Customer Reviews

In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science

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Aviezer is ingenious and does a truly credible job in connecting the Biblical story of creation with science's most recent findings about the physical world. For those whose tendency in thought is to look for confirmation of their religious belief in this way this is truly an excellent work.
I would however say that I am one of those who tend to see this kind of effort as more metaphorical and marginal than central to religious faith. For me Tannach( the Bible) is not a scientific guide to the universe, a more primitive primary source to what Mankind would later confirm through scientific research but rather the prime religious revelation, the document that teaches us how to live morally, and do G-d's servince in the world. Of course in the Jewish tradition this means also making the interpretation of Tannach through the Oral Torah. But that is another matter.
The point again is this is a rich work by a scientist who really knows his stuff and a religious Jew who is learned and wise. If this approach is the one the reader finds useful for them I highly recommend this work.

An interesting study about evolution and origins from a biblical and a scientific point of view. I think it is a good aid for professors willing to promote students' reflection about science and faith.

Books like this are all the same. They suggest that cosmology and the Bible don't have to conflict so long as you take creation story metaphorically. Fine, but so what? The truth is that a lot of religious people don't want to take the creation story metaphorically for fear of going down the slippery slope of taking the whole Bible metaphorically, which is really the only reasonable way to take it. But if the whole Bible is a metaphor, how can it be the Divine word?