<< Or meaningless. Did God accommodate himself to the science in the Bhagavad
Gita? or the the science of the Dogon peoples? If God accommodates to one,
what is to keep him from accommodating to all? And it doesn't seem to me to
be any good to say that the Bible tells us he doesn't accommodate to all
because that itself might be an accommodation. >>
I have objective evidence that the science in the Bible matches the science
of the times of the writer(s). I have no evidence to the contrary. From an
objective point of view I have no choice but to identify the science in the
Bible (astronomy, geology, biology, etc) as the science of the times. No
doubt the same is true of the Bhagavad Gita, or your old favorites the Book
of Mormon and the Koran. But, this does not logically imply that none of them
contain true revelation from the true God. It does imply that you cannot
distinguish the true revelation from the false by comparing the science in
them to modern science.
But, the real issue you bring up is history. Christianity distinguishes
itself from other religions as being more solidly based in history. However,
one cannot assume that the history in the Bible, even though inspired, is
better than its available sources. I see no revelation in Scripture to the
effect that God adds to or corrects available human sources. From the OT
history books to Luke's preface, the implication is that the history is based
on human sources. And, if some of those sources are inadequate, as is almost
bound to be the case regarding prehistory (Gen 1-11), that does not logically
imply that all of it is false or even most of it. It is all a matter of
available sources.
Your epistemological concern is valid; but, a biblical epistmology is not
purely objective or even ultimately objective. As the apostle Paul says,
"that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
I Cor 2:5 and John 7:17: "Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will
know whether the teaching is from
God or whether I am speaking on my own."
Paul
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