From a Jewish Rabbi

[Vance]

Here is an OpEd piece from the Detroit News, written by Rabbi Aaron Bergman. I think this is very insightful:


"I believe with all my heart and soul that God created the world. I
believe the Hebrew Bible is God's word to the world. I do not believe
the Bible is a science book describing God's literal process of
creating the world, nor do I believe God ever meant for it to be taken
that way. "

"In short, I accept the idea of creation, but reject the
pseudo-science of creationism as bad science and even worse theology."

And I also like this:


"All this being said, I do not want to give the impression that I
think evolution is the entire truth, either. I believe evolution
should be taught as our best current understanding of how the world
works. As we learn more, then the theories should evolve as well. If
it is true that God created us from apes, then so be it. It is not forme to tell God how to create the world. Maybe God is teaching us a
lesson in humility. "

 

[Ave Maria]

Ok and just because the Jewish Rabbi says that he doesn't believe Genesis is meant to be taken literally as Young Earth Creationists take it, that's supposed to mean that his interpretation is true? Yes, perhaps Jewish people have more insight in to the Old Testament scriptures than we do at times but that doesn't mean that they are always correct.

 

[seebs]

No, but it does mean that saying "that's not what the Bible says" is almost certainly a bad starting point. These are people reading it in the original language with three thousand years of tradition about how to best understand it... You can disagree with them, certainly, but it eliminates the idea that anyone who accepts evolution is ignoring Genesis; we can safely assume that the Rabbi has given serious thought to what Genesis says.

 

[Dracil]

Yep, Micaiah asked for something similar, and I gave 5 responses by Jewish Rabbis. All except the one Orthodox Rabbi (including a Conservative Rabbi) basically accepted evolution/denounced Creationism/agreed that the Torah should not be read literally, nor as a science source