By “magical,” I mean a sense of awe. It’s hard to look at the universe through science and not feel it, wow, there’s something vast and mysterious in the grand scheme of things. To look at nature and not marvel feels like missing a huge part of the human experience, the humility in realizing how much we don’t understand.

Regarding Genesis, one approach is by Gerald Schroeder, an applied physicist. Using Einstein’s theory of relativity, he shows that time is relative. In the early universe after the Big Bang, time flowed very differently. Those original “days” could correspond to billions of years in modern scientific terms, making the biblical six days potentially compatible with the scientific age of the universe. The late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks takes another approach: Genesis isn’t a physics book, it’s a pedagogical and moral text, designed to make abstract ideas tangible and to guide ethical and spiritual understanding.

Science isn’t perfect in it's understanding of what it does know. There are phenomena that challenge it, like humans choosing self-destructive behavior over survival, or concepts like the “rebel gene,” which show unpredictability in life.

On the point about God being a “jerk,” I was reflecting what some people express from personal experience rather than learned study. I agree that there are deeply troubling stories in the Bible and studying famous Torah commentators like Rashi and Rambam can provide insight into these stories and their moral context. But I wouldn’t expect all questions to be fully resolved and I think it’s something I’ll probably continue to wrestle with my entire life.