Science, Religion and Star Wars

Adam Penrod

One of my favorite movies is Star Wars. Not just the original trilogy but the entire series. Some might disagree with me on this but I see something in those movies worth appreciating. One of my favorite things is to see the way George Lucas has blended together technology (science) and religion (the force).

There is something cool about having these strange mystical abilities in a world where technology defines and shapes your existence. It’s almost as if George Lucas has brought in two opposites to struggle against one another for supremacy in the galaxy.

The Death Star can destroy entire planets but the force gives an individual the ability to destroy the Death Star. Not immediately, there isn’t a special “blow the Death Star to bits” force technique, but through a series of guided exploits a Death Star stands little chance.

Union in Lightsabers

It almost seems on that level that religion and science are at war with one another; but then take another look at the Jedi. Although the Jedi have devoted themselves to the force, they’re best known by their weapon of choice—the lightsaber. A lightsaber is a blending of science and religion. Only a Jedi who knows the force can construct a lightsaber. The science is pretty straight forward (in their world but I’ve never had any luck making a lightsaber for myself), but the special crystal that the Jedi use must be altered through the use of the force to make the Jedi and their weapon one.

The Sith, the evil Jedi counterparts, who rule through fear of their religion, force their will on those around them, bending them to their vision of reality. They do not use the force to alter their crystals, but artificially alter them through technology. The Sith and their weapon are never one. The Sith’s lightsaber is just an extension of the Sith’s desire to force everything into their image—to remake the world according to their will. The soulless Sith lightsaber represent an attempt to artificially force change in the world to achieve their desires. Achieving harmony through truth and enlightenment are not the ways of the Sith, but they are the ways of the Jedi.

A proper understanding of science in relation to religion is much like the blending of science and religion in a lightsaber. The grip and electronics of a lightsaber are created through an understanding of science. Faith, no matter how strong, could never replace the science of a lightsaber. The crystal of the lightsaber is the soul of the machine—so to speak, and science could never attain the mystical harmony that is arrived at through the Jedi’s spiritual altering of this essential component.

Science vs. Tanach

Misunderstanding has interfered for many years with the proper coming together of science with religion. For a long time science has appeared as a threat to those who believe in the truth of the Tanach (“Old Testament&rdquo.[i] The very first chapter of Bereishit (Genesis), after all, informs us that the world was created in seven days. Science tells us it took billions of years.

Does this falsify the Tanach? This is the question that supporters of the biblical narrative of Bereishit and ardent supporters of science have argued for years. Individuals in both camps have come to the consensus that Science and religion are like oil and water—they just don’t mix.

One of the reasons that so many people have decided that these two forces in the modern world are deadly enemies is because, as mentioned above, the Tanach makes claims that science disagrees with.

Billy Bobblehead M.D.

Is science’s disagreement with the biblical account enough to warrant people to abandon a book that has launched three major world religions; if science and religion truly disagree where science is the expert—then yes. The situation is much like going to the doctor and being told that you have a life threatening illness and in order for you to get well you must take a certain medicine and eat certain foods. When you get home your best friend Billy Bobblehead is waiting for you and he hears the doctor’s orders and decides that there’s no need for you to listen to that fool. Who should you listen to in this instance?

Unless Billy Bobblehead has some secret abilities or knowledge that makes him more expert than the doctor, then you should listen to the doctor. This is because the doctor has knowledge, training and expertise that Billy Bobblehead does not have. Although Billy might be able to tell you all you ever wanted to know about your favorite football player or action hero, when it comes to medicine he’s not the person you should listen to.

If this is the case then we have a problem. The Tanach says that the earth was created in seven days and science says billions of years. Who is the expert? The source of the Tanach is presumably God. If anyone knows how long it took to make the universe it should be Him. That is, if He’s the one who wrote the Tanach. If He’s not then there isn’t a problem. Let us also consider that science has not come to the age of the universe randomly. It is through tested and reliable means that they have arrived at the age of the universe.

In effect, we have no reason to challenge science on the age of the universe; in fact, from all that can be determined we have every reason to believe that the universe is as old as they say it is. What about the Tanach?

This is the trap that most people fall into. They immediately either drop the Tanach or defend it against the fiery serpent science. However, what few realize is that if they would take the time to see if the Tanach and Science are talking about the same things the reliability of the Tanach (from a perspective of science) would never come into question.

The reason that most people fall into the above trap is because when we read the Tanach we are not reading it in its original language. We are reading a translation from Hebrew to English. People very often do not realize that every translation has problems. Even the best translations are not perfect.

In most Christian translations you will find that the first verse of the Tanach is translated as: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” It is a very straight forward verse and immediately gets us ready for the creation account…that only takes six days (plus a seventh day specifically created to rest on).

There is a problem, though, with this translation. Although very poetic and exciting—it is wrong. The first word in the Tanach in Hebrew is “Bereishit.” Bereishit is a curious word for several reasons. For one thing it doesn’t mean “in the beginning.” If I wanted to say “in the beginning,” then the Hebrew word I would use would be “Berishonah” not Bereishit. Berishonah means in the beginning, i.e. at the first, in the absolute beginning. Bereishit means “in the beginning of,” and does not refer to an absolute beginning but the beginning of something. The Hebrew word Bereishit is a compound word. It is always used with another word, for example “in the beginning of the rule of Jehoyakim.”[ii]

Without a word following Bereishit it is hard to know what it is talking about. This is our problem in the first verse of Bereishit. The Hebrew word “bara” “He created” (which is a verb-past tense third person singular) follows Bereishit. If we were to translate both words literally we would have “In the beginning of…He created….” Obviously a word is missing, in the beginning of “what?”

There are some people who would say that obviously there is a word missing but we know the missing word. The missing word can be deduced. We’re talking about the creation of the universe so obviously the word we should assume is missing is, “everything.” “In the beginning of everything God created the heavens and the earth.”

Rashi’s Reasoning

Rashi (Rabbi Shelomo Yitzachi) thought that such a suggestion was ridiculous. If this word was to be added and the verse read as “In the beginning of everything God created the heavens and the earth,” then how do they explain that water exists before the very first act of creation? In the very next verse[iii] it says “And the earth was formless and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God hovered upon the face of the water.” If we put these two verses together as the missing word people might suggest then Bereishit 1:1-2 would look like this: “In the beginning of everything God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God hovered upon the face of the water.” What sense is this? Nowhere are we told when the waters are created, and the Heavens are a combination of fire and water.[iv] How can the Heavens be created without their constituent elements already existing? Simply put, it is impossible for the Heavens to exist unless water exists first and since it is never specified when water was created it is impossible for us to say that the first Chapter of Bereishit intends to give us a chronological record of creation.

If what we have seen is correct, that the Tanach is not giving us a chronological order of creation—nor does it intend us to take this or other verses necessarily literally, then where is the conflict between religion and science concerning the age of the earth? The answer is simple. In the immortal words of Darth Vader, “there is no conflict.”

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