(Above,
Cosmas Indicopleustes' 550 AD drawing
of the waters above and below the firmament)
Evolution isn't the only problem for
creation science. There are also some troublesome passages in Genesis relating
to cosmology:
"And
God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was
morning, a second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one
place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he
called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:6-7
What are the "waters above the
firmament"? For that matter, what is the firmament? It seems to mean the sky,
and the idea seems to be that the firmament is something solid holding the stars
in place, and that water was above the firmament, just as water surrounds the
earth and is below it.
The problem is that this seems to have
nothing to do with the astronomical system we know about and live in. Not only
liberal Christians, but most Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians give
this (and many other passages in scripture)
figurative or metaphorical rather than literal interpretations.
Unfortunately, the first principle of
the majority of American conservative Christians is that every word of the Bible
is literally true, and as a result fundamentalists are forced to come up with
some kind of explanation for "the waters above the firmament". Even a
century ago (or as far as that goes, 1400 years ago at the time of Cosmas
Indicopleustes) this concept was pretty far-fetched, but when men walked on the
moon in 1969 the idea became ludicrous. But the fundamentalists soldier on,
retranslating the Hebrew, postulating massive changes for which there is no
evidence, and finding signs of water on Mars. They might just as well try
to prove that the earth is flat, too, while they're at it, but they never seem
go quite that far any more -- God knows why.
(There's also the theory
that the waters above the firmament are sentient beings, though few fundamentalists
seem to have involved themselves in this aspect of the question either: "Let the waters that are above
the heavens praise the name of the Lord" -- Psalm 148:4; "Ye
waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord."-- Daniel 3:60).Corrected.
And then there's the seven-headed dragon
rising from the sea. A lot of our fundamentalist friends not only
believe that Armageddon is nigh, but they are praying that it will come soon, so
that they can see their enemies (us) dying horrible deaths.
Many of the fundamentalists I have known
are kindly, decent people, but they are also terribly fearful people who live in
a very small world, and the mandates of their belief essentially require them to
reject most of science. It's not just evolution -- anything that goes against
the literal word of the Bible must be rejected. Granted what we know about their
approach to science, it's not hard to understand how they could believe George
W. Bush on WMD and al Qaeda. Essentially, they have made a principled
rejection of all rational and critical thought, and for them Science is an
enemy, an adversary of religion which must be resisted or destroyed.
The odious George Will and the
egregious twit David Brooks have been happily explaining to us that our failure
to respect the deeply-held religious beliefs of a big chunk of the Republican
core constituency proves that we are elitists. You have to give these guys
credit for not bursting out laughing when they make these pronouncements. Brooks
and Will are plump, prosperous scam artists who make their living suckering the
Republican core constituency, and nobody in the world has less respect for their
victims than these two do.
All in all, while I recognize the
political problem for the Democratic Party in trying to win elections when so
many voters hold these irrational, cruel beliefs, it is hard for me to
understand why why these voters should be respected. And (going a little
further, and speaking a language that Christians can understand) it seems clear
to me that the Armageddon Christians are doing harm, and that instead of relying
on the mercy of Christ to rescue them from the consequences of their actions,
they should stop, think, and change their behavior. For Christians will be judged too.
Kings 7:23:
"Solomon made the 'sea' of cast metal, circular in shape,
measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of
thirty cubits to measure around it."
Some of the
political Christians of today are sincere (albeit fanatical and cruel),
and some aren't. The following quote is intended for the latter:
"Cheap
grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the
toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace
is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism
without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution
without personal confession."
