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Don’t forget to check our website at www.hobartsynagogue.org
7
Study Group - Science and Judaism
The topic for our July and August study group sessions is Judaism and Science. There is increasing
interest in the relationships between science and religious belief, brought about in part by efforts to
introduce “Creationism” into science curricula in the USA. Much of what we read today about science and
religion concerns Christianity and Creationism, but it does raise the interesting question of how science is
viewed from the various streams of Judaism.
Most streams of Judaism do not generally see scientific thought as conflicting with Jewish belief. Rabbi
Jeffrey H Tigay (Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of
Pennsylvania) in his essay Genesis as Allegory (see link below), argues for a non-literal reading of
Genesis, noting "even the compilers of the Bible do not seem to have been concerned with a literal
reading of the text. They were prepared to have at least parts of it read non-literally." This is nothing
new, and Rabbi Tigay notes that Medieval Talmudic scholars such as Saadia Gaon and Maimonides
argued for a figurative interpretation.
Rabbi Tigay goes on: "Whatever the intention of the individual accounts of creation may have been, it is
clear from the Bible as a whole that its compilers were not overly concerned with the details of the
creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. They incorporated several accounts of creation in the Bible
even though no two accounts agree in detail with Genesis 1 or with each other."
A number of "atheist manifestos" have been published recently, most prominently "The God Delusion" by
evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in which Dawkins attempts to convert the reader to atheism. In
his book Dawkins focuses mainly on Christianity. A taste of Dawkins' views can be found in his interview
with ABC Radio National's Robyn Williams on "The Science Show Versus God" and the transcript makes
for fascinating reading, with Dawkins and alternative views from other scientists:
Radio National's "The Religion Report" had a two-part series of shows on science and religion called
"Science Fatwah," including a really interesting interview with author Sam Harris, whose book "Letter to a
Christian Nation" is an attack on religion in general:
An opposing view is that of the late palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould who argued that science and
religion should occupy separate domains of authority, enunciated in his essay on “NOMA” or “Non-
Overlapping Magisteria:” http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html
The Wall Street Journal had a recent piece on Judaism and evolution, Entitled "Is Darwin Kosher?”
The site MyJewishLearning.com has a section on Science & Judaism:
For example: Jewish Responses to Modern Science, Bible as Allegory, A Kabbalistic Approach to
Evolution, Medieval Jewish Science.
Will Howard
Schedule of study sessions
Sessions commence at 7.30pm
Tuesday July 10th, Debbie Brown's house - Science and Judaism. Leaders: Will & Sven
Tuesday August 14th, Will Howard's house - Science and Judaism. Leaders: Will & Sven
Tuesday September 11th, Debbie Brown's house - The Many Forms of Judaism Today. Leader: Tony
Tuesday October 9th, Will Howard's house - Gender Roles in Judaism. Leader: Debbie
Tuesday November 13th, Debbie Brown's house - Problems in Israel Today: A State Both Secular and
Religious. Leader: Will
Venues:
Will Howard
2 Ferndene Avenue
South Hobart
62 236667
Debbie Brown
54 View St.
Sandy Bay
62 353596
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