ID V

based on YU Honors Admission Essay A2

The Universe – Random Process or Intelligent Design?

Imagine taking a tour of various universes, looking for evidence of design. In each universe you determine its laws, and trace its development. You look at the final product, examining it for any apparent purpose. After touring several universes, you come to our own Universe. You have to determine whether or not it is designed. Here is some evidence you might consider.

The first amazing thing about the Universe is its laws and constants. If the force of gravity was a little stronger, if a neutron weighed a tiny bit more, if the universe had expanded any faster, then the universe would have been unstable, and nothing could have existed.

The best explanation scientists can come up with to explain the “fine-tuning” of the laws is the “Multiple Universe Theory”: This Universe might be just one of innumerable universes, and it is the only one where life can exist, which is why we are in it.

While explaining away a need for G-d, this theory requires a lot more faith to believe. There is absolutely no evidence for it, it is unverifiable, and it violates Ockham's razor.

There is even more evidence of design from the existence of living things. The biological machinery and DNA coding that make up the smallest cell are far more complex than a supercomputer. Scientists believe they can explain the emergence of this complexity with Darwinian Evolution.

When living things reproduce, they copy their DNA to their offspring. On rare occasions, there is an error in copying and on extremely rare occasions, the change is beneficial. An improvement in the genes of one member of a species will give that organism a better chance of survival than its fellows. Over time this can cause a change in the species.

There is scientific evidence to show this occurs on small scale and causes minor changes in species. It may even explain minor differences between similar species, such as the different beaks of birds on the Galapagos. But can unguided natural selection alone explain the great complexity of life?

Take one small example: blood clotting. In order for blood clotting to work, 16 enzymes must be present in the blood. They must interact in a precise sequence known as the Clotting Cascade. If only one of the chemicals is missing, the blood clotting will not work, and therefore the organism enjoys no advantage from having the other 15 chemicals. How can natural selection explain the emergence of such a system?

Scientists have proposed that many of the 16 components had an additional purpose which gave the organism an advantage. Even if this is true, there is still strong evidence for design: The fact that each chemical happens to have another purpose that would allow the development of Life with with its amazing ecosystem, diversity of the species, and a mind that can contemplate it all.

After finishing with this universe, you move on to the next: a random collection of particles almost existing, before all collapsing into nothingness.

One Year

It's been a year since the beginning of Nebach! I may start posting more often.

R' Eliyahu Feinstein

YU Admission Essay (slightly edited)

R’ Elye Pruzhaner

In 1884, a terrible cholera epidemic swept through Poland and the town of Pruzhana was not spared. On the first day of selichot, Meir the coachman died, and the health authorities insisted that he be buried immediately. The Chevra Kaddisha, afraid of catching cholera, refused to carry out the burial. R’ Elye, the Rav of the town, refused to hold the selichot services. Instead, he went to the house of the deceased, accompanied by one other person. Upon seeing that R’ Elye was going to perform the burial himself, people began to gather around the house to try to persuade the Rav to let them perform the task. He remained there, until the ritual cleansing (“Tahara”) had been completed, and it was only after the burial that the synagogues were reopened for Selichot.

R’ Elye, or HaRav Eliyahu Halevi Feinstein was born in Slutzk, Russia, in 1843, and died in Pruzhana in 1929. He was my great-great grandfather and a leading rabbinic authority of his time. Many important scholars learned from R' Elye, including Rav Moshe Feinstein, his nephew and Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik, his grandson...

R Elye held many rabbinical posts during his life, but always on one condition: that he be free from non-urgent community concerns until noon every day, so he could study Torah uninterrupted. After serving as Rav in Storbin, Kletzk, Karelitz and Reisin, R’ Elye settled down in Pruzhana. Although he received many offers to be Rav of larger cities, he preferred to stay in Pruzhana. He was twice offered the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, but turned it down because of family obligations.

In 1910, R. Elye participated in a large conference of Jewish leaders in Petersburg. He suggested that, due to changes in society, there was a need for secular education in the chadarim (Jewish day schools). He proposed that children be taught Russian and mathematics to enable them to have decent livelihoods in adulthood. The proposal was met with a lot of resistance from some of the rabbis and was not implemented. Later, the Socialists and secular Zionists were able to lure large numbers of poverty-stricken Jews to their irreligious ideologies.

Perhaps, had R. Elye's ideas been carried out, secular socialism would not have made such inroads into Judaism.

