JonF writes:
Most of the pioneering natural scientists and geologists of the Renaissance and late modern era (1500 to 1815)a group which included many pious Christiansexpected that their field work would provide evidence of the biblical flood, reflecting a catastrophic event in earth’s history of only thousands of years.
Faith writes:
This is true, but the sad fact is that the theories they came up with to demonstrate the Flood were pathetically unbiblical.
That's the way it goes when you follow the scientific method and the evidence.
You can't pre-ordain the results and call it science. To have a desired conclusion and fudge everything to support it--that's pretty much the definition of creation "science"--and pretty much the exact opposite of real science.
Faith writes:
It was therefore a straw man that was eventually overthrown by their continuing work. That fossils were rocks designed by God to look like living things was one such ridiculous idea that simply contradicts the character of God as presented in the Bible. All ideas of creation continuing to occur after the Creation Week of Genesis 1 are obvious violations of scripture, which clearly says God rested from His work on the seventh day. But that's biology, so I'll try to stick to the Flood.
Ummmm, you can either do religion or science. In this particular case you can't do both.
JonF writes:
However, as they discovered the interrelated, dynamic processes of the rock cycle and pieced together earth’s history from the vertical sequence of rock layers around the world, they concluded that the earth must be far older than thousands of years.
Faith writes:
In fact they didn't "discover" anything, because it's all merely interpretation that can't be proven: they merely imagined the Old Earth into existence. Hutton made up a scenario to explain Siccar Point that would require such long ages, and thanks to Lyell his mere imaginings became enshrined as scientific fact, later supposedly validated by radiometric analysis, but that too is really only imagined into existence since there is absolutely no way to prove it, there being no witnesses from ancient history that confirm it, and at least one worthy witness that denies it.
1) They did "discover" something because the understanding of their day was of a biblical flood, and they discovered that such a flood never happened. That rates as a discovery any day.
2) Your "imagined into existence" is silly. They followed the evidence rather than old myths.
3) And how many times do we have to tell you that science doesn't deal in proof? Science deals in facts and theories. Facts alone don't mean much, but a theory organizes them into a useful framework, and a powerful theory makes successful predictions. Theories must explain all relevant facts, and not be contradicted by any relevant facts. This is where creation "science" and YEC go wrong--they must ignore a huge number of facts and misrepresent most of the rest to reach the desired conclusions.
JonF writes:
By the early 20th century, most leading Christians accepted the great age of the planet earth. For example, notes in the popular Scofield Reference Bible published in 1909 provided an old-earth interpretation of Genesis 1.
Faith writes:
May God forgive them, but the Bible clearly indicates a young earth and contradicts the Old Earth as well as evolution in many ways. It takes convoluted thinking to fit the sciences of the past into the Bible.
I have to agree with you here. It takes very convoluted thinking to try to fit the sciences into the bible. And it is not scientists who are attempting to do that.
As a colleague pointed out: "Preachers are always complaining that 'scientists are playing God,' but all too often, their confusion is the result of preachers playing scientist" (courtesy of The Sensuous Curmudgeon).
Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.
Belief gets in the way of learning--Robert A. Heinlein
In the name of diversity, college student demands to be kept in ignorance of the culture that made diversity a value--StultisTheFool
It's not what we don't know that hurts, it's what we know that ain't so--Will Rogers
If I am entitled to something, someone else is obliged to pay--Jerry Pournelle
If a religion's teachings are true, then it should have nothing to fear from science...--dwise1
"Multiculturalism" demands that the US be tolerant of everything except its own past, culture, traditions, and identity.
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