Question about the Jewish faith and evolution?

Question

I was just reading a survey conducted by the Skeptic Magazine; http://www.skeptic.com/the_magazine/featured_articles/v12n03_orthodox_judaism_and_evolution.html it shows results that indicate a vast majority of Jewish students at universities reject evolution as an explanation for life on this planet and agree with the bibles writings that the universe is about 7000 years old and believe the Noah’s Ark story. Yet the wikipedia page on Israel; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isreal#Science_and_technology it shows that Israeli scientists have significantly contributed to the progress of modern science. How can this be?

Answer 1

The basic Jewish view is that evolution is a perfectly acceptable theory as long as it is understood that G-d had a hand in the process (for example, if we all came from a ball of goo, G-d created the goo, if it was the big bang, G-d created those elements that [banged?] together). It is usually only the ultra-Orthodox you will find rejecting evolution. And they throw rocks at people anyway.

Answer 2

I'm not Jewish but from what I have seen the problem is more in interpretation than translation. That said, often you will find that the translation depends on the way the translator interprets the passage in question. For example if you compared Isaiah 7:14 in the Artscroll, JPS, and the KJV you will find 3 slightly different translations. The translators of the Artscroll follow Rashi's understanding that the child in question is actually Isaiah's son while the JPS follows Radak's understanding that it is the son of Ahaz ( Hezekiah). The KJV and most other Christian translations insert the word "Virgin" to make the verse appear to be about Jesus. Like Mark I also recommend the Artscroll Chumash and the Artcroll Stone Edition Tanach as these contain much commentary that will be a great help in understanding the Jewish perspective .

Answer 3

lol. they surveyed a very tiny group of students at one single university. in the actual world of research, their findings would be tossed out as being useless. notice how they wouldn't even mention the name of the school? you can bet that they don't want you to know what school it was because it would give away that they handpicked a specific school that they knew had a higher than normal population of biblical literalists and would yield the results they wanted for their survey.

if they had surveyed at least 1000 students and ideally many more than that, from varied universities across the country, they would have gotten different findings. but then again, they knew that. and so they didn't.

Answer 4

I agree with gratvol and Lady Suri. Evolution, except to the ultra-Orthodox, just isn't in conflict with Judaism. The problem with surveys, polls, etc., is that they're notoriously unreliable for a whole host of reasons. Statistics can be used to prove almost anything. My daughter is fond of saying, "Did you hear about the statistician who drowned in a river with an average depth of four feet?"

Answer 5

I am sorry but that is a patented lie.

As a Orthodox Jewish college student I can say the vast majority of Not only Jewish college students but Orthodox Jewish college students have nothing against evolution.

and I myself am a strong supporter of it.

I would love to see their statistics and who they polled.

Answer 6

That is a shocker to me. Appalling!

PS It said the small number of all Orthodox Jews the go to University. You have misconstrued the article.

Answer 7

Many Jewish Theologians accept the basic Darwin tenants, but they don't subscribe to man coming from an animal like an ape or things happening accidentially.

We are created and then we evolve from there.

Answer 8

IMO, the questions were deliberately phrased poorly to cast the students in a negative light. I took the two worst and asked them of atheists:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070609190059AAn3ZHi&r=w

Answer 9

same with our country how so many believe in God but yet there are now more and more turning away . does not matter you will always have those that believe and those that even grew up with the same faith leave or not believe and then do whatever they can to prove to others God does not exist. even though he does.

Answer 10

Evolution and science are not synonyms.

Thumbsing me down doesn't make it true.