No “New” Science (RJS)

Last updated on: November 14, 2015 at 9:14 pm by RJS

No “New” Science (RJS) 2015-11-14T21:14:24-06:00 RJS

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.

I’ve been reading and posting on Kyle Greenwood’s book Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science. Brad Kramer is beginning a series on this book as well over on his blog The Evolving Evangelical at BioLogos. Brad has an excellent and thought provoking post this week to set the stage for his series: No, Modern Science is Not “Catching Up” to the Bible. Brad has been the managing editor at BioLogos for the last year or so. With an MDiv from Biblical Seminary and an upbringing where evolution was the enemy (see his story here), he brings an important and helpful perspective to BioLogos. This latest post is centered around an image that makes the rounds on Facebook every so often. You can click on the hard to read version above to see a larger, clearer, image.

Brad starts his essay:

The chart above has been floating around social media for the past couple of months, and it recently appeared in my Facebook news feed. In trying to track it down via Google, I found many sites reposting it under the title “Modern Science is Catching Up to the Bible”. For many Christians who feel beaten down by atheist voices ridiculing the Bible as an ancient relic, this chart presses all the right buttons. I totally get this. One of the reasons I found young-earth creationism (YEC) so captivating in my childhood is that these sorts of “science prophecies” in the Bible gave me a thrilling sense of confidence and certainty in my faith. If the Bible, written thousands of years before modern science, contained scientific information that the authors could not possibly have known without divine revelation, then surely it was a supernatural book that could be trusted as God’s Word.

Of course none of the examples listed in the chart stand up to deeper inspection. Take Job 26:7 “he hangs the earth upon nothing“. But is this really a statement about a free-floating earth? The context is quite complex.

7 He stretches out Zaphon over the void,
    and hangs the earth upon nothing.
…
10 He has described a circle on the face of the waters,
    at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble,
    and are astounded at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stilled the Sea;
    by his understanding he struck down Rahab.

The supposed scientific statement describing a free-floating earth in space is preceded by a reference to “the mythological mountain where the gods dwell.” Tremper Longman points out that “in Ugartic literature, Baal lives on Mount Zaphon.” (p. 316 Job) Not only this, the circle on the face of the waters refers to a flat earth, pillars hold up the heavens, and there is reference to the defeat of a mythological sea monster Rahab. In fact, the Sea is capitalized because it is probably a reference to Yam, a Canaanite god. The passage in context does not exactly inspire confidence in this chapter of Job as a source for modern scientific understanding. (Although Job is a powerful and thought-provoking book that reveals much about the nature of God and his relationship with his creation.)

The other examples in the table above are equally unconvincing.

But back to Brad’s post. The rest of the essay reflects on his views today and the fact that we should not find it embarrassing that the Bible, written into an ancient culture (for us, but not to us as John Walton often points out) contains elements of an ancient view of cosmology. He nails it here:

For Christians, the purpose of the entire Bible is first and foremost to reveal Christ. Therefore, it ultimately draws its authority from the fact that it truly speaks of God and his Son. Suggesting that the Bible’s authority rests on its scientific accuracy adds an artificial middleman to this chain of authority, wherein the Bible first speaks truly of science, and therefore is trusted to speak truly of Christ. As Bube argues, this is not only unscriptural but ultimately damaging to the Christian witness.

The purpose of the Bible is first and foremost to reveal God’s mission in the world and his relationship with humans, created in his image. This culminates in Christ. Our faith is God and in Christ is not grounded in the scientific accuracy of scripture but in the reality of this relationship.

Kyle Greenwood demonstrates quite convincingly the presence of ancient Near Eastern cosmology in the Old Testament (using sources, including many of John Walton’s works). Far from demonstrating the modern scientific accuracy of Scripture, the passage from Job quoted above is one of the passages where aspects of ancient cosmology are readily apparent. As early as the first centuries AD early Christian fathers, Augustine and others, were wrestling with the discrepancies between a spherical earth and their “literal” reading of Scripture. This isn’t really a new problem.

John Walton, Old Testament Professor at Wheaton, has stated it quite clearly. There is no new scientific revelation in the Bible. I’ve posted on this before, with a link to one of his talks on the subject (No Scientific Revelation in the Bible!). It is worth repeating the key quote here.

I just want to make two quick points here. The first one is that in the Bible there is no scientific revelation.That’s such an important point. Israel is not getting any new understanding of the material world, its mechanisms, its operations, or anything of that sort. No new information. Now they can observe the world, and they might make some of the same observations we make when we observe the world in our modern times. But they didn’t get that by revelation.

We need to be able to read Scripture as it is, for the story it tells and the message it brings, without turning it into an idol of our own making.

By the way, Brad has another excellent post My Trip to the Creation Museum worth a read as well.

If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail [at] att.net.

If interested you can subscribe to a full text feed of my posts at Musings on Science and Theology.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 12, 2015

Is the "Old" Better? NT Wright Responds

Next Post

November 12, 2015 Our God of Second Chances

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 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 December 2014 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 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus use to heal a blind man in John 9?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A fig leaf Mud and saliva Olive oil His robe