SCIENCE
AND RELIGION
Beliefsystems
like Roman Catholosism have always had difficulty with incorporating
scientific insights, which seemingly contradicted religious doctrine.
Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, when he concluded, that the
sun did not revolve around the earth, but the other way round. He
believed in the existence of alien worlds. Galileo Galilei escaped
this fate, but was isolated from contemporary scientists and
researchers by house-arrest till his death. The small, protestant
university in Leiden (the Netherlands) changellenged the Catholics,
by inviting Galilei, to become a professor in the new Republic. It's
a glimpse of the pressure, blackmail and silencing scientists and
researchers felt in those days and are feeiling now still. Most of
the time two (or even more) interpretations live side by side, even
if the datas contradict each-other. Officially, calculated by
theologians, our Earth was created around 4000 years (before Christ)
and was destroyed by the Flood 2000 years later. Noah and his kin
repopulated the Earth succesfully, which led to our world now, being
6000 year old. Archeologists have a completely different perspective.
The earth came in to existence 4,5 billion years ago. The proto-types
of modern man appeared 250.000 years ago. Neanderthal-men disappeared
(caused by modern man?) and Homo Sapiens became dominant and
conquered the world. First civilizations are dug up, who are 8 to
10.000 years old. One of them was the city of Ur, the city of
Abraham, in the Eufraat/Tigris delta. Abraham, also recognised as a
Patriarch by the Muslims, left Sumeria, with his people and wandered,
following the “Fertile crescent”, till he reached the Holy Land.
The
Bible is a history-book; in so far, the existence of cities, palaces
and temple-complexes have been proven, to be (mostly) correct. Some
places, like Jerusalem, Megiddo and Bethlehem, still exist. This
gives a kind of legitimacy to Bible-stories. Many think that Jericho
was brought down by the trumpets and horns of the Jews. A God-given
miracle! It seems much more plausible, that earthquakes destroyed
Jericho. Digs show layer after layer of collapse, due to earthquakes
and the rebuilding of the city of Jericho (10 times or even more).
Almost all the centres of mankind in the area have been struck by
earthquakes many times (Troy, Mycene, Crete, Alexandria and
Jerusalem). Jerusalem was struck by one, at the moment Jesus died.
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