NoahideSevencommandments.com
Rabbi Dr Zvi Aviner
Ó copyrights
IDOLATRY-15/
Worshipping Science and Wisdom
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We’ve seen how the creation of Adam was intertwined
with the introduction of IDOLATRY into the world.
When G-d, ELHM, consulted in plural, saying “Let Us,”
He gave Adam precious gifts,
Yet He also opened the door for IDOLATORS 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 “Councilor” 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,
the direction of Adam’s history,
moving from our Sixth Day to the Seventh.
To establish that goal, ELHM consulted the Merciful Attribute, YHVH,
who rules over the Eternal Sabbath, saying to Herr:
Let Us Make Adam in Our Form and Our Image.
That consultation was a tremendous gift to Adam
enriching his life with holiness and joy
Yet it came with a price: with 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 guides him how not to fall a prey to such IDOLATRY,
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 He used each Day to build a layer in Adam’s body
The evidence of those series of consultations
Is seen in the way the human embryo develops in the uterus,
Passing through the stages of the Evolution,
as described in Genesis Chapter One
Those consultations were major gifts to Adam,
making Adam an integral part of Nature
capable of identifying with all its creatures,
so that Adam could rule over Nature
as a legitimate King Who Consults his subjects
who comprehend their wishes and needs.
As precious gifts as they were, yet by speaking in plural
ELHM opened the door for idolaters to think
That creatures in Nature are Partners of G-d,
even replacing G-d altogether
We also saw how Moses words predicts
the course of IDOLATRY in history,
how human civilizations evolved
as if programmed by Genesis Chapter One.
Man would always hear, we’ve said, G-d Calling him
“Adam, where are you? Come to me!”
Causing him to look for the CREATOR
Inside Nature.
Thus, Adam looks, in History, for G-d
in the Sixth Day, the Fifth, Fourth, Third, and Second.
He is temporarily tempted to worship items of those Days,
But as he gets wiser, he keeps looking deeper and deeper.
How amazing it is, that al those predictions
of the course of IDOLATRY in history
have been fulfilled in full,
in the order that Moses has predicted
in the miraculous Chapter One of Genesis
Our generation faces items of the First Day,
the primordial elements of the Universe
looking for our CREATOR in the BEGINNING
So, with who else did ELHM consult after the Six Days?
1. He Consulted the Wisdom in the Beginning
After consulting with the Six Days to provide for Adam’s body,
ELHM wished to make Adam wise –Homo Sapience.
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…”
The first verse can be read as:
“With His Head (or the Wisdom in His Head)
ELHM created the Heavens and the Earth”
In other words:
ELHM used Wisdom and Science to create the Heaven and the Earth”
To make another layer in Adam, to make him smart,
ELHM turned to his own –
“Wisdom and Science by Which He Created the World” (Nachmanides)
saying: “Let Us Make Adam in Our Form and Our Image”
He consulted the “Wisdom and Science in His Head”
and planted it in Adam’s head.
This consultation gave Adam a tremendous gift,
making him a Homo sapience
making his mind capable to uncover
all the mysteries of the Universe,
And use that Wisdom and Science
to create technology that improves our lives
Yet, as important as this consultation is,
It has also opened the door for IDOLATORS
to adore Science so much, that in their minds
they would replace G-d by Science
So, we, in 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 the deepest level of CREATION
In the very Wisdom and Science by which
The Universe was created
Amazingly, Moses predicts here
that the moment Mankind discovers Science,
Mankind would be tempted to worship it,
instead of G-d.
This prediction is especially amazing,
since no one in Moses’ time saw any
Wisdom and Science behind Nature
nor did they know what the Scientific Method is.
2. Ancient myths
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
3. Modern Scientific Method
The Scientific Method that we know today,
Came to the world at the 18th century,
by the great philosopher of Science, Emanuel Kant
Let’s talk a bit about his teaching
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-d’s 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 changed all that,
by eliminating G-d from our observation of Nature
Kant set up the Rule of Pure Reason,
that, in fact, has introduced a new religion,
The Religion of Pure Reason
In his proclamation, Kant 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 discovers Science, real Science,
It would be intertwined with 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 as 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.
Any valid new Scientific theory should not consider
The 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.
Before Kant we had: Man, G-d, Nature
After Kant, we have: Man, Science and Nature.
But, as Moses predicted,
Kant removed G-d also from our morality.
Each and every individual, Kant said,
is free to follow his own Pure Reasoning,
deciding for himself what to accept or reject
a moral behavior on himself.
This, however, should be done only
on condition that he would wish
the entire society, to adapt that behavior
and make his moral behavior 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 Reasoning
that knows well what is good for us.
Needless to say, we, today, recognize how naïve Kant was
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 on trial before Jerusalem Court,
he defended himself by arguing that his Nazi behavior
was in line Kant, obeying the law of society
4. How marvelous is our mind!
Kant was deeply fascinated by the way our brain works,
And how it fits the reality of Nature.
He was amazed 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.
He was impressed so much,
that he proposed that our brain actually “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
5. Attacking the Bible in the name of Science
But Kant’s revolution has prompted farther attacks on the Bi
, 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 and 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’s report on the History of Earth,
does match the Story of Genesis in Chapter One
In fact, the more we discover by Science about the history of Earth,
the more we appreciate how miraculous Genesis Chapter One is
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.
6. Noah’s Ark as a Scientific symbol
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 wobbled, 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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