Torah Truth

The beginning of Torah outlines the process of the Creation. From “The Beginning” to the creation of the first man Adam. There are great articles already available on Internet and in printed books on this topic. Particularly recommended are written by a distinguished scientist, Professor of MIT Dr. Gerald Schroeder who provides outstanding Biblical and scientific details to the topic. But before we send our reader to the articles by Dr. Schroeder, we want to provide a wider view on the topic.

Life, as we observe it, is an extraordinary complex phenomena in both microcosmic and macroscopic appearance.

This observed complexity follows the LAWS OF NATURE, the understanding of which is the whole goal of the human science. The premise of scientific mind is that once we understand the LAWS OF NATURE we know where this world comes from and whence where a life “evolves” from.

Yet, the very basic scientific discoveries (even those put into the “foundation” of modern science) hardly can get us any closer towards such a goal. Observe the “basics” – the laws of thermodynamics:

First law of thermodynamics:

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms. or In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same. – So, if this is the total amount of energy science is dealing with, then where does it come from?

Second law of thermodynamics:

The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

Or in a simple manner, the second law states that energy systems have a tendency to increase their entropy rather than decrease it. Entropy is a measure of chaos or chaotic movements or randomness of molecules in a system. Spontaneous changes, in isolated systems, occur with an increase in entropy. So, this simply means that according to the LAWS OF NATURE only such processes are possible as death, decay, erosion and, put it more simply, only the destruction of the more complex forms into the simple forms is possible. Opposite to this, the “appearance” of the complex forms, cannot be a result of this law, but, quite opposite, …

the result of the intelligent design and creation.

The Big Bang discovery (which articles and books of Dr. Schroeder deals with in much details) tells us that:

1. All the laws of nature which science is chasing after, started at a certain point in history: about 15 billion years ago – from “The Beginning“. So, to answer the main quest of the science, what was before that? Now, at this point, the question itself is not perceived as “scientific” any more, but crossing into the metaphysical…
2. From where (or may we ask “From Whom”) this given total sum of energy, the thermodynamics tells us about, come from ? If we try to follow some physicists who say that all the energy of the universe was compressed in the tiny point (no universe yet…), then we may persist asking where this compressed energy come from… another micro explosion ?
3. And, since there was a point of the beginning of this universe, the most “unscientific” question of all : what was the purpose of the Big Bang and the subsequent “appearance” (to escape word “creation”) of complex life forms ?

Another highly recommended reading which is very useful prerequisite to reading parsha Bareishit is the book “The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles” By Professor Bruce H. Lipton (see www.nrucelipton.com). This book reveals an amazing phenomenon : the discovery of the consciousness in every living cell …

And now we point you to the wisdom and knowledge of Dr. Schroeder on the AISH website:

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/Age_of_the_Universe.asp

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/Evolution_Rationality_vs._Randomness.asp

http://www.aish.com/societywork/sciencenature/The_Fine_Tuning_of_the_Universe.asp

 

UPDATE 09.03.2011:

I decided to add to this post my reply to Jake’s comment Submitted on 2010/10/27 because it tries to clarify the complexity which confuses many seekers:

First I’ll answer using only minimum knowledge of modern physics.
The laws of physics apply to the nature around us as we observe it in the present moment. These laws are true and verifiable over our limited time of human existence narrowed down even more by the history of modern science. But ask yourself this question: do they apply to the … “nature” before the Big Bang?
You probably realize that question is not even valid because … what “nature” are you talking about? That “nature” which we observe, which we are part of and which we research in science did not exist before Big Bang, no laws of thermodynamics, not even energy, there was no object to be observed, neither subject to do observation … your question about 1st law of thermodynamics cannot be even applied “there” as there is nothing there yet not even energy in any form (scripture’s wording says “tohu v’avohu” which is translated as “unformed and void”)… In fact even Einstein’s relativity theory cannot be applied as there are no object or subjects. What was before the Big Bang? You can run your imagination to it’s limits but you will not come up with anything better than:
“the earth was not formed and void” (Genesis, 1:2)
Only after the moment of Big Bang we may encounter any form of energy, the first form we know is the photon (or light), as in
“And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” (Genesis, 1:3)
All other forms of matter such as water or solids (“firmament” as usually translated in Genesis) represent different forms of energy according to the modern physics .
Another approach to the scientific understanding of what was before Big Bang comes from quantum mechanic physicists who use the theory of “Zero Point Field” to explains the dimension of our current reality where laws of physics can not be applied. This theory was developed by quantum field physicists trying to explain the phenomena in our world when unstable particles and other forms of energy appear and disappear apparently from and to … nothingness . The other term for this is a “vacuum state” or as a state containing “zero energy”. This “nothingness”, from where particles pop into and out of existence (read wikipedia about this theory), called “zero energy” or a “vacuum state”, – is kind of “scientific” term … for the Creator Who brought forward the particles of energy and matter out of the “vaccum state” (scientific language) or “tohu v’avohu”  (Torah / Bible language)…