NoahideSevencommandments.com

Rabbi Dr Zvi Aviner

 

 

 

IDOLATRY-10/Science as an Idol

 

ELHM  consulted Wisdom and Science and made Adam

 

 

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Last class we saw that the creation of Adam was intertwined

with introducing to the world, the option of IDOLATRY.

G-d, ELHM, consulted in plural, saying “Let Us,”

thereby opening the room for idolaters to think

that there are more than One and Only CREATOR

 

With whom did ELHM consult?

We’ve said: with whoever is mentioned in the miraculous Chapter One.

He consulted them one by one, and each contributed

a layer in Adam’s body and soul.

 

Like a CEO of a company building a humanoid robot,

ELHM first established the goal of Adam’s life

And the direction of Adam’s history,

moving forwards from our Sixth Day to the Seventh.

 

For that, ELHM consulted the Merciful Attribute YHVH,

Who rules over the Eternal Sabbath, asking Her,

Let Us Make Adam in Our Form and Our Image,

And He (They) made Adam accordingly

 

That consultation was a tremendous gift to Adam

enriching his life with holiness and joy

but it came with a price: the option of IDOLATRY

for by speaking in plural, ELHM opened up the door

for idolaters to think that YHVH and ELHM are two different gods

 

 

Adam would have to be given a Torah

that would tech him not to fall a prey to such IDOLATRY

and how to unite YHVH and ELHM in his mind and life

 

ELHM then turned to build Adam’s body.

For that, He turned to the Six Days,

Saying to each Day “Let Us Make Adam…”

and from each Day He built a layer in Adam’s body

 

We’ve also said that

One can see the evidence of these consultations

In the way that a human embryo develops in the uterus

as it passes through all the stages of the Evolution

as described in Genesis Chapter One

 

Those consultations were a major gift to Adam,

making Adam an integral part of Nature

capable of identifying with all the creatures

so that Adam could rule over Nature

as a King Who Consults his subjects

and comprehend their wishes and needs

 

Tremendous gift it was, yet by speaking in plural

ELHM opened the door for idolaters to believe

that the items in Nature are Partners of G-d,

even replacing G-d altogether

 

We also saw how Moses predicts here the course of history

that would follow the path of IDOLATRY.

Man, we said, hears the CREATOR calling him

“Adam, where are you? Comme to me!”

And Adam looks for his CREARTOR in Nature

 

 

First, Adam seeks G-d in creatures

made close to him on the Sixth Day,

and he worships holy cows, ferocious beasts and Dragons

 

But as Adam progresses, he seeks G-d deeper in Nature

in creatures made on the Fifth Day: Fish, Birds, Crocodiles

and he worships them instead of G-d, like the Egyptians did

 

Adam continues to progress, and he seeks G-d in

elements made on the Fourth Day: The Celestial Bodies,

and he worships them instead of G-d, like the Babylonians did

 

As Adam progresses, he seeks G-d in items made on the Third Day,

made on the Third Day: Vegetation, Trees, even Fertility

and he worships them instead of G-d, like the Canaanites did

 

Adam also worships elements made on the Second Day, the Sea,

And he worships it as the Greek did.

 

How amazing it is that al those predictions of the course of IDOLATREY

In history have   been implemented, in the order that Moses describes

in the miraculous Chapter One of Genesis

 

Now Mankind faces the items mentioned in the First Day,

the most primordial elements of the Universe.

Would Adam worship them too?

 

For that, let’s go to the story of Adam creation.

After consulting with the Six Days to provide for Adam’s body,

ELHM wanted to make Adam a smart creature.

 

For that, ELHM turned to the very Beginning, where it says

“At the Beginning, ELHM created the Heavens and the Earth.”  

In Hebrew, the word Beginning – BeReishit – can be read as:

“At the Head of the Events, ELHM created…”

Meaning: ELHM created the Heavens and the Earth, using His “Head,”

Meaning – using Wisdom and Science” that is in His Head.

 

 

Now ELHM turned to that

“Wisdom and Science by Which He Created the World”

saying: “Let Us Make Adam in Our Form and Our Image”

He then consulted the Wisdom and Science in His Head

And planted it in Adam’s head.

 

Indeed, this consultation gave great gift,

making Adam a Homo sapience

 

That is why Adam’s mind can

comprehend how the Universe works,

decipher all the Universe mysteries

and use that Wisdom and Science

to create technology that improves our lives

 

But as important that consultation is,

It has also opened the door for idolaters

to adore Science so much that in their minds

Science replaces G-d.

 

So, we, our generation, still hear G-d calling us

Adam, where are you? Come to me!

