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Explore the age of the universe through the lens of science and Torah. Discover the concept of time and the guiding hand in creation. Scientific method meets religious wisdom.
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Beresheet - tyvarb In the Beginning…
Provable • Reproducible • Due to the development of the world-wide education system, all information must be examined through the microscope of science • Without doing so, you’re viewed as an idiot! • Good news, all truth is provable! Scientific method
Survey of American scientists • One of the questions: • “What is your concept of the age of the universe?” • 67% said, “Beginning? There was no beginning. Aristotle and Plato taught us 2400 years ago that the universe is eternal. Oh, we know the bible says, ‘in the beginning.’ That’s a nice story, but we sophisticates know better. There was no ‘beginning.’” 1959
Penzias and Wilson discovered the echo of the “big bang” and after 3000 years of arguing science has come to agree with Torah. 1965
Was it 5773 years (actually 5943; ~170 years uncounted during the Babylonian captivity) or 15,000,000,000+ years accepted by the scientific community? How long ago did the beginning occur?
Judaism counts the years since the “birth of Adam’s soul” (~5943 years) The six days of creation precede Adam’s sin Jewish calendar
Two clocks First: the sequence of events before Adam’s sin. Second: post sin and initiated the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Proverbs 25:11 Maimonides (1135-1204): Silver dish = Torah Apples = secrets held within the text A word well spoken is like apples of gold in a silver dish.
In Moses’ closing speech he said: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations.” Deuteronomy 32:7 Moses said… Nachmanides (1194-1270): “Why does Moses break the calendar into two parts – ‘the days of old and the years of many generations?’”
the “days of old” are the six days of creation the “years of many generations” is all the time from Adam forward Consider that…
“Moses says you can see God’s fingerprint on the universe in one of two ways. Look at the phenomenon of the Six Days and the development of life in the universe, which is mind-boggling. Or if that doesn’t impress you, then just consider society from Adam forward – the phenomenon of human history. Either way you will find the imprint of God.” Dr. geraldschroeder Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physics – 1988 “…I do find something spooky about the people of Israel coming back to the land of Israel.” Paraphrase: “I’m all right with the first part of Moses’ statement: ‘consider the days of old’ – the six days of creation, but the ‘years of many generations’ just doesn’t follow scientific order.” Professor leonlederman
One of the functions of the Jewish people is to show the world that there is some “monkey business” going on with history that makes it not all just random. There must be a guiding hand!
“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep…” Genesis 1:2a The Talmud explains that “darkness” or “choshech” $vxmeans black fire, black energy, a kind of energy that is so powerful you cannot even see it. What is a day?
Mayim~ym= water Maimonides identifies “mayim” also may mean the building blocks of the universe. words with uncommon definitions
“…and there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Genesis 1:5b First time statement is made, “evening and morning.” Does that mean “sunrise” and “sunset?” Problem: sun doesn’t come into existence until day four. Day one
Nachmanides says “vayehierev” does not mean “there was evening.” The Hebrew letters “ayin - [, resh - r, bet - b” the root of “erev” {{{{{br[ is chaos, mixture, disorder. Evening is called “erev” because vision is lost and objects become difficult to discern. Literal meaning: there was “disorder.” Day one
Morning (boker) is the opposite, when the sunrises everything becomes “bikoret,” orderly, able to discern. “Erev” to “boker” means a flow from disorder to order; from chaos to cosmos. Scientists agree, if by chance order came to be out of disorder, it would not remain orderly but fall into disorder (without a guiding influence). There must be a guide to the system. Day one
Hebrew literally says, “…day one, …day second, …day third, etc.” Many translations say “a first day,” missing the cosmic message. There is a quantitative difference between “one” (echad) and “first” (rishon). “One” is absolute, “first” is comparative. Creation of time
Nachmanides: day one – time was created! • Time • Can’t touch or grab it • Can’t see time • Can see space, matter, light • Can feel energy Nachmanides derives the creation of time from the biblical statement “day one” (800+ years ago) and agrees with Einstein. Creation of time
Four dimensions • Length • Width • Height • Time Albert einstein 1879-1955
A minute on the moon goes faster that a minute on the earth. A minute on the sun goes slower. A clock on the sun will tick slower Time is relative to where you view it
If you could ripen oranges on the sun they would take longer to ripen. Would you feel time going more slowly? No, your biology would be part of the system. Your heart would beat more slowly. Your biology would be in sync with the local time. A minute or an hour is exactly a minute or an hour. Time is relative to where you view it
If you could look from one solar system to another, you would see time very differently. Depending on factors like gravity and velocity you will perceive time in a way that is quite different. The flow of time varies from one location to another, hence the term: “Law of Relativity.” Time is relative to where you view it
11-year old says, “How can you have dinosaurs? How can you have billions of years scientifically and only thousands of years biblically? Hypothetical example
Imagine a planet where time is so stretched out that while we live two years only three minutes go by on that planet. Such places exist and have been observed. Hypothetical example
Great! Send me to that planet! I’ll spend three minutes there, do two years worth of homework and come back to earth. No more homework for two years! Hypothetical example
Nice try. Assuming it took no “time” to get there, when she returns from three minutes on that planet she will be 11 years and three minutes old. Her friends, however, will now all be thirteen years old. Hypothetical example
Looking down from that planet at earth… Hypothetical example • Looking up to that planet from earth…
He’s right, and he’s right? They can’t both be right! Which is correct, tevYE?
