Category: Age of the Universe

Was the Universe Created Less Than 6000 Years Ago?

(Note: This article was written at the beginning of the Jewish year 5783.). Was the Universe Created 5783 Years Ago?. Apparently, not according to the Rambam.The Rambam does not seem to state anywhere a specific age to the Universe.It seems that according to the Rambam, those who claim the Universe was created at a spe

Was the Universe Created Less Than 6000 Years Ago?

Not according to the Rambam it would seem.

The Rambam does not seem to state anywhere a specific age to the Universe.
It seems that according to the Rambam, those who claim the Universe was created at a specific time, such as 5783 years ago, are actually positing the existence of time before Creation, which the Rambam considered to be a heretical idea.
According to the Rambam, the Universe was certainly created by Hashem in the finite past, and it did not exist forever, but we cannot say that it was created at any particular time. We must believe that the Universe had a beginning, but we cannot really state when the Universe was created.
The Rambam discusses the nature of time and the nature of the Universe in the second section of his great Torah philosophy book “Moreh Nevuchim” (The Guide to the Perplexed), written in the 12th century CE. The viewpoint of the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim is that time itself and the matter and energy of the Universe were created ex-nihilo (from absolutely nothing) by Hashem.

The Rambam’s viewpoint implies that the current day “Orthodox fundamentalist” belief in a Universe created at a specific time (such as 5783 years ago) may actually be “heresy”, because it invokes the existence of time before creation of the Universe, implying an eternal Universe. We cannot state a specific time that the Universe was created, as this would contradict the Torah by positing Aristotle’s concept of the eternity of the Universe!

“The first opinion is that of all who believe in the Torah (teaching) of Moshe Rabbeinu. It is that the entire world, that is everything which exists other than God, was brought by God into existence after absolute nothingness…The correct position, in accordance with our opinion, is that time was created ex-nihilo along with all other objects and their accidental properties. Therefore, God’s creation of the world did not take place at any specific time, for time itself is included in the creation. Reflect upon this deeply in order that you will not bring upon yourself counter arguments which you will not be able to answer. Any positing of time before creation requires belief in the eternity of the world. For time itself is an accidental property (mikreh) and must therefore be a property of some other object. As a consequence, (for the world to have been created at a specific time) something must have existed before the world which we know of now. One must therefore free oneself from this viewpoint (i.e. that time was not created).”
(Moreh Nevuchim II:13)

The Rambam explains in Moreh Nevuchim II:25 that a belief in a finite age of the Universe allows the Torah and miracles to become possible. In contrast to the Torah viewpoint, an eternal Universe or eternal Multiverse, as taught by Aristotle, philosophers, and/or certain modern Multiverse scientists, would be controlled only by scientific law, without the possibility of any Torah, any prophecy, or any miracles. This is because a Torah, prophecy, and miracles require the Creator’s free will, which does not exist in an eternal Universe/Multiverse.

Modern science is consistent with the Rambam to a large extent on this. I have seen in a modern astrophysics textbook that time itself began (at the “Big Bang” singularity) so that we cannot state when the Universe began.

In a modern astrophysics textbook, it states an idea that is quite consistent with what Rambam wrote in the 12th Century CE!
“it (the Big Bang) couldn’t have occurred at a particular time, because time itself was created at the moment the Big Bang occurred.”
(“Astrophysics is Easy”, p. 273)

The scientific evidence in modern times of a finite age of the Universe has profound implications for the existence of a Creator. Any beginning in time to the Universe and a beginning to the Laws of Nature requires a non-physical supernatural Creator who exists and operates outside the Laws of Nature.

Is the Universe Eternal?

The short answer seems to be that the Torah is teaching that the Universe had a beginning, but the Torah is not stating the age of the Universe.The fourth ikar (principle) of the Rambam’s 13 principles states that Hashem preceded the Universe and created it exnihilo (from absolutely nothing). So the Universe (or the mu

Is the Universe Eternal?

