ATrain wrote:
No, the persecution of Galileo by the Catholic church is a GREAT example of getting the application of scriptures wrong. It is also not a contradiction to say that even though Scripture is divinely inspired, it was still written by the hands of humans. Plus divine inspiration is separate from divine instruction.
I don't get why you have a problem with just even asking the question "If the spiritual authorities got it wrong about the earth being the center of the physical universe, what else could they have gotten wrong?"
I get why you used Galileo, because it's a popular trope amongst the atheists to portray Christians as backwards and anti-science. But the modern-day narrative of Galileo is mostly myth. Galileo was actually at odds with the other scientists of the day, who were almost unanimously Aristotelian. The concept of a geocentric universe was a Greek concept, not Hebrew, not Christian. The Catholic church made this fit into their Biblical narrative, while at the same time taking interest in Galileo's writings. The "persecution" of Galileo was mostly political, not theological (something you run into quite a bit in the history of the Catholic church), and was ultimately about Galileo's challenge to the Catholic church's authority.
The earth being the center of the universe is not a Biblical principle. But, this example can go in way too many directions because of the Catholic church being a main character.
ATrain wrote:
Yes, Scripture has been interpreted and re-interpreted over time to justify many things. Don't forget, the Southern Baptists were founded on the idea that slavery was scriptural and the debate goes far beyond just the story of the earth's/our physical universe's beginnings. It ranges from our issues today over homosexuality, the end times, the role of women in the church, baptism by immersion v. sprinkling, the Apocrypha, etc...
To say the Southern Baptist church of today is the only church that has it all correct is rather myopic IMO.
I don't recall ever bringing up Southern Baptists. But remember also that the abolitionists were led by Christians. It's easy to ignore that bit.
I think you are too often confusing interpretation with understanding. Yes, Scripture has nefariously been used to justify many things, but that can be said of anything. This is problem of understanding. The interpretation of Scripture has been remarkably consistent throughout history. But you can't use the occasional pockets of error to define and therefore disregard Christianity. There has been a long and consistent history of church and doctrine since Christ came and then sent His Spirit. This is called Orthodoxy. Within orthodoxy are many issues that we can disagree on, and are not of first importance. However, other issues are of first importance, and are outside of orthodoxy. We call this heterodoxy or heresy. It's what puts you outside of the church. Al Mohler explains this way better than me with his theological triage.
ATrain wrote:
I don't get why you have a problem with just even asking the question "If the spiritual authorities got it wrong about the earth being the center of the physical universe, what else could they have gotten wrong?"
I don't have a problem with asking questions. Ask away. I wish you could see that you've gotten to the point that, if it's in the Bible, it can't be trusted. I don't know how you can trust anything in that book with as much as you've already disregarded.
And PH, I never said that if you don't believe in literal 24-hour days for creation you're a heretic. In fact, I don't believe that. But I do think that it leaves you with some problems logically and theologically. It does make it easier on you with a lot of the scientific community, though.
"I always wanted to be the hero of all squirrels; I just thought it'd never happen" - Quack