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Science and religion, the Jewish position

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Science and Religion

Abstract

Almost every year, at least one of the Nobel Prize winners is a Jew. Considering that only about 0.3% of the world’s population is Jewish, this suggests a close relationship between Judaism and science. The Jewish Talmudic specialist, Maimonides, was one of the most famous physicians of his time, and he was asked to serve as court physician by Richard I, the Lion Heart. More than 1000 years before Galileo Galilei, Rabban Gamaliel already had an extensive knowledge of astronomy (e.g. he seems to have known that comets have a period of appearance1, an observation that was first made in Europe as late as the 17th. century). Thus, it is clear that science has always held an important place in the life of the Jews.

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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Bloemendal, M. (1990). Science and religion, the Jewish position. In: Fennema, J., Paul, I. (eds) Science and Religion. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2021-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2021-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7406-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2021-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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