Different
Principles
Scientific reasoning
has
a history. The Greeks first sought to
invent science about 2600 years
ago. The difficulty they confronted was the problem of change. All
ancient people believed in
catastrophic battles among the planets, changing planet orbits and
the vast life spans of their ancestors. All ancient people
assumed
that everything continually changes, including
matter. The Greek
philosophers
debated for generations looking for a
first principle (arche) to
solve the "matter changes" problem. One of the pagan philosophers wrote
that we must just
assume that an underlying layer of reality (hypokeimenon) does not change even
while things visibly change. He insisted that we
must build all knowledge
on changelessness, even though none is observed. Fifteen hundred
years
later, a Dominican friar,
Thomas Aquinas, urged Aristotle's system on the universities of Western
Europe, which adopted it about seven hundred
years ago.
Over the
centuries,
Aristotle's physics failed but his elementary assumption (that the
properties of matter are not
emergent) remains the basis for
Western science.
Eventually Westerners built mechanical clocks with their assumption
that matter
does not change itself. Their clocks
ticked
methodically, suggesting that seconds had equal durations.
With equally valued seconds,
they constructed precise ways of measuring and mathematical laws that
predicted orbits and
falling apples. Today, the definitions of matter and time, the system
of measuring, the scientific
method, the constants and laws of physics all presuppose that the
properties of matter
are NOT changing. Supposedly the most accurate scientific instrument is
the perpetual motion atomic clock.
Yet
we can see the past
throughout the history of the cosmos in billions of distant galaxies.
No perpetual motion atoms
gleam from any primordial galaxies. In general, the farther into the
past we see a galaxy, the
more its atoms clocked minuscule frequencies compared to modern atoms.
Some distant galaxies shine with 1/10th the frequencies of modern atoms.
Biblical physics also has a
fundamental principle. The Apostle Paul wrote
that the creation is in
bondage to phthora (Romans 8:19-22). The Greek philosophers used
phthora for the process of
change that began at genesis and corrupts all things. According
to
Paul, the creation acts on
itself as an orderly submission (hupotasso). This produces
transientness, futility (maitaioteti). Paul used two Greek
together-words to characterize these
universal changes. Things
that
change
together, in an orderly way, change
as a relation.
In
relational
change, things change in unison. In relational
change, no
independent variables exist because things change together.
Biblical-time uses the cycles of the
heavens,
not
clocks.
According to Genesis, God made
the 
heavenly lights to separate days, seasons and
years. He placed
the Sun,
Moon and stars in the raqiya. Raqiya is the noun of raqa, to beat
out, pound out, spread out. The Hebrew Old Testament repeatedly
states that the
heavens are continually
spreading out. Isaiah 40:26
"Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one
who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing." Isaiah
44:24 "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who
formed you from the womb, I, the LORD, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all
alone." In Hebrew the spreading of the heavens and stretching of the
earth are active actions that continue in unbroken continuity. This
is the Great scroll of Isaiah from Qumran Cave 1. Isaiah
and several other Old Testament writers state the the heavens (orbits)
are spreading out (accelerating). Simple
evidence supports biblical-time. This evidence is presented in
subsequent essays.
Scientific reasoning
was
historically constructed on the
foundational assumption of a pagan
Greek philosopher. A literal reading of the Bible denies this
assumption and even predicts it in 2
Peter 3:3 - 6. The Bible cannot be
adjusted to
fit science because biblical physics is based on a different
foundational idea, that matter always changes itself. If matter
and orbits are continually
changing, no one can contrive a valid science. Indeed, Solomon
wrote, "and I saw every
work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has
been done under the sun
[in the solar system]. Even though man should seek laboriously, he
will not discover; and
though the wise man should say, 'I know,' he cannot discover."
Ecclesiastes 8:17
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Last revised March 2, 2010
This document is under a Creative Commons License by Victor McAllister.
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