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Young earth creationists insist that the universe is less than 10,000 years old. While humanity may have begun, according to the Jewish commentaries, 5700 years ago, that doesn't mean the creation itself is only 5700 years old:
The medieval commentator Isaac of Akko dated the creation to be 15 billion years old, which corresponds to Big Bang cosmology:
Even if the universe were 15 billion years old, this wouldn’t automatically prove that evolution is true, which is a separate matter from the age of the universe.
Amazingly, the medieval commentator Nachmanides predicted Big Bang cosmology:
Since everything that begins to exist has a cause, God was the uncaused first cause of the Big Bang. According to Isaiah 42:5 and Job 9:8, God “stretched out” the heavens, which corresponds to the Big Bang.
Orthodox Jewish physicist Gerald Schroeder, who advances the position that Big Bang cosmology demonstrates the existence of God, is also critical of Darwinian evolution:
Rosh Hashanah commemorate the creation of the Neshama, the soul of human life. We start counting our 5700-plus years from the creation of the soul of Adam.
We have a clock that begins with Adam, and the six days are separate from this clock. The Bible has two clocks.
That might seem like a modern rationalization, if it were not for the fact that Talmudic commentaries 1500 years ago, brings this information. In the Midrash (Vayikra Rabba 29:1), an expansion of the Talmud, all the Sages agree that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the soul of Adam, and that the Six Days of Genesis are separate.
Why were the Six Days taken out of the calendar? Because time is described differently in those Six Days of Genesis...
The Talmud (Chagiga, ch. 2) tells us that from the opening sentence of the Bible, through the beginning of Chapter Two, the entire text is given in parable form, a poem with a text and a subtext.
Age of the Universe
The Talmud considers the story of creation to contain some of the deepest secrets of Kabbalah, which may be taught only to a single student at a time (Mishna Hagigah 2:1).
Further, the Sages clearly exclude the first days of Genesis – before Adam’s creation – from our regular calendar. The current count of 5775 years from Creation actually counts from the first day of Adam’s life (on Rosh Hashanah), not the first day of creation. The earlier days, before the world’s first Rosh Hashanah, are described as part of the “year of tohu (emptiness, chaos).” It is thus entirely possible that the “days” referred to in the story of Creation do not mean 24-hour days but epochs. (See this article which discusses this at length.)
Is the Torah Literal?: Ask the Rabbi Response
The medieval commentator Isaac of Akko dated the creation to be 15 billion years old, which corresponds to Big Bang cosmology:
Rabbi Isaac of Akko who lived between 1250-1350 C.E., wrote in Ozar HaHayyim, since 6 cycles existed before the creation of Adam, their chronology must be measured in "Divine years," not in "human years." How do we measure a "Divine year"? According to Psalm 90:4, there is a hint at the manner of measuring a Divine year: "For a thousand years in Your sight are as a day."
Therefore, according to Rabbi Isaac, the universe would be 42,000 divine years (i.e.. the six preceding cycles of 7,000 year each) x 365,250 human years (365.25 days in a year, with each divine day =1,000 "human years"). This equals 15,340,500,000. Modern science has concluded from calculations based on the expanding universe and cosmological observations, that the universe is 15 billion years old. Here we see the same calculation from a Torah source written over 700 years ago!
Bereishit 5767
Even if the universe were 15 billion years old, this wouldn’t automatically prove that evolution is true, which is a separate matter from the age of the universe.
Amazingly, the medieval commentator Nachmanides predicted Big Bang cosmology:
At the briefest instant following creation, all the matter of the universe was concentrated in a very small place, no larger than a grain of mustard. . . . From the initial concentration of this intangible substance in its minute location, the substance expanded, expanding the universe as it did so. As the expansion progressed, a change in the substance occurred.
Big Bang | Torah and Science
Since everything that begins to exist has a cause, God was the uncaused first cause of the Big Bang. According to Isaiah 42:5 and Job 9:8, God “stretched out” the heavens, which corresponds to the Big Bang.
Orthodox Jewish physicist Gerald Schroeder, who advances the position that Big Bang cosmology demonstrates the existence of God, is also critical of Darwinian evolution:
As Niles Eldredge, curator at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, wrote in the New York Times, “The fossil record that we were told to find for the past 150 years (since Charles Darwin ) does not exist.” Darwin insisted that “natura non facit saltum,” that nature does not make jumps. In fact, the flow of life as recorded in the fossil record has many jumps in complexity. The great trade secret of paleontology is that the fossil record does not confirm Darwin. Never did I expect to read in the esteemed, peer reviewed journal, Science, the following: “Did Darwin get it all right?” And the sub-title was no, species appear with a most un-Darwinian rapidity. The problems of evolution begin with the origin of life (Richard Dawkins attributes the origin of life to “luck.”) and continue through the fossil record. Most precisely, the oldest rocks that can bear fossils already have fossils of microbes, some undergoing cell division. Nature “invented” DNA, RNA, cell structure, cell function with startling rapidity...
What caused the big bang is still being debated. Scientists suggest that within the laws of nature, the concept of a quantum fluctuation could create a universe. This of course assumes that: 1) the laws of nature (not physical nature, but totally abstract, non-physical laws of nature) pre-date the universe; 2) that these laws are eternal or timeless, outside of time; and 3) that within these eternal laws is the property of a quantum fluctuation that under extreme conditions can produce the physical universe from absolute nothing. Now all this sounds very much like the biblical definition of God. The Bible tells us that the eternal, non-physical God created the universe – perhaps working through the laws of nature. Recall that in the Exodus account, God used a force of nature, a strong east wind, to split the sea (Exodus 14:21). And that the only name for God in Genesis One is Elokim, God as made manifest in nature.
Top Five Scientific Myths Popularly Accepted as Fact | Gerald Schroeder
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