The Torah vs. The Big Bang

How Do We Reconcile Modern Cosmological Theories with the Torah’s Account of Creation?

By Ari Levisohn | 16 May 2024 | 4 Minute Read

Reconciling the Torah’s Account of Creation with The Big Bang Theory

The Question of Torah vs. Science

Reading the Torah’s account of creation in the 21st Century, we are forced to grapple with many questions. Chief among them are the massive discrepancies between Genesis 1 and the Big Bang theory. According to modern scientists, the universe began with a burst of energy 13.7 billion years ago and slowly cooled until galaxies, planets, and eventually life were able to form. According to the Torah, God created the world less than 6000 years ago in a six day process. The discrepancies just smack you in the face!

What are we supposed to make of these seemingly incompatible theories? Has modern science proven the Torah wrong? How are we supposed to view the Torah as truth, when it contradicts every single science textbook published today? 

Are These Questions Really New?

The truth is, though, that we are far from the first generation to encounter problems with the Torah’s account of creation. In fact, you hardly need to know any science at all to start picking holes in Genesis 1. Here are a few questions you could have asked even back in the Middle Ages that are just as strong as our Big Bang question:

Pre-Scientific Questions on The Torah’s Creation Narrative

1. Light Before the Sun: The very first thing God created on Day One of creation was light. But where did this light come from if the sun wasn’t created until Day Four? It doesn’t take Stephen Hawking to figure out that our light comes from the sun. Humans have always known this! So, just a simple reading of Genesis 1, which clearly states that light was created three days before the sun, begs us to ask about the Torah’s account of creation.
2. Vegetation Before the Sun: You know what else was created before the sun on Day Four? All the vegetation on earth! It was created on Day Three.  How did all the trees grow without sunlight? Again, you don’t need 21st century advances in scientific knowledge for this question to stare you in the face.
3. Where Did the Water Come From?: Here’s another question that you don’t need to know science to ask. The second verse of the entire Torah says that before God created the world, “the spirit of God hovered over the water” (Genesis 1:2). What water?! Where did this water come from? On the second day of creation God split the water above from the water below, but nowhere do we hear about when He actually created it!
4. Why God Created the Sun: If you had to rank all of the best things the sun does for us, the top of that list would probably include things like warmth, light for us to see, energy for the plants… Yet when the Torah tells us why God created the sun the only reason it gives is:

לְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים׃

To separate day from night; [the sun and moon] shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years.

(Genesis 1:14)

Really? To set dates and years? Granted, that is important, but is it anywhere near as important as light, heat and energy? Why does the Torah skip over these reasons?

The Torah’s Confusing Start

It seems pretty clear that our questions about the Torah and the Big Bang are not new questions that only arise due to modern science. The Torah’s account of Creation is just plain old confusing.

But why? Why would the Torah start out in such a confusing way? How are we supposed to understand the Torah’s intelligent design theory?

How to Read the Torah

All of these questions might lead us to realize that the Torah was never intended to be a science textbook, not now, nor 3000 years ago. Of course, that leaves is with three really important questions: 

1. What kind of book is the Torah, and how are we supposed to relate to it?
2. How are we meant to understand an account of creation that seems riddled with plot holes?
3. How can both the Torah and science be true?

For the answer to all these questions check out this podcast. In it, Rabbi David Fohrman explains how the Torah is really meant to be read, and how, when you read it that way the Torah’s account of creation starts to make perfect sense. 

But this podcast doesn’t answer these first two questions, reconciling the Torah with itself. He reconciles Torah with modern science as well! How does he do that? Well, once you understand that that Torah is not a science book, and you read it for what it is, you can actually reverse engineer the science out of it. That may sound like magic, but when Rabbi Fohrman did this he found a picture creation that is remarkably similar to our most modern theories of the Big Bang.

Listen now and see for yourself!

Bereishit Pages

• Parshat Bereishit
• Science vs. The Torah