Episode 19. We ended the last episode examining Philippians two and its reference to the three-tier universe, and I asked the blunt question, did God lie in the Bible? What are we to do with this passage? By this point in the course, I am certain you know my solution to problems like this. We need to introduce some categories so that we can know all our options in order to make informed decisions. Our next, hermeneutical category is phenomenological perspective of nature. The Greek noun, phenomenon means appearance. Simply define this category refers to nature as it appears to the naked eye and the natural senses. Let me offer an example to explain this notion of an ancient phenomenological perspective. In quote 18, Ecclesiastes 1:5, states the sunrises and the sunsets and hurries back to where it rises. Question, does the sun literally and actually move across the sky? I'm certain most of you would say no. Please turn to page seven in the handouts to this paradigm. The reason most people would say that the sun does not literally and actually move across the sky is because we view nature from a modern phenomenological perspective. What we see with our eyes, we know to be only an appearance. The so-called movement of the sun across the sky is a visual effect, and due to the rotation of the Earth. Our understanding of nature is aided by scientific instruments like telescopes. In contrast, the ancient phenomenological perspective was limited to unaided physical senses like the naked eye. What the ancients saw they believed was literal and actual, such as the idea that the sun literally and actually moves across the sky. It's important to note that everyone believed this up to the 1700s. Because as we'll see in the second-half of the course, this was the issue in the debate with Galileo. Let's return to our three-tier universe diagram on page six of the handouts. From an ancient phenomenological perspective, it looks like heaven is an inverted bowl that holds up a blue sea of water as well the sun, moon and stars are embedded in the surface of the inverted bowl and that the surface of the earth is flat. Therefore, when reading an ancient text, we need to think like an ancient person. We're now ready to return to this challenging question, did God lie in the Bible? The answer is a very firm, no. Instead, God inspired the Bible and allowed an ancient phenomenological perspective of nature to be used in scripture, and it is from this ancient perception of the natural world that we understand that the Bible features an ancient science. Our next hermeneutical category deals with categories of biblical statements. For our purpose in this course on science and religion, we can identify two basic categories. First, spiritual statements are simply statements about God and spiritual reality. Second, scientific statements, are statements about nature and physical reality. Please turn to page eight in the handouts to a diagram which offers some examples of the two basic categories of biblical statements. First, spiritual statements and second scientific statements. Some examples of spiritual statements in the Bible include the character of God, the laws of God, such as the Ten Commandments, the acts of God, and here you see our divine action categories and finally, the character of God's creation. The Bible also makes many scientific statements that refer to the natural world. Now, you might object to the use of the term scientific, and that's fine. However, the Bible makes numerous references to the physical world. For example, as we've seen, scripture refers to structures in nature like the three-tier universe. The Bible also refers to operations in the world such as the mobility of the sun across the sky every day, and as we've noted, the three-tier universe and the daily movement of the sun is ancient science. The Bible also deals with origins. In particular, the first chapter of scripture refers to the creation in only six days of the heavens, the earth, and all the living organisms. This leads us to ask the question, if the bible has an ancient science, then does it also have an ancient view of origins? What do you think? Since the Bible includes both spiritual statements and scientific statements, we can ask the question, do these statements actually line up with reality? This question deals with categories of biblical correspondents and Concordism. Both of these categories refer to the alignment between the Bible and reality. More specifically, spiritual correspondence is the idea that spiritual statements in the Bible align with spiritual reality. Scientific Concordism is the notion that scientific statements in the Bible align with physical reality. Please turn to page nine in the handouts for this diagram illustrating biblical correspondence and Concordism. As we've just noted, spiritual correspondence deals with the notion that the spiritual statements in the Bible align with spiritual reality and scientific Concordism is the notion that the scientific statements in the Bible align with physical reality, and here are the important questions that you need to consider, does the Bible align with spiritual reality and does the Bible align with physical reality? In this diagram, you will have noticed that there is an overlapping area between the spiritual statements and the scientific statements in the Bible. This is often termed the overlap problem, in that the topic of origins deals with both spiritual correspondence and scientific Concordism. For example, consider Genesis one and the creation of the universe and life in six days. Does this biblical chapter reveal spiritual statements and the actual method that God used to create the world, and is Genesis one offering scientific statements and the actual origin of the world? If this is the case, is evolution false? What do you think? End of episode.
