One aspect of religious conservative thought and actions in the past few years is the campaign to discredit science as a measure of our world. Some religious conservatives believe the Bible is the literal word of God and they use that point to be against Gays, abortion, and Evolution.
In a recent GOP presidential debate the candidates were ask how many of them didn’t believe in Evolution. Three of them raised their hands. One of the three was Senator Sam Brownback.
My Google News alert gave me info on an article on the associatedcontent.com website that linked to a blog entry from Blogs 4 Brownback, which is not an official Brownback campaign blog, but it supports the candidate.
The article had the title Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine
Heliocentrism is the fact that the sun is at the center of our Solar System. That is the planets revolve around the sun as the solar system itself spins around. Copernicus came up with the first mathematical model of a heliocentric system. It was improved by Kepler and defended by Galileo, who eventually incurred the wrath of the Catholic church for his efforts.
If someone actually expresses that they don’t believe in Heliocentrism is kind of akin to not believing in gravity.
There is some debate if the blog entry in question, as well as the entire blog is meant as a parody. Those who commented that it was had a strong negative reaction from the author.
Basically the author believes the Bible is the literal word of God and the Bible talks about the Earth being fixed and the other bodies revolving around it.
It seems clear that it may occasionally be convenient to assume that the calculations of Copernicus and Kepler were mathematically sound. However, for both moral and theological reasons, we should always bear in mind that the Earth does not move. If it moved, we would feel it moving. That’s called empiricism, the experience of the senses. Don’t take my word for it, or the evidence of your own senses, Copernicans. There’s also the Word of the Lord:
“He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.” (1 Chronicles 16:30)
“Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm …” (Psalm 93:1)
“Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.” (Psalm 104:5)
“…who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast…” (Isaiah 45:18)
“The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.” (Ecclesiastes 1:5)
“Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” (Joshua 10, 12-13)
The author also offers “evidence” from the website Answers in Genesis and the website FixedEarth.com and the author ends with the following:
If you ask me, that settles the question right there. I support the Bible, and I don’t want my children learning about Heliocentrism in school. I think this doctrine encourages atheism, Darwinism, and anti-Americanism. I don’t want my tax dollars going to finance this kind of false science. It’s complete rot, and I hope that those of us who come to realize this can ultimately prevail against its propogation amongst OUR children with the money from OUR salaries.
That is the logical conclusion of an extreme position. If the Bible is the literal word of God then those who believe that can’t support Evolution, abortion, Heliocentrism, or any modern scientific discovery such as vaccines, drugs to control cholesterol and blood pressure and on and on…..
There was a time when most people believed that way. It was called the DARK AGES.