Both! They’re both happening at the same time! This is the legacy of Albert Einstein. It so happens that there are literally billions of locations in the universe where, if you could put a clock in that location, it would tick so slowly, that from our perspective (if we could live that long) fifteen billion years would go by – but the clock in that remote location would tick out only six days. Is it three minutes or two years?
Before the beginning… we don’t know what there was. Why does the Bible begin with “b” (tyvarb)? b Looking a bit deeper
“Although the days of creation are 24 hours each, they contain all the ages and all the secrets of the world.” nachmanides
‘Before the universe there was nothing. Suddenly the entire creation appeared as a minuscule speck; something very thin like the size of a grain of mustard.’ nachmanides
‘There was no other physical creation; all other creations were spiritual. All created souls are spiritual. In that speck was all the raw material that would be used for making everything else.’ As this speck expanded out, this substance – so thin it has no essence – became matter as we know it. nachmanides
From the moment that matter formed from this substance-less substance, time grabs hold. Not “begins!” nachmanides
‘When matter condenses, congeals, coalesces out of this substance so thin it has no essence – that’s when the biblical clock begins.’ nachmanides
Science has shown that there is only one “substance-less substance” that can change into matter: energy. Substance-less substance
This equation tells us that energy can change into matter. Once it becomes matter, time grabs hold. Energy = mass x constant - squared
Energy – light beams, radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays all travel at the speed of light: 300 million meters per second. At that speed time does not pass. Time grabs hold when energy becomes matter. Modern science agrees
This “moment of time” before the biblical clock begins lasted (on our terms) about 1/100,000 of one second. In that time the universe expanded from a tiny speck to about the size of a (current) solar system. From that point forward time is initiated. The “biblical clock” begins. Modern science agrees
If Torah was seeing time from Mount Sinai the text would not say, “Day one.” Hundreds of thousands of days already passed. Even if Torah was seeing from the time of Adam the text would say: “Day first” (a first day). Already the sixth day… perspective
Scientists look back and say “15 billion years,” but every scientist (now) knows the unspoken second half of the sentence: “The universe is 15 billion years old as seen from the space-time coordinates we now exist in on the earth.” perspective
The key is that Torah looks forward in time, from very different space-time coordinates, when the universe was small. Since then the universe has expanded out. Space continues to stretch, and the stretching of space totally changes our perception of time. perspective
Imagine a human community on “day one,” when time “grabs hold.” They send out a lazar blast into the sky every second. Hypothetical example
Billions of years later we who are here have a satellite dish and receive one pulse of light. Imprinted on it (fiber optics), “one pulse coming every second.” Hypothetical example
Light travels 300 million meters per second. Two light pulses are separated by 300 million meters. Hypothetical example
When they arrive they should be one second apart, but wait… The universe is not static, but expanding. There is nothing outside of the universe. It expands within itself (stretching). Hypothetical example
Therefore, the space between lazar pulses is also stretching. Pulses get further and further apart. Hypothetical example
Billions of year later a pulse comes in! • “I’m sending you a pulse every second!” • You call your friends. • You wait… • a second? • a minute? • a day? Hypothetical example
