Ben levi: I don’t know Rabbi Slifkin and I certainly don’t know Rav Meiselman. Hence, I cannot evaluate Rabbi Slifkin whom O only know through his website “Rationalist Judaism”. Equally, I appreciate Rav Meiselman and his learning,even if I question the choice of his freinds.
But- I do not believe that Rabbi Slifkin says anywhere that one should dismiss halacha in any way- if this is what you imply. In general terms, he maintains that, in matters of medicine,astronomy,geology and other natural sciences, chazal had views that conflict to reality and that, therefore, one does not have to accept these views as correct.Chazal were not geologists, zoologist and maybe,just about astronomers. None of the chazal that he disputes has anything to do with halacha and not even with aggadata- the subject of your sources. As I said earlier, the underlying question in all of this is simple: must we accept every utterance of chazal as “torah misinai” and so, we can never question them. Or, we are certainly bound to the rishonim and gemara on matters of halacha but in matters of general subjects, we are not bound to their words .
Your mention of the Maharal and the Gro are beside the point. They try to find mystic and esoteric explanations to the aggadata and this is fine. Te question still stands, must you believe that the sun revolves around the earth (as is implied in the gemara) and does believing in the solar system make you an apikores? According to you, it is the latter. Slifkin and many others before him do not agree.