IN THE BEGINNING: Biblical Creation and Science
Dr. Nathan Aviezer, Professor of Physics, Bar Ilan University
Of all the accounts of creation, the first chapter of Genesis is perhaps the most fantastic, with its sweeping pronouncements of the birth of the
universe, of the world and of man. In comparison to our advanced scientific understanding, it seems to rely on an almost fairy-tale logic. While
many present-day theologians and believers play down this seemingly incongruous history lesson, Professor Nathan Aviezer, a world-renowned
physicist and orthodox Jew, offers a balanced counterpoint. Combining a technical understanding of modern evolutionary
science with the scholarly insight of three millennia of rabbinical commentary, Aviezer is able to forge remarkable
connections in this dichotomy of approaches to creation. Although the sages Aviezer quotes (Maimonides, Rashi,
Nachmanides et al.) aren't widely known to the non-Jewish public, the explanations they propose are both divinely
inspired and scientific, and valuable to any believer in the modern world.
At a time when champions of atheism such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens top the bestseller charts
with an almost cultic belief in Darwinism, Aviezer's reconciliation of science and religion comes as a refreshing alternative.
In The Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science provides an antidote to this growing divide by elucidating the
core of all religious belief - the question of how we came to be.
Dr. Nathan Aviezer, Professor of Physics, Bar Ilan University
Of all the accounts of creation, the first chapter of Genesis is perhaps the most fantastic, with its sweeping pronouncements of the birth of the
universe, of the world and of man. In comparison to our advanced scientific understanding, it seems to rely on an almost fairy-tale logic. While
many present-day theologians and believers play down this seemingly incongruous history lesson, Professor Nathan Aviezer, a world-renowned
physicist and orthodox Jew, offers a balanced counterpoint. Combining a technical understanding of modern evolutionary
science with the scholarly insight of three millennia of rabbinical commentary, Aviezer is able to forge remarkable
connections in this dichotomy of approaches to creation. Although the sages Aviezer quotes (Maimonides, Rashi,
Nachmanides et al.) aren't widely known to the non-Jewish public, the explanations they propose are both divinely
inspired and scientific, and valuable to any believer in the modern world.
At a time when champions of atheism such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens top the bestseller charts
with an almost cultic belief in Darwinism, Aviezer's reconciliation of science and religion comes as a refreshing alternative.
In The Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science provides an antidote to this growing divide by elucidating the
core of all religious belief - the question of how we came to be.