Howard Van Till may be too modest to mention it, but in my opinion Jim (and anybody else who wants to start thinking about these issues in a way that respects the Bible for what it is and God's revelation in nature for what it is) would do well to read Howard's book "The Fourth Day." It is very much about how to let the Bible be the Bible (and let science be science) with regard to these contentious questions.
Best of all, it is now available again after being out of print for several years, and can be ordered through the major online sellers.
Allan Harvey, steamdoc@aol.com
In a message dated Thu, 14 Feb 2002 12:22:05 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@novagate.com> writes:
>
> >From: "Jim Eisele" <jeisele@starpower.net>
>
> > However, I am uncomfortable mashing the Bible with science. Let the Bible
> > be the Bible.
>
> Yes, much noise & heat could be avoided by doing exactly that. If we "Let
> the Bible be the Bible" we would stop forcing that text, written in the
> Ancient Near Eastern and Greek/Roman conceptual vocabularies and written to
> address the questions of that day, to provide simple and unambiguous answers
> to modern scientific questions. We would stop trying to settle the endless
> and futile arguments over the age of the universe or the adequacy of
> evolutionary theories by (pious but misguided) appeal to the biblical text.
>
> Yes, by all means, let the Bible be the Bible.
>
> Howard Van Till
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