There Probably Is a God

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent for The Times of London has a very interesting post in her blog in which she reports that Clifford Longley, former Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Times, is complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about the atheist bus.

In his complaint, Longley wrote:

'The statement “There’s probably no God”, as currently seen on the side of London buses, is untrue and dishonest, in so far as the word “probably” completely fails to reflect the true state of the scientific argument. In fact it would be honest and true to say the opposite - “There probably is a God.” A fair reading of the material below could lead to no other conclusion.

To read Clifford Longley’s complaint in full, visit Ruth Gledhill’s blog and read his statement. Both theists and atheists need to read the arguments Longley presents. After you finish reading his statement, you will have to say: “There Probably Is a God.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Atheism, God, Clifford Longley, Science, Theism

A Message to Galileo: “All Is Forgiven”

The Vatican is changing Galileo’s status from a heretic to a hero of faith and science.

A news report published in the Chicago Tribune describes the Vatican’s change of heart:

The Vatican is recasting the most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist Sunday, saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and "contemplate with gratitude the Lord's works."

In May, several Vatican officials will participate in an international conference to re-examine the Galileo affair, and top Vatican officials are now saying Galileo should be named the "patron" of the dialogue between faith and reason.

It's quite a reversal of fortune for Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gather evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith, but Galileo defied its warnings. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest.

The Church has for years been striving to shed its reputation for being hostile to science, in part by producing top-notch research out of its own telescope.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

But that apparently wasn't enough. In January, Benedict canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza University after a group of professors, citing the Galileo episode and depicting Benedict as a religious figure opposed to science, argued that he shouldn't speak at a public university.

The Galileo anniversary appears to be giving the Vatican new impetus to put the matter to rest. In doing so, Vatican officials are stressing Galileo's faith as well as his science, to show the two are not mutually exclusive.

So, after almost 400 years, the message of the church to Galileo is: “All is forgiven.” Too bad Galileo is not here to hear these words and discover that the church is not infallible after all.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Faith, Galileo, Science, Vatican

Visualizing the Bible

Image: Courtesy Chris Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University; Christoph Romhild, North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church/Science



National Geographic News has published the best science images of 2008. Among them, an image that received the honorable mention in the category of “Illustration” was “Visualizing the Bible.”

This is how National Geographic News describes the visualization of the Bible:

A colorful rainbow brings to light the interconnected nature of one of the world’s most familiar books.

The Bible’s 1,189 chapters are plotted along the horizontal axis at the bottom of the image, with each bar's length determined by the number of verses.

The arcs above the graph show the 63,779 cross-references between each chapter.

“It almost looks like one monolithic volume,” said Carnegie Mellon's Chris Harrison, who--along with Christoph Romhild of North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hamburg, Germany--won an honorable mention for illustrations in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

I never though a visualization of the Bible would be as beautiful and as colorful.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Bible, News, Science

Dinosaurs and Christian Faith

Doug Chaplin at MetaCatholic has written a post commenting on my post on Science, Evolution and Creationism. In his post, Doug wrote the following:

My own experience is that this is nothing to do with valid arguments, far less with the evidence. Creationists are interested in neither. For them a valid argument is one that supports their position, however supremely silly it is, and however cavalier with the evidence.

I learnt this lesson years ago as an undergraduate, when listening to two fellow students arguing their respective cases. As the argument went on, I became more and more stupefied by the case the creationist was putting forward. Finally, unable to resist it any longer, I intervened with a deeply ironic reductio ad absurdum. (At least that’s what I thought.) I suggested earnestly that what scientists didn’t realise was that as God created the world, the devil followed behind planting fossils in the rocks to confuse and tempt humankind.

Unfortunately, while my scientifically-minded friend laughed, the creationist nodded earnestly and said that was exactly the sort of thing that could have happened.

His experience reminded me of an incident that happened in the Fall of 1988. In 1988, the same year I came to Northern Baptist Seminary, the newly-elected president of Missouri Baptist College gave a news conference in which he introduced himself to the community in St. Louis, Missouri.

During the news conference, a reporter asked the newly-elected president: “Do you believe that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago?” In response to the reporter’s question, the president said that he did not believe that dinosaurs were millions of years old. He also said that God had put those bones on the ground to test the faith of believers. People who believed that those bones were millions of years old did not believe in God.

The question that many people ask today is whether one can believe that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and still believe in God? Many people still believe that dinosaurs were created six thousand years ago.

The people who sponsor Answersingenesis.org believe in a young earth, that dinosaurs were created six thousand years ago, and that they perished in the flood. For instance, in one article, they write the following:

We often hear that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. But that’s not true. God’s Word, the Bible, tells us something totally different.

It’s NOT a big mystery. Dinosaurs were created about 6,000 years ago on Day 6 with the other land animals AND with people. Yes, dinosaurs and humans lived together (Genesis 1:20–25, 31).

When asked to explain the fossils, they answer:

The dinosaur fossils we find today formed during Noah’s Flood, or its after effects.

When asked whether dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, they answer:

Yes! The word “dragon” is used in the Bible, and it may describe dinosaurs. Look up Isaiah 27:1 & Malachi 1:3 (KJV).

When asked whether there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark, they answer:

Yes! Dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark. God sent at least two of each air-breathing, land-dwelling animal (Genesis 7:2).

The people who sponsor Answersingenesis.org are good people and they mean well. However, I believe people can accept the fact that there are galaxies that are billions of light-years away from us, that the dinosaurs lived and died millions of years ago and still be a Christian and believe in God. I also believe that people can believe in evolution and still be committed Christians.

Some people may read the book Science, Evolution and Creationism and not believe one word of what is written there. Other people may read the book and realize that science is not a threat to faith. And this possibility, that people may learn that science is not a threat to faith, is the reason I wrote my post.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creationism, Dinosaurs, Evolution, Science

Science, Evolution, and Creationism

The National Academy of Sciences has published a book supporting the theory of evolution and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science classes.

The book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, was written to help people who may not have a background in science to understand the differences between science and religion. The book seeks to provide “a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom.” The book declares that by accepting the reality of evolution, Christians do not have to abandon their belief in God.

The book is available for free reading online. Chapter Three of the book deals with creationism and intelligent design. On intelligent design, the book provides several examples to demonstrate that intelligent design is not supported by scientific evidence.

On creationism, the books says:

“Creationists reject scientific facts in part because they do not accept evidence drawn from natural processes that they consider to be at odds with the Bible. But science cannot test supernatural possibilities. To young Earth creationists, no amount of empirical evidence that the Earth is billions of years old is likely to refute their claim that the world is actually young but that God simply made it appear to be old. Because such appeals to the supernatural are not testable using the rules and processes of scientific inquiry, they cannot be a part of science.”

People who teach creationism and intelligent design may not like the conclusions presented in this book. However, both creationism and intelligent design proponents should read the third chapter of the book and see whether the arguments presented by the scientists are valid.

Read the book online by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creationism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science