The Greeks found that, in order to set up a system of natural science, they first needed a
foundational assumption about the nature of matter, which they called an
arche - English - first principle. Western physics was founded, centuries later, on the first principle suggested by Aristotle. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us that knowledge, wisdom and understanding are from the Word of God (Proverbs 2:6). The Christian’s foundation of truth should be the Bible, not the
arche of the philosophers. What does the Bible actually say about the stars?
1. The Bible says In the beginning God created [bara`] the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew verb tense shows that this was a
completed action.2. Later on the fourth creation day, God made the sun, moon and stars. The verb made [`asah] means to fashion and shows
incomplete action. The stars were in the firmament [raqiya`] that is related to the word for pounding out something dense like metal. It seems that the stars were fashioned, pounded out, from dense materials created and completed on the first day.
3. Numerous passages in the Old Testament use two words to describe the heavens as
continuously spreading out. The Hebrew raqia` means to pound out and natah` to stretch out. It describes this spreading as like a curtain (visible area) and like a tent to dwell in (volume).
If the Bible is to be understood grammatically, one would expect to see, in the distant heavens, dense things being pounded out and spread out. The Hubble Deeps show tiny naked galaxies, often equally spaced in a chain as though they were periodically ejected.
http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/grads/gwyn/pz/hdfn/ Closer galaxies are more diffuse, some with spiral arms, and their light is not shifted as much as the dimmer ones. This blowup of a tiny smudge, galaxy 472 in the Hubble Deep North, shows tiny blue objects arching out as though ejected from the center.
http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/grads/gwyn/pz/hdfn/pages/472.html
The visible evidence seems to fits the text of the Bible. Why then do astronomers insist that the galaxies condensed from a great cloud of gas from a big bang? Perhaps it is because we use the first principles of the Greeks when analyzing physical data. The Bible, however, even predicted
the arche of the last days as: all things continue [diamenei]. (II Peter 3:3-4) Diamenei means to remain permanently in the same state or condition, to remain the same in its being - (fundamental nature), to remain the same in relation. Things that change as a relation, change together. Our bodies are a complex intertwined relationship and we change as a relation - everything ages together. The light from every atom in the distant universe is shifted as though atoms change as a complex relationship - all the parts affecting each other together.
Which way is simpler, use the Bible as the foundation of truth, and notice that the universe fits what it says, or invent a plethora of undetectable, mathematical things like "empty space stretches the light passing though it" to protect our
arche that matter (atoms) cannot change-together - as a relationship?
This message has been edited by ptolemy, 04-13-2005 08:17 PM
This message has been edited by ptolemy, 04-13-2005 08:36 PM
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