As can be seen from your postings, this subject is a major mental stumbling block for many.
They have been brought up on their mother's milk that the universe is billions of years old and that the Earth goes round the Sun.
When they become chozer b'teshuvah, they are faced with a cognitive dissonance crisis over the Torah's dating & cosmology. So much of a crisis, that for some there's a risk of a mental breakdown and even relinquishing Judaism as a result.
I think the risk of mental breakdown and relinquishing of Judaism is with you. That is why you fight so hard on the views I'm presenting
even though they are acceptable within Jewish belief. You are very threatened that science might have something valuable to say because perhaps you were always taught (incorrectly) that "everything other than Judaism is sheker." But in reality, you know that science uncovers some truths about the universe and it scares you because you probably mistakenly think that science and all other fields of wisdom or thought contradict Torah and therefore must be avoided and shunned. So if science does have some truth to tell the world, but science is against Torah according to your rabbis, HOW CAN THAT BE!? So you fight science. And you take a lazy route in understanding Chumash. But again, this was a mistaken teaching that you were never weaned from even though men are supposed to grow up and mature and get passed the cheder level of understanding. Unfortunately you still think that no other fields of wisdom can coincide with Torah, including a field that pursues the truth through demonstration of fact. Thus you naturally feel repelled by truth-seeking endeavors because implicitly you assume that facts contradict Torah. But if you fall into the above-described apikorsus of denying that truth has any relevance to Torah, it is dangerous for your soul and a major problem. So be wary.
I never had Judaism. I came to practice it later on in life and learning about these issues was part of that process. I go where the evidence leads me. Views I've formulated through study and exploration over time are ones which many great rabbis, including ones I am close with, assert are acceptable within Jewish faith - so why should I assume otherwise just because wonga doesn't like my view, or considers it kefira, or would rather cling to something infantile because my beliefs are complex and require effort? I'm a Jew regardless, but of course it would be a major problem if facts contradicted Judaism or Torah. How could that not be a problem? Would anyone feel happy about that or that that's not a problem? However, I'm perfectly fine struggling with a problem if it exists (of course, that's not a real problem in the general sense - the facts agree with Torah). And there are plenty of issues in life - personal problems, challenges, emunah, etc - to struggle with as a life-time effort and life-time project to know G-d. But I am not at risk of any mental diseases or illnesses, thank G-d.
Aish HaTorah identified this, and put Schroeder to work to devise a satisfactory reconciliation, for their "Discovery Program".
And Schroeder did a good job, invoking Relativity, that the universe can be both 16 billion years old and 6000 years old, as well as both Heliocentric & Geocentric, all at the same time: thus, everyone's happy.
As I wrote, Schroeder's idea is good for those for whom a reconciliation is a major issue of emunah.
So you are basically saying it's ok to lie to people to make them frum. How admirable...
Schroeder does not consider his work a "lie for nebuchs" and he believes in it, as do a lot of people. Even some from your neck of the woods who were born "absolutists." (what a ridiculous term to describe yourself).
I personally don't need a reconciliation, as I am an Absolutist, not a Relativist: there is an aether, and the Earth is stationary wrt it, as shown by the zero-velocity MM experiments, and all the others. As far as I am concerned the universe is 6000 years old, preceded by Six Days of 24 hours,
Chazal never said this. So why do you have to insist on it? Well, I simply don't. I still think it's funny the way you constantly harp on it, though.
as shown by the 18 evidences I presented before viz: the rate of decrease of the earth and sun's magnetic fields, the rate of decrease in the size of the solar disc, the high residual warmth of the moon and mere half-inch of dust on its surface (which amazed the Apollo astronauts who had been told to expect being swamped!), the decrease in the speed of light, the paucity of helium and micro-meteoric dust in the atmosphere, the rate of mineral deposition into the oceans, the fallacious premises of radiometric dating, the still "unwrapped" state of the arms of the great spiral galaxies, the thickness of Saturn's rings, the continued existence of short-term comets, human population statistics, the dearth of human records and artifacts older than 6000 years, polystrate fossils, the abiogenic theory for the origin of oil, dendochronolgy (tree-ring dating), pleochroic haloes etc.
In other words you lie to yourself because you are uncomfortable in engaging reality and facts. You are afraid of what might happen. You are afraid you might drop Judaism (G-d forbid!)
Please do not stop practicing Judaism, wonga.
Btw, the part I put in bold is a real laugher.
It's a good feeling that whether Relativist or Absolutist, a literal interpretation of our Torah is full supported. This seems to be something that you cannot tolerate and irks you!
Firstly, I don't know what you mean by these terms relativist/absolutist.
Secondly, depending on what you mean by literal (and for the purposes of this discussion all along I've been basically considering that term to mean that maaseh bereshith are a literal accounting describing the manner in which G-d created the world in the sense that it's factual checklist of every event and a scientifically described way and order in which it happened with literal descriptions and literal time scale etc) - but maaseh bereshith are described as not literal by chazal so why does it make sense to insist on that? anyway.... - by this meaning of literal, the facts contradict the literal account. By this definition of literal you mistakenly date the earth/universe as 6000 years old - and thus the facts contradict it. The facts contradict a 6000 year old world. So that doesn't irk me;
I simply reject your interpretation (and your science) and some of your theological convictions which I also feel are baseless. And consequently, I have a different approach to these subjects that I know to be wiser, more accurate, and more truthful. I am quite confident in that much.
Since Rav Kahane himself was a firm believer in a 6000 year old universe, if you are to be honest and consisitent with yourself, you should change your "Kahane-was-righ" monica!
I never saw him writing or speaking about that (Please quote it if you have something!), but even if he did, I simply disagree in light of my own knowledge. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with a rabbi, even one you consider great and one whom you "follow." The name "Kahane-was-right" doesn't mean Rabbi Kahane is my "chassidic rebbe" or a perfect godlike figure I must imitate like a robot.
Rabbi Kahane spoke often about the fact that a person doesn't need to go and ask a Rav for every single thing if he can figure out the subject for himself and delve into it, he can determine the halacha - and rabbis certainly can do this. He himself certainly did this on a host of issues. He said that it's only when one feels they do not know and cannot figure out the issue that they then ask their Rav - this was how he described his relationship with Rav M. Eliyahu. If that is how he felt about halachic matters, how much moreso with regard to hashkafic matters would Rabbi Kahane encourage me to delve into the matter and come to an understanding to the best of my abilities! Of course, since I'm not a rabbi myself, I've had help... With other rabbis! If that's not acceptable to you, you have major problems buddy.
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