Science vs Religion

On June 10, 1854, a new idea was introduced to the scientific community that would spark a revolution, radically changing our understanding of our physical reality, time, and virtually everything else. From this spark, a rapid domino effect of discoveries would emerge, namely, electromagnetism - enabling the invention of electronics, vehicles, medical equipment, and the sharing of information - much like we are doing here.

Shattering the glass ceiling of materialism, German physicist, Bernard (Georg) Riemann theorized of an unseen, higher dimension as the means to unify all that we see in our 3-dimensional world. His work would be the foundation upon which Albert Einstein and many others would usher in many more finds with increasing speed.

A New Paradigm

Through the Age of Enlightenment, scientific theories and revelations would bring significant challenges to religious traditions (and in some cases, rightfully so). The prevailing popular impression emerged that Religion and Science are mutual enemies - two competing ways to view the world.

In our time, however, Religion and Science are more often finding agreement, or at least some shared dissonance as both are made to hold more loosely their assumptions and seek to ponder the known universe anew. Rapid new discoveries seem to bring collateral damage to the rigid strongholds of both domains, almost as if G_D is disciplining two bickering children.

Through the arrival of telecommunications, information and updates can be shared and peer-reviewed more rapidly, quickly enabling new information to integrate into the fabric of human consciousness. So fast, tradition can barely keep up.

As a result, long-guarded religious texts and commentaries can now be found on various websites for free - and - in the language of your choice. To the dismay of many, these texts bring challenges, arming modern truth-seekers to re-investigate long-avoided assumptions.

What happened? Why all of a sudden did science make such a quantum leap in this time? Why now, and not earlier? How did the world explode from farming and agriculture to industrial revolutions, cars, planes, hand-held devices, drones, and particle colliders?

Who could have imagined the times we live in?

Gates of Wisdom

For those familiar with the Zohar, a prediction was made many centuries ago, detailing the generations leading up to the Messianic era.

“And after six hundred years of the sixth thousand (the year 1840) there will be opened the gates of wisdom above and the fountains of wisdom below, and the world will make preparations to enter on the seventh thousandth year as man makes preparations on the sixth day of the week, when the sun is about to set.  - Zohar HaKadosh 116b

In our time, we are seeing these words affirmed on a near-daily basis. According to the Sages, a gateway was opened around the year 1840 that enabled an unprecedented groundswell of wisdom from below, (ie: secular knowledge), amplified by the wisdom from above. The Sages told us this was the very method the Creator would employ to move humanity into place for the final redemption.

Commenting on this phenomenon, R. Joel Bakst writes:

Numerous principles and components of the most esoteric truths that were formerly impossible to understand (and certainly to explain) if one was not in a near prophetic state or gifted with the Divine Presence (Ruach HaKodesh) are today clearly being reflected in the facts and theories of ever advancing scientific thought!

The challenge for our time is not to carry forward the false dichotomy that science is antithetical to spirituality. Instead, we should seek to embrace both streams of wisdom and allow our presuppositions to be challenged, recognizing that it is the hand of the Creator who reveals such truth.

That said, this revelation is for development and elevation. We should seek to understand and discern this new information, wielding it as a tool to bring tikkun (repair/elevation) to the corner of the world to which we have been entrusted.