The Observer
Stuart Fickler, Ph.D.
To appreciate the necessity of Abraham's (and our) journey, we turn to Maimonides. "For a proposition which can be proved by evidence is not subject to dispute, denial, or rejection: ..." 1. Furthermore, "... those passages in the Bible, which in their literal sense contain statements that can be refuted by proof, must and can be interpreted otherwise. For that which can be demonstrated you cannot reject, however much you may be inclined against it; ..." 2
To achieve Maimonides standard requires that we become an observer of the creation that lies beyond us. Eight hundred years later, the cosmologist Brandon Carter asserted, " The universe must be such as to admit the creation of observers within it." 3 Although stated in a different context, this might turn out to be the most important theological statement of recent times.
The implication of ancient Torah and modern science is that, in order to acquire knowledge of God and ourselves we must respond to the ancient command, "lech lecha". The words of Maimonides and Carter tell us that this is where religion and science converge.
Footnotes
1. Guide for the Perplexed, Part I; Chapter XXXI