Once, a terrible fire devastated half of Pruzhana. R' Elye was abroad at the time undergoing medical treatment, but he rushed back when he heard the news. He went to the regional governor, with whom he was on good terms, and asked him a seemingly minor request: Could the government allow all building materials to be transported to Pruzhana without the usual tariff? The Russian government acceded to the request and Pruzhana became an important relay station for all of western Russia. The money saved because of the tariff exemption was used to rebuild the city, which was accomplished remarkably quickly.

In meeting R’ Elye, I would be able to see how a truly great leader balances authority and compassion, intellectual pursuits with communal responsibilities, and spirituality with worldly insight.

Some comments I’ve put on Hirhurim (slightly edited):

Post where people were saying “eilu v’eilu” applies to modern-day jewish groups:

me: eilu v'eilu? that was about shammai and hillel. maybe it applies later but definetly not nowadays.

Some other commenter: Ah, nowadays there can only be ONE way! And coincidentally it is the way of the group that you think is right! What nonsense. Eilu v'eilu implies that there is only one correct derekh in aovdas hashem today? This is the shoresh of the problem in your machaneh.

me: only some haredim would say eilu v'eilu in a halachic dispute nowadays b/c they feel gedolim can't err and therefore if there's a machlokes, they're both right. they r taking a unique case and applying it even nowadays. the hazon ish said it may apply to certain cases among rishonim but even he agreed it doesn't apply nowadays.
that's for specific halchic disputes. as for completely different groups of orthodox judaism, what does eilu v'eilu mean anyways? Obviously, the Jews should really be one group. making different agudos (groups) is forbidden by the torah. perhaps u can say different people can have their own derech, but that's not eilu v'eilu (there's one law, just diff. people have diff. personalities, etc. and have their own way. but there's no machlokes). the best choice is just to say like we say about our religion: we're right, e/o else is wrong. (although from left to right, they may be right enough to get a share in olam haba)
(pirchei-politics)


I heard a similar story:A russian minister asked the netziv or s/o about aggaditic gemaras and he replied: If the decrees you want were signed by the czar to expel or kill the jews, a poet might say "a drop of ink drowned a million people". e/o would know what it meant but in a thousand years they wouldn't. the same with aggadata.
(R. Yisrael Salanter on Aggadata )


some commenter (paraphrased) explaining gil student’s motives : i have books to sell. i better keep on blogging about the slifkin ban even though e/o is sick of it b/c that way they'll buy the books.
Me: it doesn't really explain y all the blogs are discussing it or y people r reading it and it seems like unlikely motives. personally, i'm tired of people saying they're tired of slifkin ban discussions. it's not like making of a gadol, the ban is implying scientific facts r kefirah. the controversy around the rambam's books lasted many decades or centuries and this seems to be a continuation of it. (of course, they didn't ban the mishnah torah for saying chazal could err, only now when science has advanced so much do they realize its kefirah to believe.) (its coming)


about the ban:
the "majority of gedolim" also believe the universe is 15 billion years old. they just say 15 billion years happened in a week, which doesn't mean anything.
the slifkin books were banned because they said chazal could make a mistake in science, not because they said the universe is old.

R' Slifkin's Response

This was in the comments of the post below, I'm moving it to the blogpage since it deserves a post of its own. Notice I changed my actual post below and my responses here. My questions are in italics, and I added numbers to slifkin's response.


Q:How are you so sure G-d wouldn't want to show directly His continued involvment in the world? How does that minimize evidence of G-d? What do you believe about miracles such as yetzias mitzrayim?

RNS:(1)It seems very strange that God would only want to show His direct involvement for a small number of specialists. Miracles such as Yetziyas Mitzrayim were exceptional events that took place for the entire nation. ID is limited for those who study cellular biology. (2)And it has nothing to do with God's direct involvement, just His involvement while creating things. (3) ID downplays and negates the idea of seeing Hashem in other aspects of nature that science can explain.
(4)Even the miracles of yetziyas mitzrayim largely took place within a naturalistic framework. (5) I strongly recommend that you read my new book The Challenge Of Creation for an understanding of why there is a strong trend amongst the Rishonim to minimize the concept of supernatural miracles.

Q:How do you explain the Mishna about ma'amaros (and pesukim) ?

RNS:(6)I don't see what this has to do with ID.

Q:Why do you have such great faith in Darwinism? Do you also believe in Freudinism and Marxism?

