THE KABBALAH AND THE BIG BANG?

Jewish group demands apology from Georgia lawmaker

By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - A Jewish organization is demanding an apology from a Georgia legislator after a memo using his name claims that evolution was a myth propagated by an ancient Jewish sect.

The Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to state Rep. Ben Bridges Thursday chastising him for penning the "highly offensive" memo, which attributes the Big Bang theory to writings in the Kabbalah, a Jewish text.

Bridges has denied writing the dispatch, although one of his closest political allies, Marshall Hall, said the legislator gave him the approval to draft the memo.

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I'm not sure that accusing the Kabbalah of being the source of cosmological theory is anti-Semitism: it's kind of a backhanded compliment, although that website certainly doesn't present it that way. In any case it is silly. I think it's better just to laugh at these people, not demand an apology.

"Indisputable evidence - long hidden but now available to everyone - demonstrates conclusively that so-called 'secular evolution science' is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate 'creation scenario' of the Pharisee Religion," the memo said. "This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic 'holy book' Kabbala dating back at least two millennia."

Lots of errors here. Kabbalah is a general term for a huge corpus of mystical literature, the best know of which is the Zohar. The Pharisees were long gone by the time of the Kabbalah. Most of the Kabbalistic texts are from the twelfth-thirteen centuries C.E. or later, although Sefer Yetsirah is somewhat earlier and perhaps even from late antiquity. But the author of this quote seems to be taking the Zoharic claim of authorship in the second century CE at face value. Plus, of course, the Kabbalists, whatever their spiritual contribution, did not discover the Big Bang.

UPDATE (18 February): More here