The Torah and science are completely compatible. Judaism insists that this world is not the result of an accident or blind chance but the result of a purposeful Act of Creation. Once the principle of Divine Creation is accepted Judaism allows much latitude in belief as to how the creation was effected.
 
There is no religious objection to the acceptance of the Theory of Evolution provided it is agreed that each stage in the evolutionary process was brought about by G-d.
 
Rabbi Ovadia Seforno states that the creation of Adam was the end of a long process, which began with an animal that gradually evolved until this creature was given the G-dly soul and received the image of G-d.
 

Rav Kook explains that just as the Nation of Israel evolved spiritually from 49 levels of impurity to 49 levels of purity, so too did G-d use evolution in the physical process of creation. The gematria - numerical value - of the word teva (nature) equals G-d.
 
There are remarkable similarities between the account of the Creation as given in Genesis and the Theory of Evolution.
 
First, light was created, then the firmament, followed by sea, land and vegetation. The creation of the Heavenly bodies was followed by fish and birds, and then by land animals. Only finally, as the culmination of G-d's work, was man created.
 
Indeed, the Bible's description of the Creation in a natural progression points to its Divine origin, because no mortal at the time of Moses could have known that modern geologists also believe that plants and water-based animals were the first to be created.
 
The Ramban on Genesis 2:7 writes about the guided evolution of life from inert matter to Adam. He also says the six "days" of creation in the Biblical account were six periods or stages of creation. In any case, the length of the first three days before the creation of the sun must have been different in length from our measurement of time by the sun.
 
"A thousand or even a million years are in G-d's sight as only one day" (Psalms 90:4). What is suggested by the six "days" is that the time of Creation, however long in itself, was insignificant to the Eternal.
 
The traditional Jewish method of reckoning years from the Creation of the World appears, at first sight, to be a difficulty. No scientist would accept that the world was created only 5768 years ago. However, if the Hebrew date is reckoned from the end of creation of the sixth day, when fully developed man was created, the difficulty disappears. Science would agree that man as we know him is not older than some 6,000 years.
 
The Bible does not deny that man developed from the ape, but it does deny that man is a soulless simian. Science has yet to explain how man, who developed from the ape, became endowed with speech, mind, soul, and personality, how he has a feeling for the higher things in life - religion, morality and ethics.
 
Nor is there a single factor that can explain the birth of life or of natural evolution. Science explains given matter, how the world functions.
 
However, the Torah explains why the world was created - to live in it, in accordance with the Divine Will.
 
There is no conflict between science and religion. Science reveals a world charged with G-d's grandeur. The more our scientific knowledge increases the more will we be able to appreciate the marvels, and wonders of G-d's Creation.