Torah, reality, and the scientific model-removing the blindfold of scientism | Pines, EM. 2005.
BH 15:137-159. CELD ID 21536Abstract Torah and science agree on a general abstract level. Where it appears that there are irreconcilable differences, their essence can be traced to a hidden or manifest scientism-the belief that science is an all-inclusive explanation of reality. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate both in theoretical and empirical terms the falsity of scientism and to replace it with a complete and unified "working model " based upon the Torah. I intended to show that a finite model can never encompass the totality of absolute reality. I shall do this by surveying how philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians through the centuries have treated the views of the Torah and of Zeno of Elea's paradoxes on the structure of reality. The three major views surveyed are (1)causality versus chance; (2) finitude versus infinity; (3) reducibility versus irreducible complexity. I further suggest that a Torah-based model of looking at reality from above to below fulfills the requirement of the "oracle" needed to provide true information from the transfinite to the finite, as proven by Alan Turing.
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