And like our predecessors, we too

Look for Him in CREWATION.

 

Of course, we wouldn’t fall a prey to the IDOLATRY of the past,

But we would seek Him in the deepest layer of CREATION,

In the items of the First Day, in the Beginning, or in the

Wisdom and Science by which He had created the world.

 

Moses actually predicts here,

that the moment Mankind would discover Science,

Man would be tempted to worship it, instead of G-d.

 

 

 

This prediction is amazing by itself,

since no one in Moses’ time saw any

Wisdom and Science behind Nature

nor did they know what the Scientific Method is.

 

The Egyptians in Moses time,

told mythical stories about CREATION,

full of bloody rivalry between the gods,

full of ugly sexual perversions.

So did the Babylonians and the Greeks.

No one in Moses’ time knew what Science is,

and no one saw it behind Nature.

 

The Egyptians knew “empirical science,”

Like which herb can cure this or that malady.

But they combined their knowledge with witchcraft,

Believing that their medications

chase away bad spirits and demons

 

 

The Scientific Method as we know it today

Came to the world at the 18th century

By the great philosopher of Science, Emanual Kant

 

 

Before Kant, people saw G-d in every event in nature.

When an apple falls from a tree on your head, it is G-d who is doing it.

When a leaf moves by the wind, it is G-d who is doing it,

When a plague hits the city, it is G-ds’ hands who is doing it

Thus G-d was perceived as an intermediator between us and Nature  

 

 

This is what people said for thousands of years,

even today, especially in Islam.

 

Kant came and changed that perception

By eliminating G-d from our observation of Nature

 

Kant set up the Rule of Pure Reason,

That actually introduces a new religion,

The religion of Pure Reason

 

 

 

Rule number one that Kant introduced

calls every man/woman to have the courage

to follow only his/hers Pure Reason,

and reject any dogma or theory that

is imposed on him by authorities, priests or kings.

 

 

By this rule, without being aware,

Kant actually fulfilled the prediction made by Moses

That when humanity would discover Science

It would be intertwined by rejecting G-d.

 

Kant went on to set up his second rule,

The rule of the Pure Reason Critique.

 

This important rule says that when we explain Nature

We should consider valid only theories

That can be validated by our senses

Or can be measured by our instruments

Or can be tested by experiments in the lab

Or can be expressed by mathematical equations

Or can produce new real product such as technology

 

All other theories, as charming and appealing they might be,

Should be discarded and move away to the

supernatural, transcendent realm

that can never be validated

 

Thus, when an apple falls from a tree on your head,

do not consider the “G-d Hypothesis” as a factor,

since G-d can’t be sensed, measured or described

by a mathematical formula.

 

 

Instead, when dealing with the falling apple,

consider only factors that can be sensed or measured.

Such as gravity F, the apple’s mass M, its acceleration g,

then arrive at Newtons’ Formula: F=Mxg square.

 

And here is the difference: Newton’s formula describes

not only the falling apple, but the attraction of the

moon by Earth, and the Earth by the Sun.

The new theory does not consider God Hypothesis as a factor

 

Similarly, when we face the Ebola plague,

we should divert our energy to finding the real causes

that can be sensed, seen, measured and tested

rather than seeking supernatural causes

 

So, while in the past G-d was seen as

an intermediator between us and Nature,

by Kant, we should remove G-d from our considerations

and replace Him by our Pure Reasoning, by Science.

 

 

Again, by this rule, Kant fulfilled, unknowingly,

Moses’ prediction and warning,

that Science would challenge our believe in G-d.

 

After Kant, we have Man, Science and Nature.

 

Moreover, as Moses predicted,

Kant also removed G-d from our morality.

 

Each and every individual, Kant said, is free

To use his own Pure Reason to accept or reject

A moral behavior on himself.  On one condition:

That he would wish the entire society, to adapt

his moral behavior as a law for everyone.

 

Hence, Man does not need G-d anymore to set up our morality

For we should propose and follow our own Pure Reason

that knows well what is good for us.

 

Needless to say, we, today, recognize how naïve

Kant is by assuming that Man’s Pure Reason can be relied upon.

For instance:

When the mass murderer Eichman, the architect of Auschwitz

and the holocaust, was brought to a trial before Jerusalem Court,

he defended himself by arguing that he had acted as a Nazi

as an avid disciple of Kant, obeying the law of society

 

 

 

And another point:

 

Kant was fascinated by the way our brain works

when dealing with Nature.

He was amazed to realize how well our brain

can come up with theories that fits Nature so well,

theories so precise that they can be expressed by

mathematical formulae and equations.

