I would like to address a common misconception. It is said that science is fact and Torah is belief.

Whilst there is some truth to this assertion, it is far from complete. First we need to understand the terms fact and belief, in this context.

I think it safe to say that as humans, we can’t know anything with complete knowledge. Our interaction with the world is through the senses and intellect, both of which can be fooled. Just ask any magician. All our knowledge, including scientific is based, at some level, on belief.

For example estimating the age of the universe and it’s inhabitants. Scientists use carbon dating, or movement of planets. Have these processes always been the same? Surely the same situation could have come about if the start point was not where we estimate, or processes drastically changed through the ages.

The same is true with life on earth. We have much physiology in common with tomatoes, primates and parrots. This could be seen as a sign that we came from them. Or, from a Torah perspective Hashem created the first sub-matter ex nihilo (what the Ancient Greeks called Hiyuli). From this was formed the four elements, earth, fire, air, water. Everything on earth is made from different combinations of these four.

There are 4 levels of creation – mineral, plant, animal and human. Each level has what the previous does, with an added life force. So plant is living, animal has a moving spirit etc. The first three were formed out of the earth and sea through a kind of program. Only human beings were hand crafted by Hashem and their unique characteristic, a speaking spirit or seichel (intellect) was breathed into them by The Creator Himself.

So our physical resemblance to parrots is due to the fact that we share atomic makeup.

Modern science is almost exclusively the study of the physical world. Torah is the study of truth, including the physical world. By way of analogy, the former deals primarily with the hardware and the latter primarily with the software and Developer.

Scientific research is to find fact. Torah research, no less vigorous, sophisticated or accurate, is to find truth. Truth is unchanging. It is no coincidence that the gematria (numerical equivalent) of the Hebrew word emes, is 9. 9 multiplied by any number results in a sum of 9. So emes, no matter what it is mixed with, remains truth.

Scientific fact is only fact as long as the model is correct and the conditions remain stable. It is temporal and can and has been drastically changed over the centuries, with advancement in technology, knowledge and change of environment.

Even if there was a big bang, that in no way dispels the design model of the universe.

The Thirteen Tennets of faith of the Rambam start “I believe with full faith.” Belief here is emunah which is rooted in the word eim (mother.) It is the kind of complete faith a baby has in it’s mother, based on inherent knowledge and life experience. By means of a meticulously guarded and transmitted tradition, combined with direct life experience and wisdom, we commit ourselves to complete faith that the Torah is God given and true.

Science asks “Can we do it”, Philosophy, “Should we do it?” “Torah, May we do it?”

If we stop at the first question, well there is no issue harvesting organs, genetically altering people into whatever they want to be etc etc. The second question will take us further as a higher level being. Only the third question leaves the answers (and thus our actions) to the One who created the universe.