Re: [asa] How to respond to a YEC's version of "science"

Be careful! I will leave George Murphy to deal with the Luther quotes - I dont want to trespass.

The second of the alleged Calvin quotes cannot be found anywhere in Calvin's writings and is fictitious. The first needs to be checked and net references are imprecise.

Michael
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Kirk Bertsche
  To: Dehler, Bernie
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] How to respond to a YEC's version of "science"

  As Bernie says, the Galileo affair is a good illustration of divine accommodation and overly literal interpretation. But the errors of the Catholic church can be easily dismissed by Protestants. It may be helpful to show that Luther and Calvin also fell into similar errors:

  “Scripture simply says that the moon, the sun, and the stars were placed in the firmament of the heaven, below and above which heaven are the waters... It is likely that the stars are fastened to the firmament like globes of fire, to shed light at night... We Christians must be different from the philosophers in the way we think about the causes of things. And if some are beyond our comprehension like those before us concerning the waters above the heavens, we must believe them rather than wickedly deny them or presumptuously interpret them in conformity with our understanding.”--Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis

  "People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool [or 'man'] wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth."- Martin Luther, Table Talk

  "Those who assert that 'the earth moves and turns'...[are] motivated by 'a spirit of bitterness, contradiction, and faultfinding;' possessed by the devil, they aimed 'to pervert the order of nature.'"- John Calvin

  “Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?”- John Calvin

  Kirk

  On Jan 6, 2009, at 8:38 AM, Dehler, Bernie wrote:

     Also explain to him how the church went thru this already with the Galileo affair- same thing only different.

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Received on Wed Jan 7 16:18:33 2009