Judaism and science

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Chapters: Gerald Schroeder, Aryeh Kaplan, Jewish views on evolution, Torah Umadda, Jewish reactions to intelligent design, Waldemar Haffkine, Natan Slifkin, Moshe David Tendler, Jerusalem College of Technology, Jewish medical ethics, Herman Branover, Zomet Institute, Alvin Radkowsky, Ze'ev Lev, Cyril Domb, Yehuda Levi, Nathan Aviezer, Fred Rosner, Herbert Goldstein, Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. Excerpt: Jewish views on evolution includes a continuum of views about evolution, creationism, and the origin of life. Today, most Jewish denominations accept the science of evolutionary theory and do not see it as incompatible with traditional Judaism, thus endorsing the stance of theistic evolution. The vast majority of classical Rabbis hold that God created the world close to 6,000 years ago, and created Adam and Eve from clay. This view is based on a chronology developed in a midrash, Seder Olam, which was based on a literal reading of the Book of Genesis. It is attributed to the Tanna Yose ben Halafta, and covers history from the creation of the universe to the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Although it is known that a literal approach is not always needed when interpreting the Torah, there is a split over which parts are literal. Most modern rabbis believe that the world is older, and that life as we know it today did not always exist. They believe such a view is needed to accept well-supported scientific theories, such as the theory of evolution. Rabbis who had this view based their conclusions on verses in the Talmud or in the midrash. For example: In his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (11th century, Spain) concludes that there were many time systems occurring in the universe long before the spans of history that man is familiar with. Based on the Kabbalah he calculates that the Earth is billions of years old. Some medieval philosophical rationalists, such as Maimonides and Gersonides held that not every statement in Genesis is meant literally. In this view, one was obligated to understand Torah in a way that was compatible with the findings of science. Indeed, Maimonides, one of the great Rabbis of the Middle Ages, wrote that if science and Torah were misaligned, it was either because science was not understood or the Torah was misinterpreted. Maimonides argued that if science proved a point that did not contradict any fundamentals o