Is Human Science Really Ahead? A Surprising Take

The world tends to judge strength, success, or wisdom by comparison. For instance, when determining who among several competitors is the smartest, the same question is given to all, and the first to answer is deemed the smartest.

We find similar comparisons between Jewish teachings and scientific knowledge. As science advanced, celebrating its achievements across research and tech, it spurred a movement with the misguided belief - as warned in Deuteronomy 8:17 - of self-reliance "My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth." This led to a spirit of disbelief in the Creator, who gave the Torah to the Jewish people.

Interestingly, the technology enabling new scientific discoveries also challenged this disbelief. These discoveries often lagged behind what Jewish teachings already stated thousands of years ago, as these ancient teachings astonishingly documented phenomena that modern science deemed 'newly discovered'.

In the realm of astronomy, one stunning example shows the superiority of Jewish teachings. Science's remarkable achievement was estimating that the stars number about a billion times a billion.

The invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei about five centuries ago marked a cornerstone for this field. As telescopes improved and science progressed, findings became increasingly impressive, reaching today's vast numbers. Science's success led researchers to venture into bold assumptions, such as the universe's age. Despite having no 'birth certificate' for any star, these assumptions gained acceptance, blurring the line between fact and hypothesis.

A humorous tale highlights scientific folly: a science-enthusiast child once experimented on a fly by plucking its wing and commanded it to jump. It did, so he noted that a fly without a wing jumps. After removing its legs, he repeated the command, but this time the fly didn't jump, concluding in his notes that a fly without wings and legs cannot hear.

Despite fantastic findings, like the enormous number of stars, science still lacks precision.

However, Jewish teachings tell us the stars' number was known to Jewish sages long ago, mentioned incidentally in the Oral Torah, Berachot 32b, as a staggering 1,064,340,000,000,000,000 – over a billion times a billion, predating scientific findings by millennia.

Regarding numbers, there are two significant differences: A) The number in the Torah isn’t an estimate but exact. B) The Torah's data precedes modern scientific discoveries by thousands of years.

The inevitable conclusion from our sacred Torah’s precedence and accuracy is that these figures didn’t stem from scientific research but were divine revelations from the Creator stating: "This is what I created".

This acknowledgment grants Torah dominance over science in all research fields. Moreover, beyond data accuracy, the Torah possesses a further advantage: full mastery over nature and the future, which future articles will explore.

May it be Hashem's will that we connect to the roots from which our forefathers drew their holiness, wisdom, and strength, leading to complete repentance and imminent redemption. Amen!