RNS:(7)That's a remarkably strange question. I might as well ask you why you have such great faith in Judaism - does that mean that you also believe in Freudism and Marxism?
If you want to know why I find major parts of evolution to be convincing, I suggest that you read my book, where I lay out my reasons.



My Rejoinder:

1) Many miracles happened in front of only a few people, tanach is filled with examples. Anyways, anyone can read the biochemistry behind blood-clotting or vision and understand that they couldn't have been produced by random darwinian evolution.

2) Scientists can't say "it can all be explained, there is no need for G-d" if there is proof of His involvement. Also, if there is evidence of G-d's involvement for 15 billion years prior to the creation of man, its hard to say "yea, but G-d has nothing to do with the Universe anymore".

3) How? Do miracles? They both show there's a G-d in a way thats hard even for an atheist to deny.

4) iy'H to b discussed in the future. ( in the meantime, see end of post on ma'amaros)

5) I've reserved the book at the library and hope to read it soon.

6) Read post on it. The Mishana counts ten acts of creation in the Torah and answers those who say "G-d couldv done it with one ma'amar so He must have."

7) Many people say "all those scientists cant b wrong!" and therefore believe in darwinism. but look at the other influential ideas of many decades ago. they were accepted by millions and now are obviously known to be idiotic (though still believed in by some).
a theory proposed by atheists to explain how the full complexity of the universe came about entirely randomly is ridiculous.

3 Questions to Slifkin

In a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, R' Nosson Slifkin declares ID to be against Judaism:

But there are also significant theological problems [with ID]. If God's existence is being demonstrated in phenomena for which there is argued to be no scientific explanation, then what about all those phenomena for which there is a scientific explanation?

...and a few papagraphs later:

So where does that leave the rest of the universe? What about all those structures that do not, even by the admission of the ID camp, present irreducible complexity? The unstated implication of their position is that these things do not attest to a Creator. Don't have a grasp of cellular biology? Sorry, you won't be able to perceive that the universe was created by God.

Either God is everywhere or He is nowhere. But He is certainly not limiting His appearance in the universe to the bacterial flagellum and the blood-clotting system.

When I wrote about this issue a while ago*, what Slifkin calls a rejection of ID I called "ID - natural process?" I explained such a view:
"They basically feel G-d could have done it with just one ma’amar so surely he did. Why ‘bother’ with 10 ma’amoros?" Slifkin is now also claiming that the ten ma'amaros would mean G-d's design can't be observed in anything else. While I understand why he wouldn't like a theory that sounds like "G-d of the gaps", I have some questions for him:

1. How is Slifkin so sure G-d wouldn't want to show directly His continued involvment in the world? How does that minimize evidence of G-d? What does slifkin believe about miracles such as yetzias mitzrayim?
2. How does Slifkin explain the Mishna and pesukim about ma'amaros that say G-d created the universe with many steps ?
3. Darwinism's primary purpose is to explain how the great complexity of the universe could have happened randomly, taking away the need to believe in a G-d. Eventually, it will have its place in history with theories such as Freudinism and Marxism. Why does Slifkin have so much faith in it?

Maybe I'll post his response.


*(See "Ma'amaros and Miracles". Of some relevence is "G-d and Design".)

The Internet

Due to the various problems the internet pose, the haredi community has called for a full ban on its use. This approach will not work. We're already in the internet 2.0 age and the internet is becoming more and more essential. Look at the growth of the internet over the last ten years to get an idea of how big it will be in another ten years. Eventually everything will be on the internet and it will be unavoidable.
Even now, its a necessary or helpful for almost anything. You can get instant information on any topic, you can buy or sell anything, communicate with people, get torah shiurim, etc., etc. The internet is as ubiquitous as the automobile.
It's also like a car in that its dangerous, although in a spiritual way. But no one is calling for cars to be banned just because they can crash. Just like you buckle your seatbelt and drive carefully, you can do the same thing with the internet; in fact you can take stronger precautions. Depending on how much protection you want, you can put use adblock, image blockers, parental controls, web-tracking, or whitelisting. This is the correct way to deal with the problems the internet pose.
Some people think the internet is less like a car and more like the Television. The haredim have gotten along fine without TV. But the comparasion is flawed. Unlike the internet, the TV has barely any useful purpose besides killing time. In addition, a person can use the internet carefully and never see anything bad, while the television is filled with bad shows and ads.
The internet can best be compared to the printing press - it allows the proliferation of information, both good and bad, in a way never thought possible before. Just imagine how much less torah we would have if the printing press had been banned.