Thanks for the dialogue Allen
After each question, posed by Allen, I have annotated my personal views.
Don P
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of Allen Roy
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 9:20 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: The Bible is not a scientific text??
I want to bring up a topic for discussion.
It is often said, "The Bible is not a scientific text."
[I would like to know just exactly what is meant by that.]
In what way could the Bible be used to support any scientific conclusion or
analysis?
In short, it can't.
[What would a "scientific text" supplied or inspired by God look or read
like?]
I've never seen and could not begin to imagine.
[Could God (omniscient as he is) even write, inspire or supply a "scientific
text?"]
While God could certainly perform any task he sees fit, God has no purpose
to try and explain every detail to man. If he did, only the highly educated
would understand it and this would defeat his actual purpose. As it is, so
many are confused over what the Bible means and continue to understand his
word.
[Can observations or statements in ancient texts be used to develop or
support a scientific model?]
As I responded to the first question, the Bible can be supported by our
scientific findings, but we should not attempt to support our science by
using the Bible.
[Even if an ancient text were written by people who held 'non-scientific'
beliefs about the natural world, could a scientist make use of statements in
the text that could be interpreted to agree with current scientific
concepts?]
Same response again. When we begin to take our science literal when we find
something to the contrary in the Bible, we err. If our science does not
agree with the Bible we should consider whether our interpretation of the
Bible is correct or are our scientific conclusions wrong. There should not
be disagreement if we believe in God's word.
I know what I think, but I'd like to hear what those on this net think. I
don't have time to get involved in a deep discussion, so I'm just going to
post the questions and read the responses.
Allen
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