Astronoligion is a term I made up. It is what you get when you try to combine the truths of Astronomy with Religion. Let's apply this to Evangelical Christianity.
When it comes to "bible-believing" Christians, there are two camps: old earth creationists and young earth creationists. One of the leading old-earth types is Hugh Ross and his ministry "Reasons to Believe" (click here for info). One of the leading young-earth christian groups is called "The Institute for Creation Research, or ICR (click here for info). Old-earth'ers say the universe is quite old, in the billions of years, agreeing with modern science. Young-earth'ers say the universe is very young, in the thousands of years, because of their interpretation of the Bible. Which is right? Both appeal to science. I'll leave that up to the reader, as I'm also investigating the arguments on both sides.
Here is the point: science and theology must agree, since they are both truth... God's truth. Please don't allow one to run rough-shod over the other. If you have a religious belief that is invalidated by science, then consider that belief as superstition. There's no reason to hold on to it, and you have every reason to give it up. At one time all of the church (both Catholic and even Luther/Calvin, the Protestant Reformers) were against Galileo because he taught that the earth circled the sun rather than the earth being the center of the universe. Let's not make that mistake again!
In your studies, always remember the cardinal rule of sciligion: "scientific and religious truth are truth-- they don't contradict. If they contradict, then either one or both are wrong."
For more on sciligion and related topics, click here.
I think if you're to expect your beliefs of astroligion to be successful, you need to allow for the fact that what you believe in could be incorrect. That quality lends itself more to historical science than historical religion.
Astronomers openly admit that they don't know what's going on out there, they only make observations then work on the most accepted theories. They tend to go with what makes the most sense, given the observations. If you wanted to, you could get a powerful enough telescope and make the observations yourself and make your own theories, which may or may not agree with those commonly held.
Biblical tradition in my opinion seems like it should be more about how we are told things are. Personal experience and observation can only go so far, we need to rely on what has been figured out and experienced by those in the past, and then choose to believe or disbelieve it.
Posted by: Ray Dehler | September 18, 2007 at 09:04 AM