in some sort inspiration from God? This, is not a novel concept. It is in fact a relatively old one and it is exactly what the Conservative Movement believes. Their credo is Emet Ve-Emunah. Emet they define as “Metzius” based on scientific study. Emunah is their belief in an active, participating God and that his word is the form of the Torah, but because of Metzius, is a document “divinely inspired” and not literal, written by men at various different points in time.
But to me it is impossible to believe that the Torah was just an inspired creation of man. Just as I accept the validity of science, I accept the validity of the Torah narrative. Just because we cannot seem to reconcile many of the conclusions reached by science with our Mesorah doesn’t mean that the events mentioned in the Torah did not happen.
Why the contradictions, then? I don’t know. I am neither an expert in any of the scientific fields that have produced these challenges, nor am I an expert in Torah. I cannot reconcile those differences. What I do believe, however, is that both science and Torah are true... and that at some point in the future they will be reconciled. But my current lack of ability to reconcile the two disciplines does not free me to ignore it. I continue in my struggle to search for truth and do not abandon either science or Torah in that pursuit.
So, how do we reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable? Consider this. I once put forward as a reasonable explanation, a scientific idea that could explain the apparent contradictions.
There can be two realities ...each one contradicting the other... but both real. It is well know among expert scientists that Einstein’s theory of relativity explains the macro world... the universe of the cosmos. Quantum mechanics explains the micro world of the sub-atomic universe. Both theories explain well phenomena that occur in the universe and predictions made based on them have proved correct. But when you try and switch them and apply quantum mechanics to the Cosmos and the theory of relativity to the sub-atomic universe the theories do not work. They completely fall apart. Two explanations of phenomena in nature that are radically different from each other. Yet both are accepted as true. That would seem to be an impossibility. Yet that is exactly the situation now in science. Scientists freely admit this conundrum yet they still believe in the truth of both theories. In fact they are currently working on a “theory of everything”... a theory that would provide a singular explanation of how the universe works. They haven’t quite found it yet but have come up with something called “string theory” which attempts to reconcile the two mutually exclusive explanations.
I believe that the same thing is possible with the contradictions between the Torah and science. There is a unified theory of Torah and science. It explains how Torah and science are both true. We haven’t found that truth yet. But that doesn’t mean we won’t. Until that time I remain a firm believer in both science and Torah. I also believe that by definition science (Metzius) and Torah do not contradict. That would be the ultimate Sheker. We just don’t have all the answers and may not be able to ever fully understand nature or Torah. But whether we ever do or not, I will continue to struggle to find those answers without rejecting either science or Torah.
