Principally, the Creation Event, and modern science’s recognition of the so called Big Bang, or better still, inflationary cosmology. Then, all the relativistic quantum theoretical stuff that gave rise to everything else.
But my personal favorite concerns the use in Leviticus XI, 18-19 of the Hebrew word “Tinshemet” (tuf, nun, shin, mem, tuf) representing a bird of some sort. Then the same word is used again in v29 to describe “the great lizard” or reptile.
That these two meanings were used in conjunction so long ago seems somewhat astounding given modern science’s current theoretical frameworks which link relationships twixt the Ornisthician dinosaurs and modern birds.
I certainly have my misgivings about Biblical license to plural marriage, idolatry regarding Umim and Thumin, and the casting out of those with certain skin conditions, etc. But those seem small things between God and me.
But Torah’s connection to the rise of modern science is indisputable. And with the recent news concerning a new genetic language previously hidden within the framework of DNA, I believe such connections ever serve to close that circuit with the Divine.
Dr. Gerald Schroeder, in his recent book, The Science Of God (The Free Press, 1997, reprinted by Broadway Books, 1998), tells the story of meeting and working with a man in China whose grandmother was possibly an avid reader of the Bible [pages 191 – 194 in the Broadway paperback, for those who would like the story directly from Schroeder in addition to our second-hand telling]. As you may know, religion is not considered of much value in communist China. In fact, people exhibiting religious faith are usually set upon by the government, sometimes in bloody assault. Dr. Schroeder’s Chinese acquaintance asked, “If the Bible is true, why doesn’t it teach about dinosaurs?” Fortunately for this man, he had asked someone imminently qualified for such an enigmatic bombshell....
The shortened version of Dr. Schroeder’s answer to his Chinese associate is as follows. In Genesis 1:21 we read about the creation of animals, in general terms mostly, not in such specifics which would satisfy an evolution scientists. One animal category that is named are taninim gedolim. Gedolim means big in Hebrew, so the text names ‘big’ taninim. Taninim is translated into English as everything from alligators to sea monsters to whales, creating a confusion for the casual reader not versed in Hebrew. For deeper meaning we need to find the word used more specifically in the singular, or as taneen. Dr. Schroeder guides us to Exodus 4:3 where we read of Moses casting his staff down as instructed by God; the wooden staff turns into a nahash, or snake in Hebrew. Then, over in Exodus 7:10, when Moses casts the staff before Pharoah¾as a sign of God directing Pharoah that the Hebrew people must be freed¾the staff is described as turning into a taneen.
In Genesis we are given general categories. In Exodus the singular, taneen, of the general category taninim is used. The general category of snakes (nahash) are reptiles. We can then put the two together back in Genesis and see that taninim gedolim are ‘big reptiles’, which is perhaps what dinosaurs were, the biggest reptiles. The Bible does not teach about dinosaurs, but, though buried, ‘that’s in the Bible’ as we have seen with Dr. Schroeder’s explanation of the Hebrew text.