Educational Media Reviews Online

Dr. Nathan Aviezer, an orthodox Jew and Professor of Physics at Bar Ilan University, believes that recent scientific discoveries support a literal reading of the creation account in Genesis. The book was originally published in 1990, but “recent” means the 20th century.

The book makes an interesting case, ranging over many scientific fields. Aviezer is no young-earth creationist, and gives a defense of understanding “day” to mean “phase of creation.” As far as I can tell, he accepts the scientific consensus in each field. In this harmonization of Genesis and science, it is not the science that gets bent out of shape, so much as one’s hermeneutic. For example, I accept the discovery of a sudden and temporary proliferation of flying dinosaurs in the far distant past; I find it hard to believe that one of the verses in the brief creation account in Genesis refers to this obscure, distant, and isolated event. Or if that’s true, I don’t know what to make of that, and it raises a lot of other questions in my mind. How did this information get relayed to mankind, and why? This book doesn’t address or even acknowledge such questions, which is fine—it sticks to its chosen purview—but believers really interested in Aviezer’s view may find themselves wanting a companion volume from him on biblical interpretation.

The successes of science are usually told by secularists. It is interesting to hear a believer’s account of the revolution in cosmology brought about by the big bang theory. For thousands of years, non-believers had thought it obvious that the universe was essentially static and eternally existent; the big bang was a radical change that brought science more in line with revelation.

This audio book was well read: clear, and easy to listen to. Quotes are clearly indicated. There is some inevitable awkwardness when it comes to footnotes, but there is nothing to complain about from a technical standpoint.

Whether one views it as a great success or a cautionary tale, Aviezer’s work is worth having as an example of the attempt to reconcile a literal reading of the Bible with current science. Recommended for any library supporting interest in the Bible’s relationship to science.