So much, that he proposed, that our brain dictates Nature.

 

Our brain works, he said, as if it has inherent ‘boxes’ of thinking

planted in us “a-priority”, before we have any real experience,

as if our brain is “programed” to think in a certain way

that matches Nature perfectly.

 

But unknowingly to him, Kant only discovered what Moses had said

that to make Adam, ELHM consulted His Wisdom and Science

by which He had created the world, and made Adam’s mind accordingly.

No wonder that Man’s mind can come up with theories

That match perfectly well what we see in Nature.

 

 

Thus, we see that Moses’ prediction has materialized,

And that the arrival of Science was accompanied with

A threat to our Faith in G-d and in the Bible

 

 

But Kant’s revolution has prompted farther attacks on the Bible, from all branches of Science,

From

History,

Archeology,

Geology

Biology

Astronomy and Cosmology.

 

 

 

Thus,

The historians and archeologists have argued

That there is no evidence for the revelation on Sinai,

That the Torah was written by different authors in different times

That the Exodus did not happen the way it is described in the Bible,

That Joshua never existed

That David never existed

 

 

But today, a miracle happened

And Science itself has shown

The validity of the Bible

And the fallacy of the claims made against the Bible

In the name of Science.

 

For instance,

The computer code has shown clearly

that the Five Books of Moses were written by one author.

And that the Exodus did take place the way the Bible describes it

That Joshua and David did exist

 

Other scholars have attacked the Bible

In the name of Geology and Earth History

 

Well, we have already seen how the History channel report

on the History of Earth, and the Story of Genesis in Chapter One

do match perfectly well!

 

In fact, the more we discover by Science about the history of Earth,

the more we appreciate how miraculous is Genesis Chapter One

 

 

Another challenge made in the name of Science

Came from biology and the story of the Evolution

 

According to Darwin, life on Earth advanced

by random genetic mutations and natural selection

rather than by G-d’s Commands.

 

But today we realize how false that claim is.

It would take 10 with 84 zeros number of years, to advance

the animal’s species by random mutations and natural selection

more than the life time of the Universe!

 

Moreover,

Darwinism can’t explain the sudden explosion of species

That took place in the ocean in the Cambrian Period

That fits Moses’ Fifth Day.  It can’t be explained

By random mutations and natural selection.

 

Moreover,

Darwinism can’t explain the origin of the DNA

And the information embedded in it

That appeared complete and ready

Even in the most primordial cell.

The chance that such information shows up at random

Is extremely small.

 

 

Other scholars have attacked the Bible

From Astronomy and Cosmology

 

 

Steven Hawkins, for instance, has repeatedly claimed

That we can understand the Cosmos without

the “G-d Hypothesis.”

 

However,

Recent review of all the findings about the Cosmos

Has shown that the chance that the Universe is built

In such a way to allow Life develop on Earth, is extremely small.

 

These considerations have led many scientists to call for

Re-inserting the “G-d Hypothesis” into our consideration of Nature

At least as an “Intelligent Designer.”

 

 

But the strongest threat to the belief in G-d, came

from the success of Science to produce technology

and medications.

 

We are aware how Science has improved and prolonged

our lives. Instead of turning to the supernatural, we turn

to doctors, to medications and surgery.  In the eyes of many,

this trend has made G-d obsolete.

 

 

How then would Noahides relate to Science and its success?

One way: Think of Noah’s Ark.

You see, G-d could have saved Noah and his animals by

Forming a bubble around him or by any other miracle.

 

Instead,

G-d ordered Noah to build a scientifically sound floating device,

an Ark whose dimensions assure that it would never capsize.

 

When loaded, the Ark’s center of gravity was below the waters’ surface,

so that it wabbled, yet but stayed upright.

Its pyramidal shape and the slanting walls assured

that the water of the rain would wash off to the sea.

The Ark did not have a   front or a back,

since it was not supposed to go anywhere,

just stay afloat.

 

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By this, G-d sent us a message, that we too

Should use Science to protect us from

Nature and its calamities.

 

We should think of the Ark as an interface between

Noah and Nature, while inside the Ark

YHVH prevailed.

There, inside the Ark, Noah and his family and the animals

were protected by YHVH,

who “closed the Ark’s door” for him,

stopping the water from coming in,

providing warmth and peace to everyone inside.

 

Inside the Ark, under YHVH,

the wolf did not prey on the lamb,

a child could play safely on the snake’s pit

and all the futuristic visions of Israel’s prophets

have been fulfilled.

 

 

Noah’s Ark therefore presents Science

as the interface between us and Nature.

But G-d is our shelter, in our personal life and homes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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