Doctrinally, in Judaism there is simply no tabu against understanding the natural world. Culturally, that may contribute to the disproportionate success of Jews in the sciences. And also within Judaism, literalism was dispensed with fairly early, with a variety of interpretations argued among scholars, all of whom would probably be considered "heretics" if doctrine were to be held to as closesly as in the Christianity of the time (or even of the modern era, in some quarters.)
The talmud - the fruits of Judaism from the destruction of the second temple to the modern era - is composed like a message board, albeit one that the rabble did not participate in. It is all interpretation, counter-interpretation, quotes from the "OP" (in this case, the Torah,) quotes from other interpretations, etc. You were supposed to know who the high priest was and who the temporal authority was when you commented on any given "OP". You know why? Because in Judaism - and this is orthodox Judaism, by the way - it is taken as a given that context matters. There is no tradition in Judaism that says "there it is in black and white, stop arguing about it." We start out saying "SOMEBODY wrote this down, and they wrote it down during a given time in a given context." Like I said, and that's among the orthodox.
In Islam, wisdom is compared to a jewel you just find somewhere - wherever you find it, you pick it up. This probably had a lot to do with the flourishing of Islam in the middle ages while Christendom was studiously anti-scientific. I do not know whether doctrinally there is some impediment within Islam that arrays it against natural sciences. It does not seem to be the case.
Now then, we do have cases of willfull ignorance among all three faiths, just as we have magical thinking among atheists - just not the ones that go into the sciences.
For example, I have met Jews who hold to a type of creationist fundmentalism that seems to mimic the Christian variety. They are far from the majority, and their view - doctrinally speaking - is not "THE" Jewish view. In fact - and this is difficult for many to grasp - there is no "THE" Jewish view. There is no central church to enforce dogmatic homogeneity. A sect can proclaim its little local rules, but nobody else is supposed to have to live by them.
The world of Jewish viewpoints is very different from its Christian counterpart, as Nicolai points out.
Everlong, it strikes me that you would like one size to fit all. Historically, this mirrors a Christian assumption. It is likely that you have personally rebelled from an upbringing within one or another christian denomination - not necessarily a strict one, by any means, but one that carries with it the cultural assumptions of the locally dominant confessional group (in this case, either the globally more numerous Catholic faith, or one of the locally more numerous protestant sects.) I don't pretend to know this, I only say it appears likely from your commentary.
It may interest you to know that among the various rationales for anti-semitism in years past, local Christian authorities proclaimed Judaism not to be a religion at all, specifically because it had no church structure, and could therefore not be properly called a religion.
Sometimes Christians think of Judaism as Christianity 1.0. It's a worldview of "Christianity minus Jesus = Judaism." Although that analysis approximates the relationship from an ex post facto point of view, particularly as regards the central point of Christian doctrine (i.e., the centrality of the figure Jesus,) both religious and cultural traditions have grown in considerably different directions since their point of historical divergence.
PFnV
