Thursday, March 11, 2010

Science and religion.

I was talking with a guy that claimed he is a christian. He started out with the normal claims that he could prove god exist and that he had no doubts about that. It got me to thinking about some of his proof and why he was using it the way he did. Don't worry I haven't changed my mind about the truth of the bible but it did raise a few questions about how science has caused christians to change their interpretation of the bible. I am really interested in finding how some of the verses he used were interpreted before the advances in science caused the change in their interpretation. These are some of his proofs as he claims or more then likely The Discovery Institue or Answers in Genesis claim.
"The Holy Bible holds that God created the universe and the only reason we continue to exist is because God upholds our existence. (Genesis 1:1) (Hebrews 1:3) Scientifically, this Biblical worldview belief is confirmed by the laws of physics and by our existence living within our universe on the planet earth. You can think of the laws of physics as part of God’s invisible qualities."

"The Holy Bible’s Old Testament (Isaiah 40:22) which teaches us that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; which suggests that the universe has actually increased in size since its creation. Scientifically, this Biblical worldview belief is confirmed by redshifts in nearly all galaxies and the Hubble Law which states that distant galaxies show greater redshifts than nearby galaxies."

" The Holy Bible tells us that the age of the earth is about six to ten thousand years old based upon God creating everything in six literal 24 hour days (Exodus 20:11) and genealogies recorded in (Genesis 5, 11) first starting with the first man God created, Adam. The Holy Bible said that a massive flood covered the whole earth. Noah’s Flood was a global, year-long, global catastrophe.

Scientifically, the geological features of the earth today are exactly what we should expect to result from such a complex, year-long, destructive event as Noah’s Flood which was global in its nature. Also, an incredible find of fossils we find are of shallow marine organisms, like corals and shellfish—and sometimes we find those even in very high sedimentary layers, even on top of Mount Everest!"

I am not wanting to refute these claims but am looking to find how christians interpreted some of the verses he used and others that are claimed to be supported by science. I am not having much luck in finding anything about the way some of the more obscure verses were interpreted. I doubt very much that christians from 100 years ago saw the bible as many see it today. I will keep looking but any help would be appreciated.

I doubt that most christians have a problem with changing how a bible verse is interpreted if it can help them to hide from the fact that their bible isn't very good in the science department.