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December 10, 1954

Fourth Lecture, Judaism and Science: From Modern Science to Ancient Judaism (1954)

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Judaism and Science: A Review of Their Relationships (1953)

In considering Judaism and science, past relationships show that religion’s attitude towards science was mostly friendly in Judaism, unlike the often negative and oppressive stance of the Catholic Church in conflicts such as those over Copernicus and Darwin. The Talmud says “Ki hi chochmatchem u’vinatchem le’einei ha’goyim – tekufot u’mazalot,” Rav (Abba Arikha) studied animal anatomy for 13 years, Shmuel (Yarchinai) studied astronomy, medicine, and performed autopsies, Maimonides pursued medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and physics, Yehuda HaLevi practiced medicine, and the Vilna Gaon studied mathematics. In the 19th century, science’s attitude towards religion was often foolishly anti-religious, rooted in a mechanistic philosophy, but with the maturity of science most great scientists became devout religionists; Bertrand Russell was the last of the great scientific atheists, and even he now writes differently. Conflicts are usually aggravated by people who know little about science and less about religion, though three major fields of irritation are geology (earth millions of years old versus Jewish tradition’s 5713 years), evolution (common descent versus separate creation), and determinism (predictability versus free will). Some say religion and science have nothing to do with each other – religion deals with spirit and the supernatural, science with matter and the natural – but Judaism cannot accept this since it is this-worldly and halakhah addresses man’s relation to his natural environment (e.g., kiddush ha’chodesh, kashrut). Others claim religion and science are in mortal conflict and one must choose – equally un-Jewish, since Jews have always believed in harmony between reason and revelation, fact and faith, as in Maimonides’ harmony between natural science and the Bible. The acceptable approach is that religion and science have different functions but overlap – scientific advancement affects man’s welfare and spiritual status, discoveries testify to an…
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Lecture on Science and Judaism to be Delivered at Friday Night Forum, Young Israel of West Side (1950)

The success of my talk to you this evening is based on two things: the length of my mmemory and the shortness of yours. You see, after I had already notified your chairman that the topic of my talk would be, "Science and Judaism," or something of the sort, I remembered that about two years ago I addressed your Collegiate Group on this very topic, and by this time it was already too late to speak about something else since it usually takes me more than two weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. However, I know very well that those of you who heard me then have conveniently forgotten the bill of goods I was peddling and, besides, I believe that I really have something new to tell you. Since then many of thetheories I expounded have materialised into practical affairs.The border between Sc and Re has been pictured as a very tight one, and an adventure in the understanding of their relations to each other is as bad as walking on a tight rope; you take the risk of falling, on one side, into the biting witticisms of cynical scientists and, on the other side, into the pious rebukes hurled at you by self-proclaimed indignant Protectors of the Faith.So, if for no other reason than that of a risky adventure, we should find it interesting to know something of what is going on in this twin-planet of Sc & Re.True, we may be getting into hot water, but I believe in occasionally gettinginto’ hot water - it keeps you clean.^8^‘**^5*1 5^^י^■ ^^hi*־M — י-'I- The Speculative Conflicts. Copernicus, Galileo opposed by ChurchA Darwin and j[,־w . ^ a^ fo(u»1« ^*di^j ^^ ^״ajxvu • -4»111ץgeology by Jews too^ Long history polemics. Neither side clear in details whichis most important. In fundamentals, can be no conflict. Reply from religiousside ranges from stubborn denial to move one inch, though giving more figurativeinterpretation to certain parts Bible not against Judaism - Maimonides, others.Others marked by complete submission to utterance of any scientist regardless reliabilit…
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Third Lecture on Judaism and Science: Towards a Resolution of some of the Conflicts (1954)

Introduction. Our attempt, this week, to resolve specific conflicts between Religion and Science is predicated on our opinion, explained last Friday Night, that both have separate functions in life, althoughthey overlap. In this area of overlapping there are certain conflicts. Whether or not we can resolve them, now or ever, the fact remains that both Religion and Science entail inherent and eternal truths, and neither will stand or fall by these conflicts. It is in this spirit, and in the knowledge that Torah is true and that all it maintains is true, that we proceed to the factual discussion!Evolution vs Creation.a: The Bible and Creation. The Universe was created by G-d, at His command, and was created ex nihilo. G-d created living as well as inorganic matter. Vegetable, animal life and human beings were created in fixed species ("le’mineihu").b: Biology and Evolution. There is no one theory of evolution. There are many, but fall mainly into three classes: Lamarckian, Darwinian, and Mutation theory. Will explain in more detail later.Essentially, almost all theories of Evolution maintain these principles:1) Living forms as they now exist in their many species were not always thus.2) Life is constantly evolving, and the direction is from simpler to more complex and higher forms.3) Species, as we know them, are not fixed. ALL forms of life that we know have a common origin (the "Origin of Species"). Life began on this world with a unicellular germ. Then, by one way or another, and over millions of years, several lines of descent gave rise to our present species, including Man. The method of evolution is, according to one school (Lamarck), by the organism adapting itself to its environment, thus gaining new skills and new physical features while losing some others (give giraffe example), and insists upon the inheritance of acquired characteristics. According to a second school (Darwin), there is always a "struugle for survival", and there results a "survival of the …
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