Beth Shalom

I recently heard an interview with a scientist at one of our state of North Carolina's fine universities that was very interesting, not only for the information and discoveries he presented, but mostly for how people reacted to his work over time. As early as 22 years ago, he began to research about the climate in different parts of the planet-many of those are remote uninhabited places-with a special interest in seeing what changes occurred. He indeed found changes, and he also found patterns and trends for those changes. He began to find out then what we all know by now-that our planet is warming, that human activities accelerate this warming, and this is bringing and will bring about very significant changes to human and to all wildlife, to oceans, crops, coastal communities, rain patterns and much more, constituting the major challenge we will all face in this century. What caught my attention at this interview was that this researcher related how 10 and 15 years ago, whenever someone would ask him about what his work was, and he said he was researching how the climate in the poles was now different from the climate in the past and the implications of this, people would say to him: "This kind of irrelevant things can only be done by a university professor; everyone else has a real job, dealing with the real world."

Now we all know that this scientist was quite more aware of the real world than his critics-he was seeing and beginning to understand something fundamental about our real world, with huge implications to our economy, politics, resources and almost all aspects of life. Global warming was happening already 15 years ago when he first saw it-the fact that we are only talking about this seriously just now is simply because, for the last 15 years, we have been unaware of what was happening in the real world. We didn't know, or we didn't listen, or we refused to listen so we could drag our feet in taking the necessary steps to deal with this. When thousands of scientist from all countries of the world, encompassing all disciplines of science-from paleontologists to physicists to astronomers-independently confirm that this is happening, we finally knew who was truly dealing with "the real world." After the 10 warmest years of the century in North Carolina, and with all-time heat records of 80 degrees in mid-December, and this exceptional draught, I find it hard to understand how some people can still keep persisting denying reality.

In many of our Shabbat services I pointed to so many connections between the readings in Torah and our global crisis and challenges. I am not going to repeat all that here, but I want to mention the main message from our Torah. The first idea was actually quoted from Torah at the Nobel Prize reception ceremony for all those who brought this issue to our awareness: "Life and death, curse and blessing are set before you-and you must choose life!" If we can choose between energy sources and consumption habits that lead to massive extinctions and those that are more friendly to life and the environment-the choice then should be very clear. It is not a political choice, it is a fundamentally moral choice. And it is also a "real world" choice: as Torah reminds us almost at every page, we are free to choose, but we will confront the consequences of our choices, and our children will have to live with the results of our choices as well. This isn't just Torah's ideal world, this happens in the real world.

One of the biggest conflicts in ideas today in our country is what some call "the culture war," the polarization of people in bitterly opposed ideological camps: "Red states" v. "Blue States," pro-Life v. pro-Choice. Among these we find another "conflicting pair:" Religion and Science. For some, science is deceiving, and scientists are people lacking values, who see nothing as sacred and erode the very basis for a moral life, attacking the fundamental beliefs that sustain us. For others, religion is no more than false dogmas that lead many to false ideas about the world, to misunderstandings about the truth of most issues, and to act fanatically when they should act rationally.

This controversy is becoming so bitter and pervasive, that many choose to avoid it completely. There are public school biology teachers who decide or are convinced that teaching evolution is "too risky," so they don't. There is not one single university where we would send our children where anyone has any doubt about life on our planet having evolved over the years. There is no "debate" among scientists about this-there is only consensus, as there is about the Theory of Gravity. Yet for 50% of adult Americans, evolution is "just a theory," and by this they mean it is a guess.

I am very troubled by this for many reasons: because I would like our society to be educated so that people can make decisions based on truth and not on fantasies; because I do not want my children's science curriculum at school reshaped by a religious committee, and mostly because in this debate I am not represented. The Religion that opposes Science is not the religion I have; and the science that fails to recognize the value of and in my religion is not the one I want to promote.

There are many people, religious and not, scientists and not, who feel the same way I do. Many share the ideas of one of the most brilliant scientists ever, Albert Einstein, who said "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." Like Einstein, many see that religion and science actually converge, and each one can enrich the other. Personally, the more I read on science, the more I find the connections and the coincidence with Judaism's and Torah's fundamental insights and views of the world. I see this when comparing Torah's creation story with emergence theory, when comparing the new findings on neuro-plasiticity with Maimonides' teachings on Teshuvah and how we can train our minds and change our brains, and when comparing the rules that according to Torah apply in the real world (we always face the consequences of our choices) with what we actually see in the real world.

In the month of February we will be joining hundreds of religious communities and scientists on the Evolution Weekend Initiative-we will discuss, learn and explore the significance of the scientific view of evolution, we will explore how this connects with our religious approach to life (particularly as Reform Jews), and we will consider the different ways in which this controversy involves and affects us. I hope also to have some opportunities for adult education sessions bringing up this and related issues.

Whether you know a lot about plant biology and the evolution of trees, or not, I wish you all a good and green Tu Bi' Sh'vat (Arbor Day, on Jan. 21), the day in which we admire, celebrate and are thankful for the trees. And if it rains (we can hope), perhaps in the coming weeks, we will do the great mitzvah of planting a tree, for us and for generations to come.