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NASB | Genesis 1:14 ¶ Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:14 ¶ Then God said, "Let there be light-bearers (sun, moon, stars) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be useful for signs (tokens) [of God's provident care], and for marking seasons, days, and years; [Gen 8:22] |
Subject: Plants were created, and then stars? |
Bible Note: This followup is not intended to address biblical matters, but rather explain my perspective on science in general in light of my faith in Christ. Science addresses our knowledge of the universe. As a human endeavor, science is subject to both the constraints and the liberties afforded by the human condition. Thus, the structure and meaning of science give insight to both the universe in general, and the human condition in particular. If this were not true, science would not have meaning for us as we strive to build a world view in which we make sense of what we experience and observe. In other words, science can help us to understand ourselves as part of the universe. And, perhaps more profoundly, because the human condition shapes how we practice science, the structure and content of science inherently imply something about the human condition that we cannot elucidate directly. So, in effect we get two jewels for the price of one, if we are able to see the human condition reflected in our knowledge system called science. Perhaps most importantly, in the limitations of science, we see the limitations of ourselves. Ultimately, according to the purely scientific approach, all observable phenomena are explainable in terms of fundamental physical processes alone. These phenomena include not only the processes of physics, chemistry and biology, but also the processes of psychology, sociology, history, religion and art, to name a few. Perhaps the most elegant accomplishment of science will be the understanding of consciousness, self-awareness, emotion, logic, mathematics, language, memory and imagination. I suspect these latter phenomena may be understood by induction from the human condition as reflected in science rather than through deduction from the data per se, yet this understanding is no less valid for being gained in this way. In science, the universe is not defined, but its properties are modeled in terms of four fundamental elements, i.e. matter, space, energy and time. The ultimate goal of science is to develop an understanding of how matter, space, time and energy can be explained in terms of each other, or as diverse manifestations of one ultimate fundamental reality, such that all observable phenomena can be understood, including the origin of the universe and its ultimate destiny. For example, a central question is how matter and energy can be equivalent, as inspired by the observation that matter can be converted entirely into energy, according to Einstein's famous equivalence, as in nuclear fission, for example. Another is how the force of gravity can be communicated between masses and how gravity is somehow equivalent to the other three fundamental forces, i.e. electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Yet another is how the entirety of the universe can be accounted for in an infinitely dense, dimensionless singularity at the start of space-time, as hypothesized in the cosmological theory of the Big Bang. Finally, given what we believe from science, what will happen at the end of time? The Big Crunch, the infinite expansion of the universe until it gets spread so thin as to be reduced to nothing, or some other possibility we have yet to imagine? To me, faith in Christ liberates us from the hopelessness and tyranny imposed by a purely scientific world view and nothing in science, when done properly, can ever contradict the Word of God. |