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The first part of this

Submitted by biophile on Mon, 06/11/2007 - 4:57pm.
The first part of this reminds me of something I read for a class a long time ago... I forget who wrote this and I can't find it online (I know, it's bad of me to reference something I don't have the name of) but it was all about looking at certain parts of the beginning of Genesis and using principles of astrophysics to elucidate them. For example, the author said that in a way the claim that the world was made in 7 days does not conflict with scientific evidence that the world evolved over billions of years, as the passage of 7 days on Earth corresponds to millions and millions of years in some far-off parts of the universe... The article wasn't entirely clear, but it was interesting.

However, at the risk of sounding rude I don't see how applying modern scientific ideas to the Bible enhances its reading, as that was not the intention of those who wrote it down. Whether or not one believes that the Bible was devinely inspired, it was recorded by humans with imperfect understandings of the world. They would have written it in a way that made sense to them. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm bashing your post... I just find it interesting when people go back and apply modernistic intentionality to writings made thousands of years ago. Some of my teachers back in Sunday school and my Catholic middle/high schools did that a lot and it usually confused me.

I agree with the point that we shouldn't close off other possibilities, though. And it is important to be respectful of them, since other beliefs bring up points that we wouldn't have been made otherwise. In any case, I think that looking at NetLogo models would be cool... Even if you don't believe in emergence without a conductor, it's interesting to see how things play out without any specific intent.

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