SPONTANEOUS GENERATION :

The Supremacy of Reason : Conventional wisdom does indeed perceive such an incompatibility between religion and science, between faith and reason. Careful consideration, however, reveals that every single one of us truly does rely on faith. Whether we are scientists or laymen, clergymen or atheists, faith is as essential to our diet as flour and water. (Rabbi Yonason Goldson, May 2002, Jewish World Review)

We have all learned that the world is made up of atoms. But no one has ever viewed an atom, only the energy trails left behind by ... something. In the absence of any better hypothesis, we posit the existence of atoms. We have all learned that the universe began with the Big Bang. Scientists tell us that before this great cosmological cataclysm, neither time nor space existed. But what exactly does that mean? It means, according to columnist Bob Berman in the June 2000 issue of Astronomy, precisely this: "Nobody has the foggiest idea what happened the Tuesday before the Big Bang."

We have all learned that life came into existence billions of years ago in a sea of primordial goo, and that sentient life evolved from the lower orders. So where are the myriad
examples of macro-evolution that Darwin predicted we would find? What's more, biologists can make only the wildest speculations as to how a random assembly of amino acids
could produce animation and conscious thought, even given billions of years to work at it. Nevertheless, most people continue to believe that the Big Bang created a universe
made up of atoms and inhabited by creatures evolved from pre-Paleozoic slime. Why? Because they have faith, faith that science will eventually answer its own questions.

At best, the science-believer can claim a rational faith; a faith in observation and experimentation that will eventually confirm the unsubstantiated beliefs he holds today. Nor is
this the only example of how rational faith serves every one of us every day of our lives. If my doctor tells me that I need my appendix out, I'll probably rely on him, since I
realize that I don't know enough to diagnose myself. And if my mechanic tells me my car needs a new fuel pump, I'll probably rely on him too, since I wouldn't know my fuel
pump from my appendix.

The faith demanded by Judaism is no less rational, for it is built upon a logical extrapolation of evidence available to anyone who cares to examine it, tempered by an awareness
of the limitations of human knowledge. Therefore, if the Almighty tells me that observing and safeguarding the Torah is to my benefit, I will certainly take His advice, for He
created me, and He knows me even better than a mother knows her child.

So there was nothing impetuous about the Jews' acceptance of the Torah sight-unseen. Indeed, we did not accept the Torah on faith at all; we accepted it on trust, a trust more
solid than the most compelling scientific proof.

But trust is only the first step. "Na'aseh v'nishmah," the Jewish people said. "We will obey, and we will listen." The Hebrew word "nishmah" implies much more than simply
hearing the commandments. It implies studying them diligently, laboring to understand them. That which we originally accepted based on trust, we can then accept based on
knowledge.

This is how the Jew has faced the unknown since his ancestors received the Torah on that first Shavuos day, 3,312 years ago: by trusting that everything in the world has been
brought into existence by design, but also by questioning the nature of the world and all that is in it; pondering good and evil, triumph and tragedy, nobility and selfishness.

Always confident in the supremacy of divine reason, we stand assured that whenever the universe seems not to make sense, it is rather we who have not yet succeeded in
understanding it.

Belief in God may eventually prove to have been nothing but a mass delusion. But the willingness of the believer to approach these big questions with humility and to accept that there are things that we don't, and maybe can't, know strikes me as far more appealing than the arrogance with which science assumes that everything will yield to its ministrations. Thus, science perceives the Big Bang but can't see beyond, so it insists that nothing existed prior. Religion perceives a moment of Creation and believes in a Creator who is simply beyond our comprehension. In at least this regard, though the answers offered by religion may be inadequate, those offered by science seem grotesquely egotistical and purblind--and maybe just a bit dishonest. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 16, 2002 8:27 AM