I am always looking for information to expand my reader’s knowledge base of esoteric studies and how it relates to the Bible. That’s one reason I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked to be a part of Daniel Friedmann’s virtual book tour for his newest book, The Broken Gift. In his first book, The Genesis Code, Daniel incorporates Kabbalistic teaching to determine the age of the earth and universe. This got my attention, because I was already aware that Kabbalistic teachings on the age of the earth and the universe are in somewhat agreement with science. The Broken Gift tackles a new subject, the origins of man. I decided to secure an author interview which you can read below. But first you’ll find an excerpt which explains the contents of the book from The YP Publishing:

About The Book – The Broken Gift

“Was Adam the first man? Was man created by divine act in less than one day almost 6,000 years ago, as the Bible suggests?

Or did man appear 200,000 years ago as the culmination of numerous human-like species that existed during a span of millions of years, as the scientific record shows?

Both cannot be right. Or can they?

Imagine there exist manuscripts, written centuries ago, that could help us objectively decipher Genesis and thereby extract the timeline and key events recounting the appearance and early history of our species, Homo sapiens, precisely as identified by the latest scientific evidence derived from the fossil record and genetic studies.

The Broken Gift carefully examines the relationship between scientific theory and biblical teachings. The book approaches the human origins debate from a fresh perspective informed by both scientific and scriptural research. The book demonstrates alignment between key events and their dates relating to the appearance and early history of our species as described in Genesis chapters 1 through 11 (Adam, Adam’s descendants, the Flood, and the fall of Babel) with those derived from scientific observation. Could both be true? Is the evidence solid or is it sophistry? You’ll have to be the judge”.

I do not know Daniel personally, but his credentials are impressive. He’s the CEO of a leading Aerospace company in Canada. Check out his credentials in more detail at the end of this interview.

While I don’t agree with Mr. Friedmann on everything, I am glad to see someone tackling the subject of man’s origins in way which truly seeks to reconcile the Bible with scientific evidence. It’s always good to expand our horizons, and I believe Mr. Friedmann’s book has the potential to do just that.

Enjoy the interview!

Tilghman: “What caused you to write The Broken Gift?”

Friedmann: “Over the years I’ve received questions on how the Bible squares with the fossil record of various human like species.  After publishing my first book, The Genesis One Code, reconciling the development of the universe and appearance of life on earth, the questions on the appearance of humans intensified. After more research I found that the timeline formula could also be applied to the appearance of humans to reconcile the fossil record and Genesis.”

Tilghman: “The origin of man debate trying to reconcile religion and science has been done before. What makes the answers provided in your book, The Broken Gift, unique?”

Friendmann: “I believe that my work is unique in that it addresses, from a biblical perspective, several topics not clearly addressed before in a coherent unified way. For example: other human like-species now extinct; the timeline issue for first humans 6000 years or 200,000 years; the relation between Adam and us; the relation between monkeys and humans; etc.”

 Tilghman: “I understand that you have used esoteric material like Kabbalistic teachings in your first book, The Genesis One Code, to help pinpoint the age of the earth. Do you also use esoteric material to determine the age of modern man in The Broken Gift?”

Friedmann: “To reconcile the Biblical timeline and scientific record we must understand the meaning of a creation day. Furthermore we must get to a precise calculation of what a day is – not just comprehend that its era of time (vs. a 24 hour day). Yes, both books use a very simple conversion factor for a creation day derived from traditional sources and Kabbalistic ideas.”

Tilghman: “Do readers need to have a scientific background to understand The Broken Gift?”

Friendmann: “No, The Broken Gift is written for anyone with a grade 10 high school general background. The scientific knowledge is described in straight forward terms as one would read in a newspaper article on the topic.”

 Tilghman: “Do you believe the creation of man in Genesis is a literal account?”

Friendmann: “I believe the Creation of Adam in Genesis is a literal account. But Adam was not one of us – he was a divine being different physically and spiritually/intellectually from us; and Adam was created in day six, a very long time ago, before the appearance of our species – Homo sapiens.”

Tilghman: “How important is metaphor and symbolism in the creation of man in Genesis?”

Friedmann: “The sources explain that the account in Genesis is exact. However, it is told in our language. So the hand of God is his hand, but we don’t know what that is, clearly not physically like our hand. But we can look at our hand and infer meaning about the hand of God. So the account is literal we (ourselves and the world) are the analogy to help us try to understand what it is saying.”

Tilghman: “How old is modern man?”

Friedmann: “Anatomically modern man (identical to us physically) is 200,000 years old when it arose in Africa. However, behaviorally modern man behaving like us with sophisticated symbolic thought (ability to do math and plan the future etc.) arose sometime about 60,000 to 100,000 years ago.”

Tilghman: “Was Adam a human being in the modern sense?”

Friedmann: “No, the sources are very clear that he was not. Even in the simple text we are told he was male and female in one – and later split into Adam and Eve. Beyond that he was physically and mentally very different until he sinned, then he became more like us.”

Tilghman: “A lot of my readers are interested in higher consciousness for man. Does The Broken Gift provide any kind of scientific evidence that we are evolving physically, spiritually, and mentally?”

Friedmann: “The Broken Gift discusses human unique abilities as explored by science. It also discusses in detail the Torah concept of the soul and how that comes with what science has discovered as our unique abilities. In terms of ongoing evolution of man science has not yet come to a conclusion. Biblically we are told we are changing in our spirituality collectively and also individually.  In general, with history and especially as we approach the messianic era, overall consciousness is changing.  In particular different individuals can work on themselves to develop different levels of spiritualty.”

Tilghman: “What do you think is the most fascinating piece of information anyone interested in the origins of man might glean from your book, The Broken Gift?” 

Friedmann: “People have really enjoyed seeing that there is a very good fit between the hard observations of science and the descriptions in our scriptures. Once this similarity has been understood then readers can start gaining a new and better informed view on how we came to be.  Of course different readers have their favorite specific point – like our sources discussing the relation between monkeys and humans well before Darwin was born, but most enjoy seeing the whole picture put together.

Tilghman: “Do you think your book, The Broken Gift, provides enough evidence to help change the way church leaders and congregation members may view the Bible and how it is supposed to be interpreted?”   

Friedmann: “I don’t know, so far so good.  As with my first book, The Genesis One Code, I think the drive has to come from the congregation- from the general public. Census in the US show that most believe in God and the scientific record, whereas the hard core fundamentalists on both sides of the argument believe the other side has false information.”

About Daniel Friedmann:

Daniel Friedmann is CEO of MDA Corp., specializing in robotics. He has a master’s in engineering physics and 30 years’ experience in the space industry. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific papers on space industry topics. He is also a longtime student of cosmology and religion. The Genesis One Code is currently available on http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-One-Code-Daniel-Friedmann/dp/1935764276/ “>Amazon.com and the Broken Gift at http://www.amazon.com/The-Broken-Gift-Daniel-Friedmann/dp/0978457226

and at http://danielfriedmannbooks.com/