|
|
February 5, 1999/19 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 19
Apes in Eden?
Correlation between science and Judaism subject of dialogue
MICHELLE ACKERMAN
Staff Writer
Darwinism or creationism? Nature or nurture? Faith in God or in science?
Next weekend, a group of internationally known scholars and scientists will gather in Tempe to discuss Judaism and science - and they hope to show that the two are not mutually exclusive.
Norbert Samuelson, Harold and Jean Grossman professor of Jewish studies at Arizona State University, is also secretary/treasurer of the national Academy for Jewish Law.
In recent years, the Templeton Foundation has provided seed money for research on the correlation between the two disciplines, Samuelson says.
"Now it's just blossoming," he explains.
Samuelson, who came to ASU a year ago, serves as secretary/treasurer of the Academy for Jewish Law. This is the first time the meeting will be held on the Tempe campus.
"Science and Religion: A Dialogue Between Jewish Scholars and Scientists on the Garden of Eden" will be presented Friday, Feb. 12, through Sunday, Feb. 14, at the Hillel Union for Jewish Students, 1012 S. Mill Ave. Each of the eight presenters, as well as the invited participants, was chosen for his or her interest in both Judaism and the sciences, as well as for being internationally renowned.
The dialogue will extend over four 90-minute sessions. In each session, a Judaic scholar will introduce and briefly discuss a Jewish text having something to do with the biblical story of the garden of Eden, and then a scientist will give a brief response. Most of each session will be an open discussion regarding the presented text.
Heidi Ravven, a philosophy professor from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., plans to relate how Baruch Spinoza, a 17th century philosopher, and the 12th Jewish philosopher Maimonides dealt with the story of the garden of Eden. Her symposium question: Does the Eden story suggest that man fell as a result of knowledge, and that therefore knowledge is detrimental, or is knowledge consistent with human life and do we then become perfected through it?
Spinoza and Maimonides "think that the issue is whether knowledge is good for human life and for human well-being, or (is it) a danger. After all, when Adam eats of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he's punished. So the question is: Why should he be punished for doing something that seems to be a good thing? How can you punish someone for having knowledge?"
Carl Feit, from the biology department at Yeshiva University in New York City, will respond to Ravven's presentation. "While basically scientific knowledge is good, how that knowledge is applied and used is clearly what we call a two-edged sword," he says. "The knowledge provides power to humanity to manipulate the universe."
Noting recent advances in science, such as cloning, infertility treatment and the atom bomb, Feit adds, "Science provides you with ... information. But science has no way of grappling with the questions of right or wrong."
Other presenters include Bernard Levinson, a Bible scholar at the University of Minnesota; Kenneth Kendler, his respondent, who researches mental disorders caused by genetic deformities at Virginia Commonwealth University; Joel Gereboff, rabbinics scholar and chairman of religious studies at Arizona State University; Jane Maienschein, his respondent and a professor of philosophy and biology at ASU; Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, a historian from Indiana University who specializes in Renaissance Jewry and kabbalah; and Joel Primack, her respondent, from the physics department at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
"I hope that the scientists will understand their science as a religious activity, and that the scholars will understand that science is an integral part of being Jewish, and everyone will emerge with a richer knowledge of Judaism," says Samuelson.
Samuelson also hopes that this discussion will lead to the development of the first program on science and religion at any North American university.
The weekend is being sponsored by the Harold and Jean Grossman Chair of Jewish Studies, together with ASU's program of Jewish studies, International Academy for Jewish Philosophy and Rodef Shalom Temple of Pittsburgh, Penn.
The dialogue at Hillel is free and open to the public.
|
