I’ve been planning to post about this for some time but kept putting it off. Today I noticed a news article about yet another argument someplace or other about what should be in school textbooks about this whole thing and it bestirred me.For the record, what I myself believe is that God made evolution happen. The “God-fueled evolution theory” isn’t an attempt to have it both ways, it’s what I am inevitably left with because I can’t deny God and I can’t deny evolution.

In any case, I was delighted when I came across this midrash from the Zohar Hadash (Bereshit 27b-28a), which was quoted in What Do Jews Believe? by David S. Ariel, which is essentially a fable illustrating what I believe about this:
When the Holy One, Blessed be He, created the world, the basis of all was water and from water everything was sown. The Holy One, Blessed be He, made three craftsmen who would carry out His plan in this world. They were: heaven, earth, and water. By means of these three, everything in the world was created. God called upon each of these three to fashion the beings necessary for this world.

To the water, He said: “Bring forth the earth which is below you; go and gather into one spot.” This was done, as it is written: “Let the water be gathered” (Genesis 1:9). To the earth, He called and said: “Bring forth the creatures from within you, animals, beasts, and the like.” It was done immediately, as it is written: “God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth every kind of living [nefesh] creature’” (Genesis 1:24). To the heavens, He called and said: “Place yourselves between the [upper] and [lower] water.” And they did, as it is written: “God made the expanse” (Genesis 1:7).

By means of these three, the entire work of creation was completed, each one according to its kind. When the sixth day arrived, they were ready to create as on the previous days. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: “None of you alone is capable of creating this creature [i.e., man] as with the other creatures which came to life so far. All of you, join together with Me, and let us make man! You cannot make him by yourselves. The body will belong to the three of you, but the neshamah* belongs to Me!”

Thus, He called to them and said: “‘Let us make man’ (Genesis 1:26), you and Me. I will make the neshamah and you will make the body.” And so it is, that the body is from these three [elements], craftsmen in the work of creation, while the neshamah was given by the Holy One, Blessed be He, who joined with the others in this. “‘In our image, after our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26) means that man should be worthy of us.”

*Neshamah: soul.
Though I believe in evolution, I can’t say that finding out about it has been a good thing for us. There is a story that a Victorian lady said of Darwin’s theory, “My dear, let us hope it is not true, but if it is true, let us hope it does not become generally known.” Unfortunately, it did, and the consequences are all around us. For millenia, people had been told that they were made in God’s image. This inspired them to behave accordingly, at least some of the time. For the last century, people have been told that they are apes. They are behaving accordingly. Most of the time.

Another of my Judaism books has an anecdote, apparently a true one but as I can’t remember which book it was, I can’t say for sure: a rabbi of the author’s acquaintance and a scientist were on a transatlantic flight together, and both men’s teenaged grandchildren were also on the plane, though the generations were seated in different sections. The rabbi’s grandchildren kept coming over to him to see how he was and if he needed anything, but the scientist’s didn’t. The scientist wondered aloud why this was, and the rabbi told him, “My grandchildren think I’m two generations closer to Sinai. Your grandchildren think you’re two generations closer to the apes.”

If after all this you’re wondering why I still believe in evolution, I refer you to the works of Stephen Pinker, or to the literature of evolutionary psychology, which makes too much sense to be discounted. One especially entertaining example is The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide. Here’s a teaser: “A professional polo player once told me about a stint in the employ of an Asian potentate, who was watching a chukker from the sidelines, accompanied by his pet cheetah. When a referee made several flagrantly impartial rulins, the cheetah inexplicably came unleashed, bolted onto the field, knocked the referee from his horse, and stood on his chest in an advisory capacity.”

But back to why I can’t get worked up over the debate.

If the theory of evolution is true, then as the works I just cited have shown, several facts about our species follow: that human nature is inherent and for the most part immutable; that we are by nature hierarchical; that there are biologically based differences between the sexes; that greed, competition, and what we find sexually arousing are all an innate part of humans as much as being bipedal. No amount of utopian social engineering will change any of this. In short, conservatives are right.

If the theory of creation is true, then as I mentioned above, certain things follow: God exists, we are made in His image, and following His law is the surest path to human happiness. In short, conservatives are right.

That is to say… either way, conservatives are right.

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