Prof. Moshe Kove: Did science and Judaism both go together?

The president of Bar Ilan University and the chairman of the committee of heads of universities, Prof. Moshe Kove, calls for scientific evolution to be taught in religious schools along with creation theory. Denial of these scientific laws is contrary to Judaism. According to Maimonides, not accepting science means not accepting God's laws because these are revealed through the laws of nature

Avi Blizovsky - special to the science website

About a week ago, the heads of all the academies of sciences in the world, including the Israeli Academy of Sciences, signed a petition in which they called on the governments of the world to teach the scientific facts underlying the theory of creation, such as the age of the earth being 4.5 billion years, and the gradual development of life for at least 2.5 billion years. Prof. Moshe Koa, president of Bar Ilan University and chairman of the committee of heads of universities, calls for this to be done not only in state schools but also in religious state schools. "As for those who belong to the religious Zionist movement who send their children to universities, it is very important that they hear about it for the first time before they arrive at the universities." Prof. Koa emphasizes.

Prof. Koa, a physicist by profession, who accepts the scientific statement regarding the universe between 15 billion years (plus or minus 20%) says that there is not and cannot be a contradiction between religion and science: "The Jewish worldview as I see it and so do my friends at Bar Ilan University give freedom to research Absolutely science. The prominent figure in Jewish philosophy, who is also the dominant figure in Jewish law, is Maimonides, who made a very special statement 900 years ago regarding the correlation between science and religion, when he wrote, 'And the divine science will not be achieved except after the natural sciences', every time a person discovers some kind of contradiction between religion and science The problem is that that person, that character or that period did not fully study and study the natural sciences. Before looking for contradictions or conflicts you must first understand the natural sciences. It is inappropriate to leave one defined closed world of religious theology and find out one or another details within science. The opposite is also not true. To look at a certain scientific fact and immediately wave that there are contradictions is completely inappropriate."

Do not take the verbal approach

"Science, as Rambam stated, is our way of discovering God's plan. Therefore, if science comes to any conclusion, and this has been proven beyond any doubt (and there is always doubt) that this is a scientific truth, it should be seen in the law of the 'finger of God'. There can be a debate about the literalness of the six days of creation and the scientific fact. On the other hand, Judaism never accepted the biblical literal approach as the only interpretation. None of the great sages of Judaism disputes the fact that there is no literal interpretation of verses such as 'a tooth for a tooth' and 'an eye for an eye'. Even the Talmud is full of explanations about the meaning of the term "day" as it is given in the description of creation in the Torah. How can you say, for example, about the first day "day" when there was no sun yet and therefore there was no 24-hour cycle. Therefore, the word "day" according to its literal meaning is also a period. Judaism for generations sees the Torah and the book of books as a book of behavioral theory and not as a science theory. Also, there is an extensive Jewish interpretation according to which the creation of the world can be explained in cosmological times. "

Prof. Kou's conclusion is that failure to learn the scientific facts ultimately harms religious belief and that the history of the development of the philosophy of religion and science has proven that at the end of the way, religion has gained important tools: "The great fear in schools of learning the facts arises because there is not enough skill to explain the facts. Every fact that seems surprising at first, immediately adds the word 'contradiction' to it. I definitely propose to establish in the Ministry of Education a discipline called Judaism and Science, within the framework of which a committee will be established that will include clergymen, scientists and public figures who will decide what is the proper way to introduce the basic scientific facts that every civilized person must know into the curriculum." Bar-Ilan has an elective course on "Torah and Science" given by the physicist Prof. Natan Aviezer and religious and secular students marked this course as one of the most popular in their studies. "

How does Bar-Ilan University relate to evolution?

Koa: "At Bar Ilan University, as in most universities, it is not possible to graduate with a degree in biology without studying evolution. Ignoring evolution for a religious reason has an element of arrogance bordering on ignorance, which in Judaism is almost impossible. After all, anything that can be proven to be a scientific law according to Judaism must be accepted as God's will. And we do not know his will in advance. As soon as it is proven beyond any doubt that this is a law then it is God's will and therefore I do not see it as a contradiction with religious belief. There can be no contradiction in the details. The Maimonides and his entire house say that the laws of science precede the laws of God and that the laws of science are the only fingerprints of God in the existence that is our universe. Even according to the religious concept, there is no ability to have any kind of correlation between God and life except through the natural sciences, so that God influences our lives through the laws he established. Therefore, apostasy in the so-called law of natural sciences, if this law is final, is according to Rambam apostasy to God."

