DaasYochid –
many do find various scientific assertions challenging, and it would be folly to say that HKB”H didn’t know that this would be a nisayon.
If science asserts something and has a strong, reasonable basis for saying so, I don’t see how one can be expected to discard it on the basis of the literal words of the Torah alone, because the words do not have to be taken literally, and it appears more logical to me to have the Torah be in harmony with science rather than just to discard science.
Therefore to address your question, I don’t think Hashem created this nisayon. The people who are of the opinion that we should discard science created it.
no instructions to disregard their simple, literal meaning in the face of science.
First of all, I think misvara it has to be this way. How can you convince a rational person to ignore reason?
But I think it’s a premise which is mefurash in the Gemara too. Look at the shakla v’tarya on the top of Niddah 30b and tell me that everyone doesn’t agree, in principle, that good science is enough to discard our previously thought pshat in the pasuk.
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/shas.aspx?mesechta=37&daf=30b&format=pdf
The Kanoi Next Door –
you seem to be assuming that everything that science tells us today is the absolute, unquestionable truth
I’m not.
I’m simply saying that there is such a thing as good science. Good science makes some assertions. For example, every reputable scientist in the world will tell you that the world is older than 5773 years old. Every reputable scientist will tell you that some form of evolution is very apparent in the universe. Now, they may be proven wrong in a hundred years, but I really don’t see how a rational, thinking person is expected to believe they are wrong. What is the harm in saying, nu, maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong; either way there are ways to understand the Torah’s account of Bereishis, so let’s just move on and deal with other things. Why is it suddenly one of the ikrei ha’emunah to discard good science?