Chapter 3 - Big Bang. The Bible Taught It First!
Review of The Creator and the Cosmos: fourth in a series...
Working backward from 1965 with the detection of radiation left over from the Big Bang, the author recounts various Big Bang theorists, concluding that the first to promote the idea of Big Bang in 1925 was a Jesuit priest. It begins to seem that the whole game here is simple one-upmanship. He then goes on to say that Einstein provided the first theoretical evidence for Big Bang in 1916, with his field equations for the general theory of relativity (pre-dating the Jesuit priest by 9 years, but who's counting). However, he claims that Einstein wasn't willing to accept the cosmic beginning implied by such an ever-expanding universe, and therefore he altered his theory to align with the common wisdom of the day - an eternally existing, or static, universe.
Ok, here's where the Headmaster had had enough. Although this creationist author is to be commended for supplying references for all his claims, to this point the Headmaster had resisted the urge to check them. On this particular point, he decided to dig further. Looking up his reference to Einstein's publication of those field equations, the Headmaster read about ten pages' worth and came away with the overwhelming sense that what Einstein was doing was altering the equations to accomodate Newtonian physics - gravity. He in no way stated or implied that he had any issues with a "cosmic beginning" or even an expanding universe. However, in light of Hubble's breakthrough research on expanding universe, Einstein later admitted that those ten pages of recalculation for a cosmological constant were "the greatest blunder" of his life. *yawn* Such is the way with the scientific process - new information changes accepted theory. That's why theories and conclusions in science are never canonized. Too bad religion doesn't work the same way, but it can't because it's conclusions are canonized.
What follows can only be described as an exceptionally tedious walk through Aramaic verb conjugation. In the following pages, the author takes us through various translations of the original biblical texts to demonstrate that the following phrase from Isaiah 42:5 indicates an expanding universe: "He who created the heavens and stretched them out".
The Headmaster tried to envision the author as a 15-year old boy - fascinated as he was with the complexity of cosmology - finding this to be a "simple, direct and specific" explanation for Big Bang and an expanding universe. Anyway, while the Headmaster found the author's knowledge of ancient text and its translation to be impressive, he saw this as an unmasked and obvious attempt to make the known facts conform to a preconceived conclusion - subjective theology, not science. It is making creationism "smell" like science.
The drill goes something like this ==> Certain scientific conclusions do not conform to the ancient narrative of our biblical worldview, so we'll take potshots at those conclusions using "scientific-smelling" content to impress the faithful. However, certain scientific conclusions DO conform to the narrative of our biblical worldview - we'll cherry-pick those conclusions and use "scientific-smelling" content to communicate them to the faithful. Of course...
The Headmaster wishes to finish with an example and be done with this chapter. After pages of very impressive verb translation and conjugation, the author claims that the ancient texts are consistent with current scientific findings of an expanding universe. That was the whole purpose of the verb conjugation in the first place - to demonstrate that God's handiwork in Genesis is both finished (QAL imperfect - past tense "stretched") and ongoing (QAL active participle - future tense "stretching"). Yes, the Academy certainly learned a great deal about stretching here. Anyway, of course this sets up the author's claims that the Bible tells us of an expanding universe. But he doesn't stop there. He also claims that this "finished and ongoing" aspect of the bible's verbs also tells us that certain long-lived radiometric elements were placed into the earth's crust in just the right quantities so as to guarantee the continual building of continents. This piques the Headmasters interest - those must be some very simple, direct and specific bible passages! So, off to the old testament we go, and here are the passages cited to support that claim:
Isaiah 51:3 - So the Lord will comfort Jerusalem; He will show mercy to those who live within her ruins. He will change her deserts into a garden like Eden; He will make her empty lands like the garden of the Lord. People there will be very happy; they will give thanks and sing songs.
Zechariah 12:1 - This message is the word of the Lord to Israel. This is what the Lord says, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth, and put the human spirit within.
This man, with a PhD in Astronomy, is comparing mountains of scientific research on radiometric plate tectonics with ridiculously simplistic and generic biblical quotes. The gymnastics here are reaching Olympian proportion, and we're only on Chapter Three...
0 Comments
Post a Comment