We have not returned to the time of Galileo

Prof. Mario Livio, an Israeli scientist who holds a senior position at the Hubble Space Telescope's scientific institute in Maryland, recently spoke out, according to which it seems that in the debate between science and religion we have returned to the time of Galileo where the clergy entrench themselves in an anti-scientific position and are not ready to retreat from it. "I do not accept this statement. We certainly have not returned to the time of Galileo, neither in terms of understanding science nor in terms of religious theology. I know all the people who work at the conferences held by the Templeton Foundation, which finances the discussions on religion and science. These conferences are proof that dialogue can be reached, but this is mainly a problem of Christianity. Judaism never had wars with science like those of the church. The struggle during Galileo's time was mainly due to a very centralist view of the Catholic Church which claimed that the whole universe is religion. When it repeats itself in history it is problematic. Religion cannot force details when the details are scientific details. Nor the opposite. Always mention the church vs. Galileo Let's take the well-known example between Laplace and Napoleon where the confusion was the other way around. Newton was the one who asked the famous big question why the solar system is not collapsing. Newton's answer, which will not cross the mind of any scientist nowadays, and is certainly not suitable for one of the greatest scientists of all time: "The solar system does not collapse because God protects it". There is no doubt that such a statement in today's world would be seen as a delusional statement and in truth Lapels who invented the Laplace equations gave the full explanation for the non-collapse of the solar system. When Plass wrote the article and the thesis he had a random historical meeting with Napoleon, Napoleon asked him 'Tell me where God is in your equations' and Plass gave the arrogant answer in the other direction - the opposite of Newton's: I don't need God to explain science! The tensions between so-called religion and science always revolve around these two axes."

God is outside nature according to the monotheistic view

"In this section, I want to illuminate a Jewish point: let's not forget that theology, the belief in one God that was the greatest cultural revolution of all time is, in my view, a greater revolution than the transition from the 19th to the 20th century from Newton's theory to quantum theory. The monotheistic view says this: 'God and belief in him as a result cannot be described within the system of natural science. God is abstract and cannot be described in any way by parameters within the scientific system, therefore it is not possible for a phenomenon within the natural science system that can affect belief in Him and on the basis of this assertion, Rambam defined his principles that, unlike Christianity, God is abstract, cannot be There is no scientific measurement and therefore there can be no fundamental contradiction between Jewish divine abstraction and the natural sciences. God's abstractness is expressed in the well-known statement found in prayers in all the siddurs that "He has no body and does not have the image of the body", therefore it is not measurable or capable of scientific statement. This does not mean that in the religious philosophical details, there are no tensions here and there but it is a kind of tensions that certainly cannot cause a big bang between the two. I have many lecturers at Bar-Ilan University who know how to analyze these tensions and give satisfactory answers to any concerned educational system." Prof. Kua says.

Religion as a guide to scientific ethics

Prof. Koa says that religion has a place today in guiding scientific ethics. "All the best universities in the world now have departments or centers that become centers of connection between the morality of religion and the limits of science in an ethical sense. There is a real boom in the subject. Let's not forget that the problems of science today are its recognition of its limits. We all know the uses of the nuclear bomb and what happened in Hiroshima, and there are questions about the beginning of life biologically and its end, from artificial insemination to euthanasia; what animal experiments are allowed; Can we use science to create new creatures and more? These are not simple moral questions that definitely have religious statements in them. For example, there are fascinating differences between the definitions of the beginning and end of life in Judaism and Christianity that have a practical effect on medical ethics. Judaism is much more liberal than Christianity. The State of Israel, in which there is no separation between religion and the state, allows stem cell research, and I am proud that Bar Ilan University, which is a religious university, also conducts research on the subject because Judaism is liberal and understands that in the end it will benefit people. On the other hand - a stunning fact that I learned for the first time was hard for me to believe until I checked it thoroughly - in the liberal USA where there is a separation between religion and state, a scientist is not allowed to conduct research on stem cells. The research there is only done by private companies and it is forbidden to engage in this in public scientific institutions. In the best of the US universities I have visited, a scientist who receives a research grant in stem cell research must enter the private research institute at the university, sign a clock and deduct this time from his salary at the university. This is an action prohibited by the US government when the restriction is a religious restriction. All the issues of termination of pregnancy and its beginning in Judaism is more liberal because there is a period when it is permissible to have an abortion because the fetus is not yet considered an animal fetus. On the other hand, in Christianity from the first moment of conversion, this is forbidden, and therefore in detail there are definitely enormous tensions in the US, both in universities and in the restrictions of fields that are at the interface between the practice of science and scientific ethics, and I am proud that in the State of Israel this is definitely not even a matter of public discourse. It is absolutely clear that whatever is done for the benefit of the person definitely promotes the same thing this is definitely permissible. Instead of the conflicting tension of the Galileo and Newton eras, we have moved to join hands and we use religion to avoid using the excess wisdom of science to destroy humanity."

Intermediate: Prof. Koa says and does

And regarding the study of evolution in schools, Prof. Koa not only says but also does: "I am deeply versed in this topic, I lecture on this topic a lot in schools and I have seen that if you explain the beauty of the scientific explanations, this only strengthens the faith of the listeners and does not distance them from religion. The general popular street view that science contradicts all religion is incorrect. Unfortunately, this approach has infiltrated the religious system as a populist statement that holds that the matter should be feared. Therefore, outreach activities are needed, to see the beauty and harmony in the physical and biological laws of nature. I think there is no doubt that the understanding of science and its facts within the primary and secondary education system can only strengthen the connection that I strongly believe between religion and science. "

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