re: #156 Daria Emmons

Genesis very clearly says God created mankind separate from animals. It takes an extremely strained view of the Torah to interpret it differently. Modern Orthodoxy believes in this notion of a “divine day,” wherein each day of creation equaled billions of years. But it also believes in intelligent design. I traveled to Israel and back and have not met an Orthodox rabbi that believes otherwise.

Again, I am not saying this means evolution is wrong. But I see a conflict in science and religion.

I don’t seem to understand your disconnect. If you believe that G-d created the universe with certain laws that govern it - and Judaism certainly asserts that, what is wrong with saying that He used those rules to make the universe. This is exactly one of Rambam’s main points.

As to man being separate than the animals, of course we are different than the animals as far as the religion goes. This is however, a spiritual argument. Are you aware that Cabala talks about races that came before Adam?

The difference was a human soul. Now granted, we are talking about matters of pure faith here, however, the matters being referred to are not in contradiction to evolution, but rather in terms of Neshama. As to dust and Ruach, which are referred to in the making of Adam Harishon, you need to realize that if there were ever verses that have deeper meanings that go way beyond the pshat it would be these.