GODSQUAD: Science, religion each teach valuable truths [View all]
Published: Friday, January 27, 2012
Q: How can you not realize that religious belief up to the time of Copernicus was based on a no-longer valid, fixed earth-centric view of the universe, in that the earth is now known to rotate daily and to revolve around the sun, i.e., the sun does not “rise,” but merely comes into view daily as the earth rotates? Also, now the Hubble space telescope has shown us that this sun is only one of billions of suns in the known universe, meaning that Earth can’t possibly be the only planet in the universe harboring life? — W., Guilford, CT, via email
A: Every religious person must at some point resolve the problem of the relationship between religion and science. When the Bible was written, there was no difference between works of science and works of faith.
The Bible is a work of all the wisdom people had almost 4,000 years ago. At that time, the biblical view of the structure of the world imagined a flat earth supported by pillars that extend through water to a firm foundation. Over the earth was a clear dome with gates in it that separated the waters that were over the earth from the waters that were under the earth. This is not true.
So what are we religious people to do about that? One answer is to throw out everything the Bible has to say about everything. For me, this is ridiculous. The moral teachings of the Bible about the sanctity of life and about not murdering or stealing and about giving to the poor and about forgiveness are as valid today as they were four millennia ago. They are answers to the question of how we ought to live in the world. Questions about what is in the world or how the world is constructed are another matter entirely and do not in any way alter my belief that the Bible is the word of God.
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http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/01/27/life/doc4f23439d48364755857371.txt?viewmode=fullstory
I wonder if the answerer agrees with every moral value in the New Testament, or just some of it.
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