Hinda Krumbein
(Via E-Mail)
Evolution: ‘Fictional Nonsense’
My issue with reader Avi Goldstein’s letters is not so much in the particulars of his criticism of our sages. Frankly, I don’t know enough about those details to say whether he’s right or wrong. What’s unsettling is the mere fact that he criticizes our sages yet glosses over evolution, blindly accepting a theory that should garner far more criticism than what he heaps on our sages, even if he is correct.
I commend Goldstein for seeking rabbinical approval for the compatibility of evolution with the Torah. But his first step should have been to determine whether evolution is compatible with science.
Random acts, even if they might result in any benefits, will always result in far more chaos. For example, even if you believed that if you threw a pile of bricks off a roof billions of times they would eventually form a perfectly constructed house with walls, closets and an attached garage, the vast majority of the time they would still unquestionably fall into meaningless configurations.
The same is true with genetics. Randomly rearranging genetic material generally results in grossly deformed and diseased organisms.
The difficulty with evolution is twofold. First, is it possible? Second, did it happen?
The fossil record proves beyond any question that evolution never happened. For every fossil of a viable-looking organism we should have found billions of fossils of diseased and deformed organisms. They’re not there. The vast majority of fossils show well-formed, functional-looking creatures.
Then, to say that evolution was not random, as some evolutionists have suggested, yet still call it evolution, is as ludicrous as calling a bird a giraffe. If it flies, it’s not a giraffe.
It’s certainly possible that one species spawned another. But if new species made their first appearance as functional creatures, and not through the incremental improvements suggested by Darwin, then no evolutionary process occurred. Rather than support evolution, such a sudden appearance of new, viable life forms, which is confirmed over and over by the fossil record, shows an even greater genius in the intelligence that designed life.
I never had to ask my rabbi whether evolution was compatible with the Torah for the same reason I never had to ask whether a talking duck by the name of Donald was compatible with the Torah. They’re both fictional nonsense.
Josh Greenberger
Brooklyn, NY