The short answer seems to be that the Torah is teaching that the Universe had a beginning, but the Torah is not stating the age of the Universe.

The fourth ikar (principle) of the Rambam’s 13 principles states that Hashem preceded the Universe and created it ex-nihilo (from absolutely nothing). So the Universe (or the “multiverse” if a multiverse exists) can only have existed for a finite time. In a later version of the 13 principles the Rambam added that this fourth principle is “a great foundation of the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu”.

Until the early 20th Century, many scientists and philosophers argued that the Universe was eternal. The Rambam argued strongly against this prevailing concept of an eternal Universe as this concept would preclude the existence of prophecy or Torah. An eternal Universe would be subject solely to scientific law.

However it does not appear that the Rambam ever stated the age of the Universe. The Rambam states in Moreh Nevuchim 2:13 that the Torah is teaching that the Universe had a beginning, and time itself was created, but we cannot state that the Universe was created at a specific time. This is because a Universe created at a specific time would necessarily invoke a condition of eternal Aristotelian time. Such an eternal Universe precludes the existence of prophecy or Torah. Therefore, according to the Rambam we can’t state that God created the world at a particular time.

The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim seems to be teaching that the six days mentioned in Breisheet are six stages in the creation of the Universe.

In an informative video, Rav David Bar-Hayim explains that the six days mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis do not necessarily correspond to the present periods of time we call days:

“The creation was a process that played out over a period of time, an undefined period of time, clearly the reference in the Torah to six days has to be understood to be six periods or six stages in time…the sun did not exist at the beginning, clearly the day referred to in the Torah is an allegorical or approximation of what is truly meant…we do not know how much time was involved, it may be billions of years…science also understands today that all of reality, the entire Universe came into existence from nothing…” ( Rav David Bar-Hayim, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdvLfJGQYgw )

In the last 100 years, scientists have discovered substantial evidence that this Universe did have a definite beginning.
It appears that modern science has actually confirmed some critical Torah concepts that had been challenged in earlier periods of history.
“Scientists came to the conclusion that the Universe had a beginning from two separate lines of evidence…”
(Interview with Intelligent Design scientist Dr. Stephen Meyer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcuZsdv6DE )

Cosmology-Torah vs Science

Upon occasion, (atheist scientist Stephen) Hawking has stated that time actually began with the Big Bang, and that questions about what happened before the Big Bang are meaningless. This lessnuanced, but commonly repeated formulation has received criticisms from philosophers such as Aristotelian philosopher Mortimer J.

Cosmology-Torah vs Science

“Upon occasion, (atheist scientist Stephen) Hawking has stated that time actually began with the Big Bang, and that questions about what happened before the Big Bang are meaningless. This less-nuanced, but commonly repeated formulation has received criticisms from philosophers such as Aristotelian philosopher Mortimer J. Adler.”
[Time and the Big Bang] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time#Time and the Big Bang)

Although the Bible is intended as an ethical guidebook for man, and not as a science textbook, the basic sequence of events in the Creation process were explained in the book of Genesis using simple language so that all could understand.

The Biblical sequence of Creation events would seem to be perfectly compatible with advanced modern science:

  1. The Universe did not exist forever and had a beginning in the finite past. In addition, according to Maimonides (12th century CE) we cannot know exactly when the Universe was created because time itself was created.
  2. The initial Universe described as unformed matter in Genesis 1:2 was an extremely tiny point of formless matter. (Nachmanides 13th century CE)
  3. All the matter in the Universe was initially created (Genesis 1:1) and the components of the Universe were gradually separated (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed II:30).
  4. The first animals were various types of swarming marine invertebrate. (Genesis 1:20).
  5. There was a gradual metaphysical upward increase in biological complexity over time, that was NOT due to Darwinism.
  6. Man (as we know him) is the most complex creature and was created last and very recently (Genesis 1:26). Thus recorded human history is much shorter than the age of the Universe.