Lion Nebula (MIRI image)
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.
Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)
Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)
A point made many times but worth repeating so long as there re sill people who insist the Bible is the inerrant word of an omniscient god - and then demand the right to special privileges including the right to mandate us to comply with their Bronze Age morality, is that a simple comparison of the Bible's description of reality with the actual reality it purports to describe.
This should quickly reveal that what the Bible describes is not reality but the satisfying guesses of ignorant people who lacked the science and technology to discover the truth.
And there are few better examples of that than the childishly ridiculous description of the universe as the Bible claims it was created with what science is discovering. The Bible very clearly and unambiguously describes the universe as a small flat planet at the centre, over which there is a solid dome to keep the surrounding water out. The celestial bodies are described as lamps and small lights fixed to the dome so that we can tell day from night. Outside this construction there is nothing but water, apparently extending to infinity in all directions, but above which there is another realm reached by travelling upwards from the surface of the planet – centred then on the Middle East.
Of course, this bears no more relationship to reality than the sort of description a five-year-old might produce when asked to describe his or her world, and yet there are grown adults who believe it is the best available description of the real universe! And these people demand to be taken seriously because they believe that on 'faith', not on an examination of reality.
I'll again remind readers of what the Bible says because so few people who claim to be Bible-literalists actually ever seem to read the Bible, but instead rely on what preachers and creationist sources tell them to believe.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1.6-10)
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.(Genesis 1.16-18)
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.(Genesis 1.16-18)
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How the Bible's authors saw the Universe.
Now compare that with images just released by the European Space Agency and the James Webb Space Telescope (ESAWebb) of a tiny fraction of the Universe which is too small and far away to be seen with the naked eye, so would have been completely unknown to the authors of the Bible.
Image description:
Planetary nebula NGC 2392, also called the Lion Nebula, against the black background of space. The nebula is in the centre, circular in shape, and looks like a male lion’s head. In the very centre is a small, pinkish-white circle with eight-point diffraction spikes, a white dwarf star. Surrounding the star are light purple-pink cavernous bubbles and shell-like rings. The bubbles and shells collectively form an oval with two small, wide arcs near the top, reminiscent of a lion’s face and its ears. What appears to be extended outward from the lion’s face is a thick ring of purple-blue material. The width of the ring is consistent throughout and resembles a mane. The area closest to the lion’s face looks cloudy, while the edges of the mane look like there are clumps of dust with comet-like tails and strands. In the background are distant galaxies and stars. Some galaxies appear as small yellow and orange points of light and others with visible spiral structures. A couple of the stars have diffraction spikes.
Planetary nebula NGC 2392, also called the Lion Nebula, against the black background of space. The nebula is in the centre, circular in shape, and looks like a male lion’s head. In the very centre is a small, pinkish-white circle with eight-point diffraction spikes, a white dwarf star. Surrounding the star are light purple-pink cavernous bubbles and shell-like rings. The bubbles and shells collectively form an oval with two small, wide arcs near the top, reminiscent of a lion’s face and its ears. What appears to be extended outward from the lion’s face is a thick ring of purple-blue material. The width of the ring is consistent throughout and resembles a mane. The area closest to the lion’s face looks cloudy, while the edges of the mane look like there are clumps of dust with comet-like tails and strands. In the background are distant galaxies and stars. Some galaxies appear as small yellow and orange points of light and others with visible spiral structures. A couple of the stars have diffraction spikes.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.
Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI).
Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI).
A selection of images of a deep space that was beyond the knowledge and understanding of the Bible's authors:
It's telling of creationists that they need to present these as examples of how their supposed all-loving god of truth forged the evidence to make the universe appear vast and very old and bearing no resemblance to the description of it in Genesis. In other words, they would rather we thought of their god as a great cosmic trickster rather than accept the evidence that the Bible is wrong. As Francis Collins put it, Young Earth Creationists have reached the point of scientific and theological bankruptcy. Their continued existence is one of the great mysteries and tragedies of American Christian culture.
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