Earth: Neither Size Nor Position Mattered

Last updated on: March 17, 2015 at 7:32 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Earth: Neither Size Nor Position Mattered 2015-03-16T19:08:48-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When it comes to Earth, science never showed prideful Christians that the size of our planet mattered and so changed our theology. Christians used to believe the Earth was in the center of the cosmos, but nobody much took pride in the fact. Why do conservative Christians (to attack Catholics) and atheists (to make Christians look stupid) keep repeating these hopeless errors?

It isn’t as if this is a complicated question. Some errors cannot be corrected because there are serious arguments on both sides: I am not talking about those disagreements. Some errors are about how to interpret the facts: I am not talking about those mistakes.

Dante knew: the Earth was not such a much.

Sometimes I meet people who build entire arguments on assertions that are false and where there is little contention about the falsity of the fact of the matter. The fact is a simple one, not subject to interpretation or bias. One common example is the widespread assertion that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. I have read this in Christian school textbooks and atheist discussion groups, but it is false. Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire or Theodosius (who did do it) would have nothing left to do. Constantine favored Christianity, but he did not make it the state cult. This would not matter if people did not then proceed to take other facts from Constantine’s life, combine it with the falsehood and spin the mess into theories about Christianity.

Thomas Jefferson was culturally influenced by Christianity, but was a deist. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Christians should stop supporting such wrong-headedness.**

And yet these errors are as nothing compared to the widespread belief that once Christians thought Earth was super-important due to the centrality of its position in the cosmos or size and then were deflated by science. This is a bit more complex than the claims about Constantine and Jefferson since it is a claim about many people. Some Christian someplace may have made these mistakes, but most Christians did not because Christians could not.

Why?

A chief theme of the Bible is the relative unimportance of the reader compared to God. Atheists complain about this feature when they wish to promote the cult of self-esteem. Take the “chosen people.” If a man reads the Bible and believes that being the chosen people was based on their size or prominence, he is a very bad reader. One plain example of an endless number of texts (Deuteronomy 7):

6“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Science did not have to tell Israel that they were not the “biggest and best” because God told them at the start.

Humanity is not important Biblically because of our importance, smarts, powers, or cosmic position, but because God loves us and made us in His image.

For example, I have read Christians discussing humans being “little lower than the angels” as if this passage from Hebrews 2 exalted humanity. Go read the context in a modern translation. The writer of Hebrews is making the point that Jesus was not an angel but became less than an angel and died so Jesus could be exalted. The present low place of humanity in the cosmological hierarchy is emphasized. It takes the God-Man Jesus Christ to make us “greater than angels.” We are not in ourselves smarter, stronger, more spiritual, or closer to Heaven than angels.

That takes the Incarnation which is about God becoming nothing to exalt humanity.

Of course, scientifically it is also false that being at the “center” made ancient peoples feel they were important. On Platonic cosmology (dominant in the West in the Middle Ages) being in the center was bad since it was where all the base or heavy stuff fell. The Heavens were up and out and housed the “fine” elements. Moving the Earth from the center of the cosmos (as theorists did at times) would have been to exalt humanity by putting them “out there” and to debase the Central Fire (as some Pythagoreans did).

Nor did the ancients (including Christians) think the Earth was huge relative to the rest of the cosmos. It was commonplace to talk about the smallness of the Earth compared to the vast extent of Heaven. Read Dante . . . not just the part about Hell but Paradise and you will see the mainstream Medieval view. The Earth was tiny compared to the Heavens. After all, it takes a certain kind of stupidity or a permanent childishness to assert “big” is better. The human brain is smaller than a star by many orders of magnitude. Which is more interesting? Which is more important? Are whales better than dogs because they are bigger?

But any Christian must know this in his heart because Christianity loves to humble the great and send the lesser forward. Science did not lessen our place in the cosmos by moving the Earth from the center. In fact, some Christians in some places (particularly Victorian England) had problems with deep time and a picture of nature “red in tooth and claw” but that is a different story altogether.

One thing is true: you can promptly ignore any fundamentalist Christian text or atheist diatribe that makes the argument that science “humbled” humanity in this particular way.

**If you do not read Warren Throckmorton: you should.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

March 16, 2015

On Money: Neither For It Nor Against It

Next Post

March 18, 2015 Beware the GG! (The Blacklist Gets it Right)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Isaiah Zechariah Micah

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »