scigirl

The argument over warning labels in science books inspired me to write this post. Here’s a reminder of what happens when we let church doctrine govern scientific and educational endeavors. Quotes were taken from Is it God’s Word written by Joseph Wheless.

Throughout history, Church leaders have gone to great lengths to conceal scientific truths that contradict with their view of the Bible, and still continue to do so. Why? Because since the beginning of the Christian church, the leaders have recognized that their credibility (and thus their power and income) relies on the continued belief of its populus that the Bible is inerrant. Here are some notable examples, but this is by no means an exhaustive list:

1) The fact that the earth is round was denied because of scripture.

When people started speculating that the earth was round instead of flat, and that people might live on the other side of the earth, the Church was not happy. Father St. Augustine wrote, “Scripture speaks of no such descendants of Adam as the Antipodeans. Men could not be allowed by the Almighty to live there, since if they did they could not see Christ at his second coming descending through the air…If there be men on the other side of the earth, Christ must have gone there and suffered a second time to save them; therefore there must have been, as necessary preliminaries to his coming, a duplicate Adam, Eden, Serpent and Deluge…If there were any antipodes, the Bible would have said so” and went on to say that the earth was actually a flat disc with a dropping off place; and that if the world were round, they would slide off.

Surprisingly, even after Magellan’s 1519 voyage, Churchmen including Luther, Melancthon and Calvin stuck to Scriptural revelation and still denied that the earth was round.

2) Facts of astronomy were disputed by the Church, and scientists were threatened with torture or death, because of scripture.

When Copernicus wrote his famous “The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies,” the Church instantly denounced the work as heresy and condemned it to suppression “until his statement should be corrected” to conform to the Bible…Father Luther stated, “This fool 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…If the earth is a planet, and only one among several planets, it cannot be that any such great things have been done for it as the Christian Doctrine teaches. If there are other planets, since God makes nothing in vain, they must be inhabited; but how can their inhabitants be descended from Adam? How can they trace their origin back to Noah’s ark? How can they be redeemed by the saviour?”

Kepler was another scientist whose works were suppressed by the warning label committee (I.E the Church). The Protestant Consistory of Stuttgart warned Kepler “not to throw Christ’s kingdom into confusion with his silly fancies,” and ordered him to “bring his theory of the world into harmony with Scripture.”

And of course there’s Galileo. The church told him, “The first proposition, that the sun is the center and does not revolve around the earth, is absurd, false in philosophy, and from a theological point of view at least, opposed to the true Faith.” They of course threatened him with torture and arrest if he didn’t recant his statements. Also at this time Pope Paul V placed the works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler in the “Index of Prohibited Books” and there they sat until 1835!

3) Studies of geology were suppressed because of scripture.

In 1749, a man named Buffon published “Histoire Naturelle,” and in it claimed the earth was 50,000 years old, ,and also developed the hypothesis that “that the earth had been formed from molten material cast off from the sun by the impact of a comet.” He was required to recant his statements and forced to state that “I abandon everything in my book respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which may be contradictory to the narrative of Moses” else be killed.

4) The practice and study of medicine was discouraged by the Church because of scripture.

Father St. Ambrose declared in the Dark Ages, “The precepts of Medicine are contrary to celestial science, watching and prayer.”

The Apostle’s Creed, regarding resurrection of the body, discouraged anatomical study, and the Church forbade surgery to Monks; all dissection was forbidden by Decretal of Pope Boniface VIII, and excommunication was threatened against all who presumed to practice it.

5) The facts of human origins are currently disputed by the Church because of scripture.

From Answers in Genesis: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/3359.asp
Once again, Christians make the claim that some scientific discovery (in this case, evolution) jeapordizes their entire religion. And therefore they are making attempts to suppress the discovery, by appealing to politicans to remove any mention of evolution (was it the state of Kansas a couple of years ago that literally ripped pages out of textbooks?) or in other states, putting a "warning label" on the information.

I have to wonder if these Christians know their history, since their fear seems to be unfounded. Did the discovery of a round earth, an old earth, or an earth that revolves around the sun make Christianity disappear? Unfortunately, no. Why should this discovery be any different?

I also wonder how Christians see what they are doing as any different than the above scenarios. Did priests make tragic errors in judgement because they took the word of the Bible over the word of scientific discovery? Yes they obviously did. Did these mistakes cause them to do immoral things such as suppress the truth? Yes they did. Did these priests call the discoverers, and anyone who believed in the discovery, a heathen worthy of punishment? Yes they did (and in some cases, threatened excommunication or even death!)

As I see it, we can learn three lessons from history:

1) The bible is a crappy science book - always has been.
2) This fact does not deter the ability of people to base their religion around it.
3) Churches will go to great lengths to suppress scientific truths.

Of course the church and state are (somewhat) separate now, and people are not put to death for heresy anymore in this country. So - I am glad that the current churches are only trying to put warning labels on my science books rather than kill or torture evolutionary biologists. However, knowing the history of science and religion makes me very uneasy, and skeptical that the Christians promting the labels have the progress of science, intellect, and the pursuit of pure knowledge in mind.

scigirl

Duvenoy

Dammit Scigirl, it's Easter sunday, a holiday. What the hell are you doing here? Have you no life?

I have no life, but I'm old and dirty and ugly and crippled; you, my dear, have no excuse!

Thanks for the history lesson. It's said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. This is a truth, and thus it shall be. A pity that the folks who do their own thinking must suffer with those who do not. :banghead: But, that's H. sap.

Wishing you and all here the best of the Bunny Season!

doov

Undercurrent

Speaking of which, have you seen Queenie and the NutWatch yet today? I think she might be slacking off because of the holiday. It's good to see that at least one of the lovely infidel ladies is still not-having-a-life for my amusement.

scombrid

I love our xtianized pagan holidays that are repaganized to add commercial appeal to the masses. I'm headed over to mom and dad's for ham, potato salad, cooked greens, and corn bread. If anybody we know got a gobbler this season we'll also have wild turkey. Since I don't live at home I don't have to get dragged to church anymore I just get the really good meal. Of course working from 5:30AM to 1PM on Sunday helps avoid church with the folks on holidays as well (their small town baptist church puts so much bile in the throat that eating just isn't as pleasurable afterwards).

Thanks for the writeup Scigirl. I was talking with my dad last weekend. This problem is making it's way beyond grade school. He's the head of the science dept. at a Community College. It's bad enough that he gets a lot of pressure to dumb things down for the underacheivers but he recently had two candidates for part time positions as General Biology instructors refuse to teach evolution because they didn't believe in it. Obviously they didn't get hired but sheesh. He has final say on the curriculum and would be in a spot if he had instructor refuse the evolution unit. Evolution is 1/4 of the semester.

scigirl

No I don't. Heh the infidel postings are actually a break from studying!
I joined a cult - the cult keeps me from having too much of a life.

Wow scombrid, that's just amazing - biology teachers who don't believe in biology. Maybe what we all need to do is infiltrate churches and start teaching bible study. If school teachers don't have to believe in science, than why should sunday school teachers have to believe in religion?

scigirl

pz

ONLY?

I bring it up over and over again in my classes. In introductory cell biology, it's pretty much impossible to avoid things like mitochondria as symbionts, universality of the code, common metabolic pathways, etc. My development course is wall-to-wall evo-devo.

A biology professor who doesn't believe in teaching evolution? What's next? Chemistry professors that deny the existence of electrons?

Eric H

quote scigirl,
Of course the church and state are (somewhat) separate now, and people are not put to death for heresy anymore in this country. So - I am glad that the current churches are only trying to put warning labels on my science books rather than kill or torture evolutionary biologists. However, knowing the history of science and religion makes me very uneasy, and skeptical that the Christians promting the labels have the progress of science, intellect, and the pursuit of pure knowledge in mind.
--------------------------------


I feel sad that people in faith have the need to try and restrict learning, I feel long term the church suffers, but individuals do seem to gain.

Maybe the church needs to try and work out the motives of these individuals


peace

Eric

Albert Cipriani

Scigirl says:
Been there; done that.

The pope, most priests and bishops and virtually all the Catholic "faithful" seem to no longer believe much of the Faith. So there's no need to infiltrate our institution, the Communists successfully did that for you years ago. You merely need to bump off the 1% of us Traditionalists like me. Then the sandbox will be all yours. -- Sadly, Albert the Traditional Catholic

scigirl

So Albert,

When the priests of the past disregarded scientific knowledge in favor of literally interpreting the Scripture, were they wrong? I don't mean their methods (nobody should be tortured for doing science!), I just mean their simple denial - accepting Scripture over data.

If so, isn't it conceivable you are wrong now?

Read their statements carefully as to why the priests didn't want to belive in a round earth, an orbiting earth, and an old earth. Then read the reasons why creationists don't want to believe in evolution. Do you see any parallels?

scigirl

scigirl

As a follow-up question...

These priests predicted that the acceptance of the round earth/old earth/orbiting earth would signify the downfall of Christianity. Were their predictions correct?

What implications does this have for the veracity of Christianity in general? If rejecting basic tenets of science - ie that the earth orbits the sun and not the other way around - is crucial for the survival of Christianity, than how good is Christian theory to start with?

Shouldn't the religion - which is supposed to govern humanity throughout the ages - withstand the test of time, including the ever-changing human intellect and discovery? If it can't, what good is it?

scigirl