The Nexus of Science and Religion: Searching for a Divine Fingerprint in Creation

תקציר הסרטון

The foundations of modern science, as we know it today, were laid in the seventeenth century during the Scientific Revolution. The prevailing image of this development is that science emerged through a constant conflict with religion and the religious establishment, with the trial of Galileo becoming the ultimate symbol of this clash. In reality, however, the leaders of the Scientific Revolution were mostly people of faith who saw religion and science as complementary. Nevertheless, the tensions between these two domains exist and warrant our careful consideration. Jewish thinkers have also pondered the relationship between understanding the natural world and knowing God, and the questions that troubled them continue to preoccupy many of us today. Here are a few examples of such questions: Can we identify God’s "signature" within creation, such that science can lead us to acknowledge the existence of a Creator and Designer? Does the existence of an omniscient God negate human free will? Conversely, do the laws of nature discovered by science rule out such freedom of choice? The lessons in this series will explore questions regarding the relationship between faith and science through the study of classical and modern Jewish thinkers, ranging from Maimonides to Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz.