In the 19th century, an Italian Kabbalist, Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh wrote that evolution did not contradict the Torah as long as one understands that it was guided by G-d. The Netziv used the idea of dinosaur fossils to be the remains of beings who existed in previous worlds, as described by the Midrash and other Kabbalistic texts. While these rabbis seem to be more open towards evolution and scientific theories, more right wing and modern rabbis opposed these theories. Moshe Feinstein was extremely opposed to evolution and even banned the reading of texts describing evolution, calling it heresy. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was also strongly opposed to evolution. It is interesting to note that the more modern rabbis seemed to be more opposed to evolution, perhaps because more and more theories were discovered that ostensibly contradicted the Torah.
Personally, I do not know enough about evolution to make a decision if it contradicts the Torah or not. But I do know that many rabbis in Jewish history were forerunners of theories of evolution and even wrote about a concept similar to the "big bang theory" hundreds of years ago. It is very interesting to try to analyze how Judaism, or any religion, relates to science and if the two seemingly contradictory notions are actually compatible.
I hope nobody minds if I add something - I just wanted to elaborate on an excellent point Sade made in the name of Rabbi Benamozegh.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to understand that the theory of evolution posits that the development of species is a "blind" process; there is no inherent goal. In other words, what allows new species to develop is _random_ mutations which then proliferate over generations if those mutations result in some survival advantage to the species. This is called natural selection.
This idea of a "blind" process is clearly antithetical to the Torah's description in Bereshit of Hashem purposefully creating the world and its numerous species. However, I still think it is plausible to view natural selection as the mechanism through which Hashem brought different species into existence. All we need to modify in our thinking is that these mutations were not truly random, but rather the handiwork of a Creator with a clear goal in sight.
Certainly, this idea doesn't bring the scientific and Biblical worlds into perfect harmony. But I think it's a way to bring some comfort to those of us who want to ascribe importance and some compatibility to both realms.
Joel Siegel