[Avodah] Evolution

[Prof. Levine]

At 10:27 PM 2/29/2012, Eli Turkel wrote:

><< That said, I can't call evolution "fact". It has strong evidence, but
>nothing
>really rules out RMMS's or R' Avigdor Miller's supposition that Hashem had
>His
>own reasons for laying down that evidence. >>
>
>According to Rabbi Miller there is nothing as science.

I do not understand this sentence unless it was supposed to 
read,  "there is such thing as science."

>  All modern science
>is based on experiment and observations, it is never proved in the
>mathematical sense of the word. Hence, the fact that a ball always falls to
>earth every time doesnt "prove" that gravity exists. Perhaps as others
>claim every time G-d causes the ball to fall but there is no such natural
>fact as gravity. Perhaps the world was created a week ago and all archives
>of areivim and avodah were planted there by G-d for his reasons.

I am not about to defend Rabbi A. Miller's views on 
science.  However, science is based on certain assumptions which 
cannot be proven.  For example,  that the way we see the world is the 
way it really is  and that the simplest explanation for phenomena is 
the one that is to be accepted.  My understanding (and it is limited 
since I am a mathematician and not a scientist)  is that science 
attempts to answer the "how" of things but not the "why" behind them.

My friend Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Ehrenpreis, Z"L,  told me that one can 
assert that the sun rotates around the earth.  "It is just a question 
of how you construct the model." he said.  "It is easier to describe 
things using a model in which the earth rotates around the sun,  but 
you can also describe things with the sun rotating around the earth." 
he explained.

So what does science say about planetary motion?  According to 
Ehrenpreis not much in absolute terms.  YL
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