Judiasm & Creation theories?? (Continuing young earth vs. old earth)

[Shari]

I suppose I'm showing my ignorance here, but where do most Jews stand on the young earth / old earth debate? I imagine there are splits there just as in Christian circles, but I'm wondering if the arguments are the same.

Does anyone know?

[Michelle T]

do not consider the bible to be a literal account of history/science/creation, but a collection of parables and moral stories, instructions for how to live our lives. Actually, even hundreds of years back, many rabbis and Torah scholars did not consider the story of creation to be literal.

There are some Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox who do consider the bible to be literal, but they are in the minority of Jews.

Judaism does not have a lot of "this is what you must believe" dogma, but does have a tradition of study, discussion, and debate of what every word of the bible means.

Having said all that, I have personally never met anyone Jewish who believes in a young earth. All that I have known (including myself, a Reform Jew) either believe in God as the author of evolution, creating the world through its unfolding, or are secular.
Michelle T

[Eliana]

I suppose I'm showing my ignorance here, but where do most Jews stand on the young earth / old earth debate? I imagine there are splits there just as in Christian circles, but I'm wondering if the arguments are the same.
Does anyone know?

The arguments are definitely not the same.

These things aren't the kind of issue in the Jewish world that they seem to be for Xtians.

Both our oral teachings and commentators/teachers over the centuries have included speculations about non-literal readings of Creation. (And this goes back to way before scientific thinking was questioning the age of the earth. For example: very few medieval commentators took a literal approach (though all held a literal understanding of when Adam was created.)

I'm not explaining this well! I'm not sure how to convey the multi-layered way we approach our texts, the combinations of Oral Torah (given by G-d to Moshe at Har Sinai along with the Written Torah), Kabbalah, commentaries, and homelitic teachings (to name just a few factors)...

There are so many layers on which the Torah can be read, and such different things to learn from each of them! There are many sections which are clearly non-literal, but that were written they way they were to convey something to us. The account of Creation is a section which can be read on many different levels - and I can't think of a prominent Jewish teacher, from a traditional standpoint, who is adamant about an age for the universe or the world. (Rabbi Isaac of Akko a renowned 13th century Kabbalist held that the universe is about 15 billion years old. I haven't studied Kabbalah, so I am not familiar with his reasoning, but he certainly can't be accused of catering to modern scientific theory!)

Jewish responses to the evolution debate have also been very different from Xtian responses. Here's a quote from Rabbi Hirsch (1808-1888) responding to Darwin's writings:

"...[E]ven if the latest scientific notion that the genesis of all the multitudes of organic forms on earth can be traced back to one single, most primitive, primeval form of life should ever appear to be anything more than what it is today, a vague hypothesis still unsupported by fact. Even if this notion were ever to gain complete acceptance by the scientific world ... Judaism in that case would call upon its adherents to give even greater reverence than ever before to the one, sole God Who, in His boundless creative wisdom and eternal omnipotence, needed to bring into existence no more than one single, amorphous nucleus and one single law of "adaptation and heredity" in order to bring forth, from what seemed chaos but was in fact a very definite order, the infinite variety of species we know today, each with its unique characteristics that sets it apart from all other creatures."

Most Orthodox leaders and teachers say quite clearly that there is no conflict between science and Torah. There are some who disagree or have disagreed, the key issue, as I understand it, being haskafic (hashkafa= worldview/philosophy): the Torah teaches us that there is a fundamental difference between animals and humans and this isn't compatible with the philosophical implications of 'evolutionary history'. This is an issue of how evolution is taught in Jewish schools, and there have been a variety of approaches. [However, we also hold that 'intelligent design' is a religious concept, not valid science.]

I'm really not explaining this well, I'm sorry! There is just so much backstory needed to clearly explain the issues, the textual readings (and I don't think I can enter Hebrew text here anyway!), the haskafic concepts, the way we approach things.... and you didn't ask for a *book*! ;)

I'm going to stop typing and deleting and fretting about this, and just post my muddled few paragraphs here, and if you have specific questions you want me to try to clear up, I'll give it my best shot.

Eliana