I am not a theologian, and do not personally care much for the debate around things like age of the universe or evolution. It makes no difference to me if the world if 50 billion years old or just under 6000, and it makes no difference to me if organisms evolved into smarter species or not. I recognize that I do not know enough or care enough to get involved in the discussion...
That being said, I don't see why either side of the debate causes problems for Judaism. If you say God could do it this way, I don't see why he couldn't have done it the other way as well.
That being said, the Ministry of Education now introducing the study of evolution into the curriculum looks to be a situation of very poor timing. My own personal belief aside that evolution, whether it happened or not, poses no problem for Judaism, the Haredi education system won't hear of it. To the Haredi community, evolution is one of the worst forms of kefira.
With the Ministry of Education doing whatever it can to get the Haredi community to integrate the core curriculum studies into its educational system, it is a pretty bad move to now include evolution into the basic curriculum. This will just strengthen the resolve of the Haredi community against integration of core curriculum.
Religion Magazine
