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Rabbinic Insights: Creation of the Creator
San Diego Jewish Times, November 18, 2005
By Rabbi Wayne Dosick
The
question is simple: what is the origin of life; what was the process of
creation?
For
millennia, the answer was clear and, mostly, unchallenged: God created the
universe and everything in it, including human beings, according to the
description and timetable laid out in the opening chapter of the Bible. Ancient
Greek philosophers had offered the idea that the development of life came from
non-life and from the evolution of man from animal. But, in the western world,
by far, the dominant view has been of biblical creationism.
In
1859, Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, published, On
the Origins of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, more commonly known as, The Origins of Species. Darwin argued the theory of evolution, and
added that evolutionary change was gradual, and that evolution is selective,
that is, it occurs through natural selection that survival or extinction of
any particular organism is determined by that organisms ability to adapt to
its environment.
The
theory of evolution challenged long-held beliefs in the biblical description of
God's six-day creation process, and, eventually led to the ongoing debate
between modern scientific postulates and religious faith.
In
the United States, the apex of the early debate came in 1925 in what is known as
the Scopes Monkey Trial. Famous attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings
Bryan came to tiny Dayton, Tennessee, to argue the case that would have
far-reaching consequence. The defendant, John Thomas Scopes, was found guilty of
violating state law banning the teaching of evolution in the public schools. On
appeal, the verdict was overturned on a legal technicality, but the state
Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the law, and let the ban stand
on teaching evolution.
Nevertheless,
the debate raged on between those supporting the theory of evolution as good
science, and those supporting the biblical account as true faith. Slowly at
least in the public arena, in this rational, scientific age science began to
win out, and, across the nation, the teaching of evolution as the scientific
theory of creation began to enter most every classroom. In 1967, the state of
Tennessee overturned the ban of teaching of evolution, but, in 1973, enacted a
law requiring that the teaching of evolution and creationism be given equal
time. That law was overturned by a federal appeals court in 1977, and even
"balanced treatment" was overturned in 1987. America has opted that
its public schools teach science, not religion.
With the recent rise of religious fundamentalists into the American political
arena, the debate has been entered once again. Four states have mandated a
classroom critical analysis of evolution, and just last week, Kansas redefined
"science" so that it not be explicitly limited to natural explanation.
One school board member said, "I'm pleased to be on the front edge of
trying to bring some intellectual honesty and integrity to the science
classroom, rather than asking students to check their questions at the door,
because it is a challenge to the sanctity of evolution." (The sanctity
of evolution?) An ardent supporter of the new definition said, "This is
what I believe God wants us to do."
The
proponents of the biblical, faith-based account of creation are now calling that
belief "Intelligent Design," that is, nature alone cannot explain life
complexities, so the world must have an "intelligent Designer"
God. This is the modern version of the old philosophical "teleological
argument, also known as the "argument from design" for the
existence of God that "the order in the universe implies an orderer,
and cannot be a natural feature of the universe."
So,
where do we modern Jews steeped in faith and educated in science stand
in this debate? There is, of course, no unilateral stance. The biblical
fundamentalists among us insist on the validity of the biblical account. Others
opt for demonstrable, provable science. Others see no conflict between religion
and science, between faith and reason, between creationism and evolution.
Let's
look directly at the biblical text to see the account of creation that is
clearly attributable to God, to the intelligent design of the intelligent
Designer. Here's what happens:
Day One: light is created; light is separated from darkness. Light is called
"day." Darkness is called "night."
Day
Two: waters are separated from waters above and below the expanse/firmament.
The expanse is called "Sky"/"Heavens."
Day
Three: water below the sky is gathered into one area, making dry land. Dry land
is called "Earth." The gathering of waters is called "sea."
Earth sprouts vegetation; seed-bearing plants of every kind.
Day
Four: lights in the firmament are created to separate day from night, to shine
upon the Earth; to set the times of the days and years. There are two great
lights great for day; lesser for night; and stars are created.
Day
Five: the waters bring forth swarms of creatures; birds that fly; great sea
monsters; living creatures of every kind that creep. They are told, "Be
fertile and multiply."
Day
Six: every living creature is created; cattle; creepy things; wild beasts of
every kind; God says, "let us make man in our image;" male and female
human Beings are created. They are told, "Be fertile and multiply." To
humankind is given for food: every seed-bearing plant for food; all the animals,
birds, everything that creeps (all that has the breath of life) and the green
plants.
Day Seven: Heaven and Earth finished. God rests from all the work; blesses the
seventh day and makes it holy.
This biblical account surely is attributed to God, the Intelligent Designer, and
at the very same time, it follows the pattern of evolution that science posits.
First, the "big bang" light and the separation of light from dark;
then separation of the high heavens; then water and earth; then vegetation; then
sun, moon and stars; then the swarm of creatures emerging from the waters; then
birds and fish; then creepy, crawly things; then cattle and all living beasts;
then human beings.
Not
exactly the evolutionary pattern? Perhaps not. But, according to this account,
the time measuring sun and moon are not created until the fourth segment of
creation, so we can hardly demand to measure time according to our modern days
and years. The birds come before the fish? Probably not. But close enough.
For,
you see, the biblical account is antiquity's tribal tale of the telling of
creation. Let's suppose for a moment that right before bedtime, a child of
antiquity says to a parent, "Mommy, Daddy, tell me a story. "What
story would you like to hear, my child?" "Tell me how God made
me." Now, neither an ancient parent, nor a modern contemporary one, would
say, "My dear child, let me tell you about the evolutionary process, and
how one thing derived from another, and how the survival of the fittest means
that you are here tonight." No, a parent of then and now would weave a
story some might say a tale, a fable, an archetypal myth that is easily
understood by a three-year old. This story would have a great and mighty hero
and although this hero, God, does not have to defeat other powerful gods in
order to create, this God simply speaks and creation comes into being. (In the
morning, Daddy will tell the child that, as a prayer, we can say, "Blessed
is the One who spoke and the world
became.") The story would be mysterious, and exciting, and a bit scary, and
build, slowly, slowly to a wondrous and wonderful conclusion as all good
stories do. And, it would put the child right into the story, as the crowning
work of creation.
And,
when finally it becomes time to write the story, the nighttime tale which
remains as understandable for uneducated, unsophisticated adults as it is for
little children it becomes the Hebrews' tribal account of God's creation.
And, millennia later, when modern science challenges, people of faith will know
that the ancients had it almost perfect. There is no real conflict. God creates
anew. Science discovers and catalogues what God has already created.
If
you insist, God, the Creator, created the complicated evolutionary process,
which science claims as its own, while the biblical account gives us the sweet
story that we and our children can understand and embrace.
Elephants
still give birth to elephants and human beings still give birth to human beings.
An accident? Survival of the fittest? Or the mind and hand of God?
No
contest.
So
for those who understand and "get it" this can be the end of
the fight between science and religion, between creationism and evolution.
Fundamentalism of any kind religious or scientific does not help or
unite. It only separates and harms.
Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., the spiritual guide of the Elijah
Minyan, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and the Director of
the 17: Spiritually Healing Children's Emotional Wounds. He is the
award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including Golden
Rules; Living Judaism; and Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era.