Torah and Science

Dr. Steven Feldman, meteorology professor at Penn State and member of the Jewish community in State College, spoke to six students Monday night on the connection between science and Judaism. Being a biochemistry and Jewish studies double major, this topic was of great interest to me. What is, if there is any, connection between science and religion? Can the two go hand in hand? In the talk, Dr. Feldman brought up the point that the Jewish belief on creation is the one that most mimics what scientists believe actually happened--the order of the animals created during the first 6 days of creation match the order of evolution, suggesting a connection between science and Judaism. Other creation stories of the time, like the Mesopotamian story where Marduk cut his grandmother, another god into pieces and those pieces became the different part of the world for more information, click here. This culture's creation story reflects nothing that could be explained by science. Dr. Feldman also went into an explanation about how the complexity of science can lead to a greater belief in G-d, how there has to be a Creator who could have made everything the way that it is.

The one point that I questioned was when Dr. Feldman explained that either everything had to be created by G-d or that nothing was created by G-d, but by randomness. And I wonder whether there can be somethings that G-d created and somethings created by randomness, or human decisions. I personally think that G-d created the world and humans and stopped there. Humans have the ability to master sin, to decide whether to follow the inclination to do evil or the inclination to do good. We have the ability to make our own decisions; life is not predetermined. But what do you think? Comment on this post to share your opinions on the relationship between Torah and science, the connection between G-d and randomness.