Religion, History and Science
Religion, History, and Science: My
Favorite Topics
Religion is a touchy subject for
people to discuss. Most take it very seriously and claim that what is written
in the Bible is fact. Period. While others want proof. Since I'm a history buff
and have taught high school history, I feel that I have a better than average
grasp of the frailties of what we think we know. For instance, history is
re-written about every 30 years. Why 30? Because that's when another generation
has grown up, done some research, and put their own spin on what happened way
back when. I always encourage my students (and now you) to never accept just
one source for information. I know sometimes we only have one source, so
hopefully it's the primary source (person who wrote it) but often it is only
secondary sources (people who read it or heard it said). Of course, if we have
two people who said they saw it, read it, heard it-that's even better. We have
some substantiation. Many things in the Bible have to be taken on faith or just
not believed because there is no evidence to support the claims.
What I really love is when different
branches of modern science substantiate historical claims, especially those in
the Bible. For instance, archeologists were looking for the locations of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Based on the Biblical account, the cities were near the Dead Sea.
They think they've found it and where they decided to dig, they located a
shallow, oval clay bowl that would fit in the palms of two hands. Markings were
engraved on the bowl, which were eventually determined to be astronomical. One
of those markings was a long streak, which they took to mean an asteroid or
comet. Since we can pin point dates according to star placements in the
heavens, it was determined that this bowl was indeed dated to the time of the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the meantime, environmental
scientists in the Peruvian Andes and the arctic pulled ice cores to study. These
two groups were not related to each other nor were they in contact with the
archeologists. But they both found evidence that an asteroid had struck the
earth at the time we're discussing. Based on the levels of asteroid evidence
contained in the ice, they were able to pin point where it should have hit. The
only problem was that there was no crater located where they thought it should be.
However, because we know that asteroids can sometimes explode before hitting
the ground, they decided that's what happened. Considering their location for
the asteroid and the bowl's location for the asteroid were the same, it's a
good bet they're correct.
Now when an asteroid explodes, it
will push debris into the upper atmosphere that will then fall back to earth
burning-incredibly hot. We know from the Biblical account that angels were
going to destroy Sodom with "fire and brimstone." Now if you are
close enough to the original explosion of an asteroid, the burning debris will
be so hot that you can be turned to ash instantly. We know from the account as
well, that Lot made it to safety in a cave but his wife paused to look back and
was turned into a pillar of salt. Salt? Ash? She would've definitely been a
pillar of something...not living. And the cities would have been obliterated.
So there you have it-the Biblical
account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah substantiated by modern
science.
Thank you Caron. I like that explanation. I've actually read a different interpretation involving the tar-pits the Bible mentions as being close to Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, it gives a scientific explanation that fits the story in the Bible. And again, like you say, we can't know exactly what happened in the past, but we can try to learn more about what happened. Inasmuch as that past matters to us, maybe trying to learn more about it really ought to matter too.
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Comments
Thank you,
Caron
I'm an atheist myself, so to me the Bible is just an ancient book. But I think people who believe in God (on or another) has to face the facts of modern science, and keep this in mind when reading the Bible or the Koran or Mormon's Book. Then lots of religious texts has to be read metaphoric rather than literally >:)
Cold As Heaven