Gerald Lawrence Schroeder (; born 20 February 1938) is an American-Israeli Orthodox Jewish physicist, author, lecturer, and teacher at College of Jewish Studies Aish HaTorah's Discovery Seminar, Essentials and Fellowships programs and Executive Learning Center, who focuses on what he perceives to be an inherent relationship between science and spirituality.
Education Schroeder received his BSc in 1959, his MSc in 1961, and his PhD in nuclear physics and earth and planetary sciences in 1965, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He worked seven years on the staff of the MIT physics department. He was a member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
Aliyah to Israel After immigrating to Israel in 1971, Schroeder was employed as a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Volcani Research Institute, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He currently teaches at Aish HaTorah College of Jewish Studies.
Religion and science Schroeder's works frequently cite Talmudic, Midrashic and medieval commentaries on the biblical creation account, such as commentaries written by the Jewish philosopher Nachmanides while also referencing scientific discoveries. Antony Flew, an academic philosopher who promoted atheism for most of his adult life, indicated that the arguments of Gerald Schroeder had influenced his late-in-life decision to become a deist.
Schroeder's ideas to reconcile faith and science have drawn some criticism from both Christians"Gerald Schroeder and his New Variation on the 'Day-Age' Theory", 1 August 2000 and non-religious scientists.Perakh, Mark. "Not a Very Big Bang About Genesis", December 2001. Natan Slifkin argues that Schroeder's calculations do not fit the order of creation as presented in Genesis vs. the order of organism development as dictated by our current understanding of evolutionary biology.The Challenge of Creation: Judaism's Encounter with Science, Cosmology and Evolution (Zoo Torah/Yashar Books 2006) ISBN 1-933143-15-0
Personal Schroeder's wife Barbara Sofer is a columnist for the English-language Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post. The couple have five children.
Prizes In 2012, Schroeder was awarded the Trotter Prize by Texas A&M University's College of Science.Trotter Prize & Endowed Lecture Series
Works Genesis and the Big Bang (1990), The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, (1997), The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth, (2002), . God According to God: A Physicist Proves We've Been Wrong About God All Along, (2009), .
References
External links
Gerald Schroeder (official website)
Dr. Schroeder speaking on cosmology: a 30-min. clip from the documentary Has Science Discovered God? "The Age of the Universe" , aish.com Critiques of Schroeder's books by Mark Perakh at the site Talk Reason 1999, 2005, 2007 Critique of Genesis & the Big Bang, Rabbi Yoram Bogacz
Articles by Gerald L. Schroeder
"The Origins of Life" "An Atheist Turns" "Evolution: Rationality vs. Randomness" "Age of the Universe"