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Creationism: 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response Cong. Beth Shalom 2/23/08 =17 Adar I, 5768

Creationism: 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response Cong. Beth Shalom 2/23/08 =17 Adar I, 5768. Donald Weinshank http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weinshan/ (See site for PowerPoint file with live links or write to me.) weinshan@cse.msu.edu (Write to me for references.) 517.337.1545.

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Creationism: 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response Cong. Beth Shalom 2/23/08 =17 Adar I, 5768

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  1. Creationism: 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response Cong. Beth Shalom 2/23/08 =17 Adar I, 5768 Donald Weinshank http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weinshan/ (See site for PowerPoint file with live links or write to me.) weinshan@cse.msu.edu (Write to me for references.) 517.337.1545 Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  2. Overview of Disciplines Related to Evolution: Alpha. order (Theories change: data are cumulative) Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  3. Overview of Dating Methods: Alpha. order (Theories change: data are cumulative) Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  4. Digital Evolution Lab at MSU: Lenski, Ofria, Pennock, et. al. • Devolab home page: • http://devolab.cse.msu.edu/publications/Publications • http://devolab.cse.msu.edu/publications/ • Richard Lenski • http://www.msu.edu/aktl/8.html • See “The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features,”Richard E. Lenski, Charles Ofria, Robert T. Pennock, Christoph Adami, Nature (Vol. 423, 2003, pp. 139-145) • http://www.msu.edu/~pennock5/research/publications.html#EvoOrgComFeat Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  5. Creationism in 3 Flavors • Creationism • Young Earth Creationism • Old Earth Creationism • Intelligent Design Creationism • Jewish understanding of b’reshit • Threat to Halakha Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  6. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism • Earth age: few thousand years • No ape-human intermediates • Qualitative difference • Each organism created l’minah[Gen. 1:24]: species fixed • Sudden appearance of new species Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  7. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism -- Claims • World-wide [Noachian] flood • dating unreliable, e.g. fossil sorting during the Flood: aquatic below, terrestrial above • “Appearance of age” e.g. fossils created in rocks, radioactivity • Fossil record gaps: out of evolutionary sequence or forged [e.g. “Piltdown Man”] • Contrary evidence predicted: Paluxy footprints • [But see “Footprints in Stone” http://www.skepticfiles.org/evolut/fooevo.htm and Scientific American June, 1983, p 6, William Stansfield] • relationships assumed, not real Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  8. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism – ContinuedSome photos from Field Museum, Chicago Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  9. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism Refs. • Scientific Creationism, Henry Morris, Creation Life Publishers, ICR, 1974 • Biology: A search for order in complexity; John N. Moore and Harold Schultz Slusher, for ICR, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1974 • Institute for Creation Research [ICR] • http://www.icr.org/ Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  10. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism Refs. Continued • The Genesis Flood, John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris, 1960 and later editions, • http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Flood-John-C-Whitcomb/dp/0875523382/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203097109&sr=1-3 • Creation Museum • http://www.creationmuseum.org/ • 2800 Bullittsburg Church Rd.Petersburg, KY 41080 • “Prepare to believe…brings the pages of the Bible to life.” • New York Times on fossils in Ohio 11/25/07: “Rock of Ages, Ages of Rock” • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/magazine/25wwln-geologists-t.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=geologist+%22young+earth%22+flood&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  11. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism Sequelae • "Scopes Monkey Trial" (Scopes v. State, 152 Tenn. 424, 278 S.W. 57 (Tenn. 1925), “Butler Act” • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial • “Inherit the Wind” fictionalized play & movie • McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education (1982) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLean_v._Arkansas Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  12. Part 1: Young Earth Creationism Sequelae -2 • Judge Overton in the McLean case: Essential characteristics of science • Guided by natural law • Explanatory by reference to natural law • Testable against empirical world • Conclusions tentative, not necessarily final word • Falsifiable [Popper: capable of being tested and shown to be false] • Creation science “fails to meet these essential characteristics” and thus is “not science.” • Cited in Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism, Robert Pennock, MIT Press, 1999, p 5 See • http://www.msu.edu/~pennock5/ Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  13. Part 2: Old Earth Creationism • The Earth may be very old. • Humans are a special creation in the recent past. • Similarities to other living things do not prove they are related. • Gap Creationism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Earth_creationism • Life was immediately and recently created on a pre-existing old Earth…. taken by Gap creationists to imply that the earth already existed but had passed into decay during an earlier age of existence, and was now being "shaped anew”.…. 1909 Scofield Reference Bible .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scofield_Reference_Bible • Progressive Creationism • God allows certain natural process (such as gene mutation and natural selection) to affect the development of life but has also directly intervened at key moments in life’s history • See Pennock Tower of Babel ... cited above, p. 14 ff. Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  14. Part 3: Intelligent Design Creationism • Aaron John Ihde (1909–2000) and the story of the elephants • http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/HIST/awards/Dexter%20Papers/IhdeDexterBioJJB.pdf • Reference: Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, Robert Pennock, MIT Press, 2001 • 9 sections → 37 chapters attacks on evolutionary science • http://www.msu.edu/~pennock5/ Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  15. Part 3: Intelligent Design Creationism - continued • “The Wedge Strategy” 3/1992 • Johnson, Behe, Meyer, Demski • Governing Goals • To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and • political legacies. • To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding • that nature and human beings are created by God. • Five Year Goals • To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific research being done from the perspective of design theory. • To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science. • To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda • Discovery Institute: Center for Science and Culture [main I.D. think tank] • http://www.discovery.org/csc/ • E-mail Weinshank for many I.D. references Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  16. Part 3: Intelligent Design Creationism – Analysis of “Wedge Document” • See Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design • http://www.creationismstrojanhorse.com/ • See Pennock Intelligent Design chapter 1: “The Wedge at Work” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  17. Part 3: Intelligent Design Creationism – Behe’s “Irreducibly Complex” • Michael J. Behe • in Pennock Intelligent Design… chapter 10: “Molecular Machines: Experimental Evidence for the Design Inference” • “By Irreducibly Complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.” • Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, • http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Black-Box-Biochemical-Challenge/dp/0743290313/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203355626&sr=1-1 • An “Irreducibly Complex” system has to invoke to an outside agent -- the “Intelligent Designer.” • Weinshank, “Evolutionary Theory and Intelligent Design,” The Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, May 3, 2006 Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  18. Intelligent Design Creationism – Bacterial Flagellum and other “irreducibly complex” findings • Jonathan Sarfati: “15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry” • http://www.answersingenesis.org/news/scientific_american.asp • Mousetrap • Blood clotting system • Bacterial flagellum cannot evolve spontaneously Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  19. Refuting Intelligent Design Creationism:Bacterial Flagellum Evolution PNAS • “Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system” • Renyi Liu and Howard Ochman • Pp. 7116–7121 PNAS April 24, 2007 vol. 104 no. 17 • www.pnas.orgcgidoi10.1073pnas.0700266104 Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  20. Intelligent Design Creationism as a “Science Stopper” [Michael Ruse] • I.D. makes statements about past and present science but is unable to say anything about the future [“prospectively mysterious” ABW] • “Draws line in sand: ‘Up to here it is science; beyond this, science cannot work’” Weinshank in LSJ 6/20/05 • See also Weinshank “An Analysis of ‘Irreducible Complexity’ in the History of Science,” Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, March 3, 2006. • Real science: questions which cannot be answered today are simply “open questions.” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  21. Evaluation of Intelligent Design Creationism • 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense” by John Rennie • Scientific American, July, 2002 http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=4805EFF5-850B-47F3-9E59-A292B52B437 • “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” • Documentary -- PBS, Tues. Nov. 13, 2007, 8 p.m. • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/ • Discovery Institute site attacking documentary • www.judgingpbs.com • E-mail Weinshank for consolidated document of all postings • Plaintiffs : TAMMY KITZMILLER, et al v. Defendants DOVER AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al. Judge Jones, December 20, 2005 • Public document widely available: GOOGLE (Dover trial Jones) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District • E-mail Weinshank for version with Table of Contents Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  22. Jewish understanding of b’reshit:ongoing process, not date on calendar Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  23. Jewish understanding of b’reshit:translations -1 • King James Version, [1603] • 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. • 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. • 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. • 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. • 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. • Revised Standard Version [1901] • 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. • 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. • 3 And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. • 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. • 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  24. Jewish understanding of b’reshit:translations - 2 • Jewish Publication Society TaNaKh (1917) • 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. • 2. Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. • 3. And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light. • 4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. • 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. • Jewish Publication Society (1985, 1999) • 1. When God began to create heaven and earth • 2. the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water – • 3. God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. • 4. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. • 5. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning a first day. Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  25. Jewish understanding of b’reshit:translations - 3 • Everett Fox (1983…) • 1. At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth, • 2. when the earth was wild and waste, darkness over the face of the Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters – • 3. God said: Let there be light! And there was light. • 4. God saw the light: that it was good. God separated the light from the darkness. • 5. God called the light: Day! And the darkness he called: Night! There was a setting, there was a dawning one day. • Richard Elliott Friedman (2001) • 1. In the beginning of God’s creating the skies and the earth • 2. – when the earth had been shapeless and formless, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and God’s spirit was hovering on the face of the water – • 3. God said, “Let there be light. And there was light. • 4. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. • 5. And God called the light “day” and called the darkness “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning: one day. Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  26. Jewish understanding of b’reshit:translations - 4 • Robert Alter (2004) [NOTE: no verse numbers] • When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth was then welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering of the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the Darkness he call Night. And it was evening and it was morning, first day. • Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash • 1. In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth, • 2. When the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Presence of the Divine hovered upon the surface of the waters] • 3. God said – Let there be light, and there was light. • 4. God saw the light that is was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. • God called the light: Day and the darkness He called Night And there was evening and there was morning one day. Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  27. Christian understanding of b’reshit: • [Wide variety of opinions, depending on denomination] • Christian literalist-fundamentalists: story about event • James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin Creation event occurred Sunday 23 October 4004 BC. Sir John Lightfoot added at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. • Incorporated into authorized version of the Bible1701 • Dated other biblical events • Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC • Ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 2348 BC `on a Wednesday'. • http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm • Fixing on b’reshit as an event has led to calculations of the magnitude of “day” and “year.” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  28. Jewish understanding of b’reshit as a process: “renews daily” • Mi’cha’desh • Sim Shalom 1998 p. 107“In Your goodness, day after day, You renew creation.” • Siddur Hadash p. 226“In your goodness, you renew each day the work of creation.” • Art Scroll Interlinear p. 319“…and in His goodness renews every day –perpetually – the work of Creation” • Gates of Prayer p. 301“….with goodness He renews the work of creation continually, day by day” • “Ontological support of the Universe” • “God can make an ass with three tails but not a triangle with four sides;” Paracelsus. • Universe constant, lawful, knowable. • Without such support, would dissipate into chaos. [Not testable in Karl Popper’s sense nor meant to be.] Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  29. Jewish understanding of evolutionas a process • Not “God of the gaps” • Contrast with Intelligent Design • “The highest levels of recognition of God are reached through grasping that the workings of natural law are no less miraculous than the negations of those laws that are known as miracles.” • http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Creation-Encounter-Cosmology-Evolution/dp/1933143150/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203471077&sr=1-1 • More on Rabbi Natan Slifkin at • http://www.zootorah.com/ Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  30. Jewish understanding of evolution as embedded miracles • “At the beginning of Creation • He created nature and the laws it would follow. • Thus miracles were built into nature” • Rambam Commentary on Avot 5:6 in Slifkin • Numbered as 5:8 in Sim Shalom 1998 p. 273 • Dr. Joshua Kulp (Jerusalem) on Avot 5:6 11/8/2003 • http://uscj.org/archives/MISHNAHYOMIT.html • “Mishnah lists fourteen things … seem to defy … laws of nature…… problematic because God …… created a world that acts upon the laws of nature. • “Metaphysical problem ….. these supernatural items were created …during the in-between time, right before creation ended at the end of the sixth day. …. part of God's ultimate plan and ….. not in essence ‘supernatural.’” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  31. Summary • Biblical literalism about creation or evolution was foreign to Judaism … until recently [Slifkin ch. 1] • Avot 2:19 (Sim Shalom 1998 p. 263): “Be armed with knowledge to refute a heretic” • Yeshayahu Leibowitz: “Science tells you how; religion tells you why.” • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz but quote is not there. • Slifkin [p. 47]: Describing how the universe works does not explain why there is a universe to begin with.” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  32. Threat to Halakha • Modern version of Aquinas’ “Five Rational Proofs of the Existence of God” • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas • Talmudic “Weak reed” argument in Sefer Ha-Aggadah / Book of Legends • http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805241132/qid=1142455915/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7590930-4948949?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 • Ma-aseh b’reshit, Ma-aseh merkavah • Tradition feared speculating on these would lead to sophistry [“subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, fallacious”] • Rambam, Guide I:32 “Intellects … have a limit at which they stop” in Slifkin p. 99. • Science: limited to measurable, observable, testable • Attempt to use (shoddy) science to prop up religion: Slifkin p. 18 • An “open question” ≠ proof of an Intelligent Designer (God) • Therefore, Intelligent Design is chillul ha’shem Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  33. Next-to-Last Word: Tillich on Truth of Science, Truth of Religion • “The distinction between the truth of faith and the truth of science leads to a warning, directed to theologians, not to use recent scientific discoveries to confirm the truth of faith..... The truth of faith cannot be confirmed by latest physical or biological or psychological discoveries—as it cannot be denied by them.” • Paul Tillich (1886–1965), “The Truth of Faith,” in Dynamics of Faith, Harper (1958). • http://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Faith-Perennial-Classics-Tillich/dp/0060937130/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203521448&sr=1-2 Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  34. Last Word to Stephen Jay Gould: NOMA • See Pennock Intelligent Design… p. 737 • from Natural History, Vol. 106, Iss. 2; pg. 16, 9 pgs • “Nonoverlapping magisteria” • “The text of Humani Generis focuses on the magisterium (or teaching authority) of the Church-a word derived …from magister …Latin for "teacher." • … principled resolution of supposed "conflict" or "warfare" between science and religion. No such conflict should exist because each subject has a legitimate magisterium, or domain of teaching authority-and these magisteria do not overlap • … NOMA, or "nonoverlapping magisteria"). • The net of science covers the empirical universe: what is it made of (fact) and why does it work this way (theory). • The net of religion extends over questions of moral meaning and value. • These two magisteria do not overlap” Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  35. Other Useful References • Cantor & Swetlitz, Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism, 2006 • http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Tradition-Challenge-Darwinism-Geoffrey/dp/0226092771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203477962&sr=1-1 • Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle, 2005 • http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Creation-Struggle-Michael-Ruse/dp/0674022556/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203478413&sr=1-4 Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

  36. Michigan (and National) Citizens for Science http://www.michigancitizensforscience.org/main/nfblog/ http://citizensforscience.org/ Creationism 3 Flavors and A Jewish Response

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