What do you think about Gerald Schroeder’s correlation between the Genesis account and mathematics?
Question:
Have you ever read Dr. Gerald Schroeder’s work offering agreement between the science data from the old earth and universe and the 6 days of creation based on Einsteins equations of General Relativity? If so, what are your thoughts? I realize he is Jewish and I am not sure if he is a Christian. He was trained in Physics at MIT. He taught there seven years and then returned to Israel. He is also trained in the Talmud. It is hard to find Christians who are also , scientists that I can have a discussion with. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have.
Answer:
I have read Schroeder’s work and find it interesting. The fact that he is Jewish, but not Christian seems to me to not matter with respect to his ability to understand and explain Genesis. Like I said, I find his work interesting, but, to be honest, I do not find it compelling. Who knows? He may have something there, but the assignment of times seem a bit ad hoc to me. What I mean is he came up with an equation, and then he looked for data which aligns with that equation. I do not believe he looked at data first and then fit an equation to the pre-selected data. I would not place a bet either way, and I do not use Schroeder’s work in my public lectures, because it is seems a bit too speculative to me. I like his analysis of the Hebrew, and I appreciate his attempts to line the “days” with a mathematical relationship, but, in the final analysis, I do not find his conclusions convincing.
I have a book on this topic which you might be interested in reading. It is Is There a God. It is available at IPI Books
John Oakes