Does the Bible say Copernicus has to be wrong?<\/strong><\/h4>\nI\u2019ve heard of an odd group of mathematicians. They once claimed, not seriously but with exquisite mathematics, that Earth might be flat. Sure, people can circumnavigate the \u201cglobe.\u201d But with the right number of dimensions, They could explain this on the model of a phonograph needle going around a record. In 1969, though, the group had to disband. That year the Apollo Moon Mission for the first time got far enough away to see the whole spinning Earth at once. Seeing was believing even for these skeptical, but honest, mathematicians.<\/p>\n
I can imagine the same mathematicians holding out for an Earth-centered Solar System. Until, that is, more space missions gave us views of the Earth and other planets from the perspective of the farthest planets and beyond. Again, if seeing is believing and regardless of fancy mathematics, the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Solar System.<\/p>\n
But maybe seeing isn\u2019t believing when seeing conflicts with what the Bible says. The Bible, I think, is the force directing, and misdirecting, Fr. Crombette\u2019s long and lonely scientific investigations. The article mentioned above refers to \u201chis firm conviction of the scientific and historical inerrancy of the Bible.\u201d It also describes Crombette as a \u201csolitary researcher.\u201d Well, he would find himself alone, or at least without many Catholic partners in his work. The Church does not teach that the Bible is scientifically and historically inerrant. Biblical inerrancy for Catholics extends only to \u201cthat truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation. (Second Vatican Council document on Sacred Scripture, Dei Verbum<\/em>)<\/p>\nThe Bible does give us a picture of creation with Earth at the center. But that\u2019s only ancient science. More important for our salvation, the Bible has something to say about being at the center or the periphery.<\/p>\n
The glory of not being at the center \u2026 OR, How the Bible likes Copernicus<\/strong><\/h4>\nSince Copernicus, science has removed humankind from the center of the universe. Scientifically we are not as significant as we once thought we were. Some Christians find that disturbing, but the Bible\u2019s response is, So what? God\u2019s love can reach us no matter how insignificant a place we hold in creation. In fact God prefers it that way. Let\u2019s look at some texts:<\/p>\n
\n- I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. (Isaiah 41:18<\/li>\n
- But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, \u201cYou are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.\u201d (Isaiah 41:8-9)<\/li>\n
- But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2)<\/li>\n
- John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness\u2026. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (Mark 1:4,9)<\/li>\n
- Philip found Nathanael and said to him, \u201cWe have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.\u201d Nathanael said to him, \u201cCan anything good come out of Nazareth?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Eucharist at the center<\/strong><\/h4>\nOut of history\u2019s 10,000 years and Earth\u2019s billions of years, God chose a slice of time, about a thousand years. Out of all the lands of earth, God chose an area the size of a smallish U.S. state. And out of all the peoples on this planet, a nondescript nation somewhat behind its neighbors in cultural development became God\u2019s people. Among those people it was often the least that God favored the most. It was a humble carpenter\u2019s son from a town that was the butt of jokes such as Nathanael repeated. But into this Jesus from \u201cNowheresville\u201d God poured the entire divine essence.<\/p>\n
God is best known for loving the tiniest, most insignificant of specks. The flower of the field. The sparrow that falls. That is exactly what God does in centering his attention on a lowly planet circling around the periphery of the Milky Way, one of billions of galaxies in the 13 billion year old universe.<\/p>\n
So, yes, Earth is at the center \u2013 the center of God\u2019s love. It doesn\u2019t have to be any other center. And because it isn\u2019t any other center, we can see all the more the wonder of God\u2019s love. And we know that the margins of society is where we need to take that love.<\/p>\n
In the Eucharistic Bread, a tiny fragment of matter, God\u2019s inmost depth reaches our inmost depths. And it makes no difference if we\u2019re in the grandest cathedral or a hut in a tropical rainforest. Wherever the Eucharist is celebrated, that\u2019s where God centers his love. That\u2019s where Calvary and the entire history of God\u2019s love is present again.<\/p>\n
Jerusalem doesn\u2019t have to be the center of the world. Calvary doesn\u2019t have to be anything grander than the hill on which Jesus gave his life for us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What Nicolai Copernicus said is right. Earth revolves around the Sun, along with all the other planets. After Copernicus, Galileo said the same thing and, more or less, proved it with his telescope. Earth is not the center of the universe. (See this post for a couple reasons why Galileo got in trouble with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\n
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