the late 1880s, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote that while he doubted common descent....
“Even if this notion were ever to gain complete acceptance by the scientific world, Judaism in that case would call upon its adherents to give even greater reverence than ever before to the one, sole God Who, in His boundless creative wisdom and eternal omnipotence, needed to bring into existence no more than one single, amorphous nucleus and one single law of “adaptation and heredity” in order to bring forth, from what seemed chaos but was in fact a very definite order, the infinite variety of species we know today, each with its unique characteristics that sets it apart from all other creatures.” (Collected Writings, vol. 7 pp. 263-264).
Archaic orthodox view, as in what they ONCE used to believe? A small sub-sect of Judaism at best then. Modern Orthodox mostly not, and all other sects definitely not.
-
no this isn’t correct, especially those who are not Modern orthodox. Lubavitch, Lakewood...all the major accepted authorities today.
All Orthodox Jews, including modern, date their Jewish legal documents (marriage, divorce, etc) from the beginning of creation. All orthodox Jews believe in a universal flood of Noah.
I, on the other hand, once used to believe that the universe was billions of years old and there is some solid basis for this idea in judaism (and not just a simple 1 day = 1000 year equation which doesn’t really give you billions of years by itself)
see
http://www.lulu.com/content/86052 by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan that you can download for free
But this is not the mainstream view even though obviously there is some truth to it. That’s why this debate is so crazy :)