I don't think it's quite right to say, though, that Nachmanides was doing mysticism, not science. I would prefer to say, as I do in the post, that I have no idea what Nachmanides was doing. If it turns out, bo mashiach that in allusive fashion Nachmanides was describing the actual mechanics by which God created the universe, I would not be surprised. If it turns out that what Nachmanides describes is a string of didactic metaphors with no relation to any kind of physical reality, I would also not be surprised. I do think that to a certain degree, at the level of granularity that the medieval commentators were asking these questions, it's unsurprising that their answers align qualitatively with modern science's answers- at that level of granularity, it's not like Nachmanides had a lot of choices of answers.
I also think the time dilation/relativistic day/cosmic clock argument is REALLY REALLY NEAT. I don't think it's something you can hang your hat on, I don't think it's some sort of convincing proof of the truth of Bereishis, but I think it's a surprising and surprisingly natural result, and therefore though some of the details of Schroeder's argument bothered me, on the whole I appreciate his presentation of it.
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Date: 2016-08-26 11:54 am (UTC)I don't think it's quite right to say, though, that Nachmanides was doing mysticism, not science. I would prefer to say, as I do in the post, that I have no idea what Nachmanides was doing. If it turns out, bo mashiach that in allusive fashion Nachmanides was describing the actual mechanics by which God created the universe, I would not be surprised. If it turns out that what Nachmanides describes is a string of didactic metaphors with no relation to any kind of physical reality, I would also not be surprised. I do think that to a certain degree, at the level of granularity that the medieval commentators were asking these questions, it's unsurprising that their answers align qualitatively with modern science's answers- at that level of granularity, it's not like Nachmanides had a lot of choices of answers.
I also think the time dilation/relativistic day/cosmic clock argument is REALLY REALLY NEAT. I don't think it's something you can hang your hat on, I don't think it's some sort of convincing proof of the truth of Bereishis, but I think it's a surprising and surprisingly natural result, and therefore though some of the details of Schroeder's argument bothered me, on the whole I appreciate his presentation of it.