Judaism is an evolving religion.

From my Intro to Judaism class, one of the many things that appear over and over and over is the evolution of the faith. We go back to what the Jewish people thought back then, what did this and that rabbi say, and a great deal of diversity among the people. This is something that I find refuge in when I go through a period of time when I fall into “religion is a bronze age thing”.

I’m interested to know, is Judaism in itself an evolving religion or is the evolution mainly due to people having to change the religion in order to survive In other words, the fact Jews today don’t stone women to death for example, is that mainly because of the faith itself evolving or is it because the faith giving in to the secular morality.

One of the things I disliked about the Roman Catholic Church when I was one is the claim that they never change their teaching, but then history shows that they indeed did change their teaching, because if they didn’t, your average Catholic would be very different. How about Judaism? Is the evolution something authentic to Judaism or is it a compromise?