Science and The Bible - Cosmology and Astronomy

Cosmology and Astronomy

Biblical cosmology provides sporadic glimpses that may be stitched together to form a Biblical impression of the physical universe. There have been comparisons between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation narrative, and the astronomy of classical antiquity more generally.

The worldview of the Tanakh appears to be that of a flat earth (e.g.Isaiah 11:12, Isaiah 44:24 ) in a geocentric universe (e.g. Joshua 10:12-13, Ps. 93:1, 1 Chron. 16:30), along with Mesopotamian astronomy of the period . While Christians argue that the term chuwg 'erets (translated as circle of the earth) in Isaiah 40:22 refers to a "round earth", critics argue that it meant a "flat earth". They argue that if Isaiah wanted to refer to a spherical earth, he would have used the term kadur (sphere) in Hebrew .

The spherical shape of the earth was established with certainty only in Hellenistic astronomy, in the 3rd century BCE. The first suggestions of heliocentrism also date to the Hellenistic period but remained speculative until the 16th century CE. Recent measurements from satellites show that the Earth is, in fact, an oblate spheroid flattened at the poles.

Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustes insisted on the flat Earth model on scriptural authority as late as the 5th to 6th century, long after the spherical shape of the Earth had been deduced in Hellenistic astronomy, and had been generally accepted by their fellow Christians.

In the reception of Heliocentrism after Copernicus, biblical references 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:5 were cited for biblical support of geocentrism. Chronicles 16:30 states that "the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved." Psalm 104:5 says, " Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position on Scripture. The most supportive bible passage of their view was Job 26:7, where Job declares that God "hangs the earth on nothing", which for its time was very close to how modern astronomers would describe the Earth's position.

There are passages that denote the moon as being luminous.(Gen 1:16) Some argue that, as in Babylonian cosmography, the Hebrew Bible imagines Earth covered by a solid sky-dome (the Firmament) to which the stars were attached. Nevertheless, others have argued this was before the fall of man (Genesis 3) and flood of Noah's time (Genesis 6), thus the atmosphere may have changed significantly since that time. Still others suggest that the firmament was actually beneath the earth.

Augustus Hopkins Strong presented another explanation of all the alleged inaccuracies reflected in the Hebrew Bible in his work, Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God. Strong pointed out idiomatic usage of moonlight and sunset are still prevalent in current times as in ancient times, and that the word firmament has been used in literature where no one would suggest the author believed in flat earth or solid firmament theology. He illustrated the point by asking if Dickens believed the firmament was "a piece of solid masonry" when "in his American Notes, 72, describes a prairie sunset: 'The decline of day here was very gorgeous, tinging the firmament deeply with red and gold, up to the very keystone of the arch above us'." However, it is possible that Dickens was writing this passage with a conscious or unconscious reliance on the biblical motif itself. Many scholars (other than those ascribing to some form of Biblical inerrancy doctrine) generally accept that such metaphors in the Bible reflect the authors' underlying belief in the literal truth of this cosmological model.