Making waves (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, June 09, 2013, 14:55 (4186 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: Any Christian that is not open to scientific possibilities is, IMHO, being willfully ignorant. The bible rarely talks about science. When it does, I do not doubt it's accuracy, though I do doubt the translators ability to convey the original thought processes behind the original words in a way that would make sense to the western mind. -Having spent my entire working life writing, analysing and translating texts, I have to say that one rarely finds an author who can always say precisely what he means, every interpreter and translator can ONLY make or translate his own subjective interpretation of the original words, and if the author is dead, NO-ONE can EVER say for sure that the interpretation or translation corresponds to his original intention anyway. Your doubts concerning the versions of the bible that you read would have to apply no matter who wrote, interpreted or translated the original text, and even if you were a native speaker of the language, you would still have the same problem. However, it makes for a marvellous get-out when there are passages in the bible that people dislike! ("I don't think God/Moses could have meant it quite that way.")
 
TONY: Moreover, the bible is not 'anti-evolution', it is 'anti-abiogenesis' and 'anti-speciation'. Not precisely the same things. :)-By speciation I understand the evolution of each species from already existing species, the core concept being the theory of common descent. This is crucial to Darwin's theory, as opposed to the belief that "each species has been independently created" i.e. by God (Recapitulation and Conclusion). I know we have had long discussions on this, concerning the meaning of "after its/his/their kind", but unless you really believe the bible teaches that all species evolved from earlier species right back to LUCA, I still think you need to do an awful lot of wriggling to claim that it is not "anti-evolution".