In a letter penned by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to a member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, the Rebbe denies the necessity of following scientific evidence and thereby believing in a heliocentric model. His claim is that believing that the sun orbits the earth is well within the range acceptable beliefs and that a heliocentric model is medieval and regressive. This matter of the sun and the earth is a further case in point. To declare categorically in the name of science, that the earth revolves around the sun, and not vise versa, is, as noted above, turning the scientific clock back to the 19th century and Medieval science. It is also at variance with the theory of relativity, which has likewise been universally accepted. Science now declares—as categorically as it is permissible for contemporary science—that where two bodies in space are in relative motion, it is scientifically impossible to determine which is at rest and which in motion. It would appear that studying sciences at the foremost European universities does not a man of science make. In the same letter, the Rebbe claims that a non-literal reading of the Torahs creation account would in fact abrogate a primary reason for keeping Shabbat - that is, since the Torah says that the Creatir rested on the 7th day, if we claim day is a longer period then in fact Shabbat did not fall out on the 7th day. This, eventhough centuries ago many of our greatest Sages laid out that the creation account need not be read literally and that readings which defy reason need not be taken literally. There exists another well known position which the Rebbe adopted, this time regarding dinosaurs, in which he stated that such animals never lived and that the world was created with the fossil record to make it look as if they did. (See that good trick God did). This position was not the rebbes own invention, he took it from a Christian theologian. So why did the Rebbe feel the need to defend views which conflict with science? How and in what way are these necessary to defend the integrity of the Torahs account of creation? torahscience.org/torahsci/rebbeletter.html
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 13:36:01 +0000