“when the Bible was written, we still thought the earth was flat, and that the Sun revolved around the earth. ... Science gives us the ability to better see God’s wonders.”
Even though the Bible was penned by men who had little understanding of the way the the Lord made the universe, He was the Author.
The Levitical laws, for instance: People had no concept of germs or bacteria until recent history. But Leviticus says not to eat from a broken plate, but to throw it out. The reason is that bacteria will grow in the crack. Mankind had no concept of bacterial contamination until “modern” times. But there was the caution, for thousands of years, before we understood it.
The Psalms say the Lord forms us in the inward parts, “woven” together. We now know what DNA looks like. We are, literally, woven together. But we had no idea how literal that was until science could describe it.
The writers of Scripture did not have to understand everything they were writing. The Lord moved them to write, and they wrote beyond their understanding.
My guess is that the universe is teaming with life. That is because that is what God is like. He is a joyful Creator! Intelligent life? I have no idea. We aren’t told either way.
The day that a probe returns a microbial sample proving the existence of life on another planet will not shake my faith one bit. On the contrary, I will say, “Science, what took you so long?”
Thank you. That is heartening to hear from a Pastor, especially the way I’m getting comments about not knowing the literal word of God.
I just told another poster that while the Bible mentions the Earth being a circle, the men who translated it to our language still didn’t understand that as they were still executing “heretics” for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun, and common belief until Colombus’ time was the earth was flat. We now, with our expanded knowledge (the mind being a gift from God) can study the Bible and clearly see that it says the earth is round, or like your example the bacteria in the crack of the plate.
Thank you again. I have never had a minister who I felt I could ask direct questions like this.
I hope you don’t mind if I call on you from time to time for answers/opinion.