The Waters Above the Firmament

The Waters Above the Firmament
Author: Dino Boccaletti
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2021-03-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783030441708

This book addresses an emblematic case of a potential faith-reason, or faith-science, conflict that never arose, even though the biblical passage in question runs counter to simple common sense. Within the context of Western culture, when one speaks of a faith-science conflict one is referring to cases in which a “new” scientific theory or the results of empirical research call into question what the Bible states on the same subject. Well-known examples include the Copernican theory of planetary motion and the Darwinian theory of evolution. The passage considered in this book, concerning the “waters above the firmament” in the description of the creation in the first book of Genesis, represents a uniquely enlightening case. The author traces the interpretations of this passage from the early centuries of the Christian era to the late Renaissance, and discusses them within their historical context. In the process, he also clarifies the underlying cosmogonic model. Throughout this period, only exegetes belonging to various religious orders discussed the passage’s meaning. The fact that it was never debated within the lay culture explains its non-emergence as a faith-reason conflict. A fascinating and highly accessible work, this book will appeal to a broad readership.

The New (So-Called) Magdeburg Experiments of Otto Von Guericke

The New (So-Called) Magdeburg Experiments of Otto Von Guericke
Author: Otto von Guericke
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401120102

Otto von Guericke has been called a neglected genius, overlooked by most modern scholars, scientists, and laymen. He wrote his Experimenta Nova in the seventeenth century in Latin, a dead language for the most part inaccessible to contemporary scientists. Thus isolated by the remoteness of his time and his means of communication, von Guericke has for many years been denied the recognition he deserves in the English speaking world. Indeed, the century in which he lived witnessed the invention of six important and valuable scientific instruments -- the microscope, the telescope, the pendulum clock, the barometer, the thermometer, and the air pump. Von Guericke was associated with the development of the last three of these; he also experimented with a rudimentary electric machine. Thus his Experimenta Nova was an important work, heralding the emerging empiricism of seventeenth century science, and merits this first English translation of von Guericke's magnus opus.

Genesis and Cosmos

Genesis and Cosmos
Author: Adam Rasmussen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-03-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004396934

In Genesis and Cosmos Adam Rasmussen examines how Basil and Origen addressed scientific problems in their interpretations of Genesis 1. For the first time, he offers an in-depth analysis of Basil’s thinking on three problems in Scripture-and-science: the nature of matter, the super-heavenly water, and astrology. Both theologians worked from the same fundamental perspective that science is the “servant” of Christianity, useful yet subordinate. Rasmussen convincingly shows how Basil used Origen’s writings to construct his own solutions. Only on the question of the water does Basil break with Origen, who allegorized the water. Rasmussen demonstrates how they sought to integrate science and Scripture and thus remain instructive for those engaged in the dialogue between religion and science today.

Reasonable Faith

Reasonable Faith
Author: William Lane Craig
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433501155

This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.

The Rings of Earth

The Rings of Earth
Author: Larry Cloud
Publisher: Booklocker.com
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9781609100988

The author's presents his hypothesis that the early "waters above the firmament" of Genesis 1:7, the source of the rain that caused Noah's Flood, were ice rings circling the earth's equator.

Evolutionary Creation

Evolutionary Creation
Author: Denis O. Lamoureux
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2008-06-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725244284

In this provocative book, evolutionist and evangelical Christian Denis O. Lamoureux proposes an approach to origins that moves beyond the "evolution-versus-creation" debate. Arguing for an intimate relationship between the Book of God's Words and the Book of God's Works, he presents evolutionary creation--a position that asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the universe and life through an ordained and sustained evolutionary process. This view of origins affirms intelligent design and the belief that beauty, complexity, and functionality in nature reflect the mind of God. Lamoureux also challenges the popular Christian assumption that the Holy Spirit revealed scientific and historical facts in the opening chapters of the Bible. He contends that Scripture features an ancient understanding of origins that functions as a vessel to deliver inerrant and infallible messages of faith. Lamoureux shares his personal story and his struggle in coming to terms with evolution and Christianity. Like many, he lost his boyhood faith at university in classes on evolutionary biology. After graduation, he experienced a born-again conversion and then embraced belief in a literal six-day creation. Graduate school training at the doctoral level in both theology and biology led him to the conclusion that God created the world through evolution. Lamoureux closes with the two most important issues in the origins controversy--the pastoral and pedagogical implications. How should churches approach this volatile topic? And what should Christians teach their children about origins?

Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew
Author: Haim Shore
Publisher: Israeli Center for Libraries (ICL)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-09-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789655986280

This is the Third Edition of the book, first published in 2007. A whole new Part V was added, and the book was thoroughly scrutinized to update and clarify some points that required such. Unexplainable coincidences abound in the Bible and in biblical Hebrew. For example, the Hebrew words for "ear" and "balance" are derived from the same philological root. But it was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that scientists discovered that the human body's balancing mechanism resides in the ear. Coincidences in the Bible and in biblical Hebrew details scores of such incidents, including: - Words in Hebrew that show intent to convey a message - Coincidences in the Hebrew language that show intent to convey hidden information, and occasionally information that could not be expected to be known in biblical times - Passages in the Bible that convey or assume information or knowledge unlikely to have been known in biblical times - Other coincidences from Jewish tradition or Jewish history In this book, engineering Professor Emeritus Haim Shore discusses two types of coincidences - those that can be considered just that, and others that are subject to rigorous statistical analysis. Regarding the latter, altogether nineteen analyses have been conducted, with highly significant results. Simple plots that accompany the analyses clarify their meanings and implications so that no prior statistical know-how is required. Genesis creation story is also statistically analyzed.

The Bible, Genesis & Geology

The Bible, Genesis & Geology
Author: Gaines R. Johnson
Publisher: Gaines Johnson
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2010-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451549326

Does a time gap exist between the first two verses of Genesis? In this book you will learn about a controversial, lesser known literal interpretation of the Genesis narrative that does not contradict the scientific evidence for an Old Earth. Commonly called the "Gap Theory" or Ruin-Reconstruction interpretation, it is a theological interpretation much older than Darwin's Theory of Evolution. It is based on the Scriptural fact that in the second verse of Genesis, the Holy Bible simply and clearly states that the planet Earth was already here (but in a ruined state) before the creative process of the seven days even begins. The Bible itself provides insight into a great mystery in Earth's natural history at what is known as the Pleistocene - Holocene boundary. Science remains at a loss to definitively explain the Ice Age and the anomaly of the mysterious mega fauna extinctions across the face of the Earth about 12,000 to 10,000 Radio Carbon years ago. Geologic evidence from that period indicates extraordinary global massive volcanism, gigantic tidal waves, seismic activity on a vast scale, and extreme temperature swings on the Earth over a geologically brief period of time. It is no coincidence that the Bible at Genesis 1:2 describes the Earth as flooded, desolate, and in darkness in the time frame closely corresponding to these catastrophic events in the Earth's natural history. Clearly, these two mysteries are linked. The Earth has an ancient natural history that can be deciphered from the geologic record, but it also has an equally important ancient spiritual history that can only be deciphered from Rightly-Dividing the Holy Bible. Knowledge of both is required to correctly reconcile Geology and the Book of Genesis.

The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat

The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2020-12-08
Genre: Art
ISBN:

In this comic masterpiece from the writer of The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kippling. The book tells of four friends who team up with a carnival master to exact revenge on a quibbling bureaucrat, accidentally creating an international obsession spiraling beyond their control. Surreal, hilarious, and quintessentially English, it is one of Kipling's least-known works that indeed deserve much attention.