SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Beliefsystems like Roman Catholosism have always had difficulty with incorporating scientific insights, which seemingly contradicted religious doctrine. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, when he concluded, that the sun did not revolve around the earth, but the other way round. He believed in the existence of intelligence on alien worlds. Galileo Galilei escaped this fate, but was isolated from contemporary scientists and researchers by house-arrest till his death. The small, brandnew protestant university in Leiden (the Netherlands) changellenged the Catholics, by inviting Galilei, to become a professor in the new Republic. It's a glimpse of the pressure, blackmail and silencing scientists and researchers felt in those days and are still feeiling now. Most of the time two (or even more) interpretations live side by side like evolution and intelligent design, even if the data contradict each-other. Officially, calculated by official theologians and accepted by the Church, our Earth was created around 4000 years (before Christ) and was destroyed by the Flood 2000 years later. Noah and his kin repopulated the Earth succesfully, which led to our world now, being 6000 year old. Archeologists have a completely different perspective. The earth came in to existence 4,5 billion years ago. The proto-types of modern man appeared 250.000 years ago. Neanderthal-men disappeared (caused by modern man?) and Homo Sapiens became dominant and conquered the world. First civilizations are dug up, who are 8 to 10.000 years old. One of them was the city of Ur, the city of Abraham, in the Eufraat/Tigris delta. Abraham, also recognised as a Patriarch by the Muslims, left Sumeria, with his people and wandered, following the “Fertile crescent”, till he reached the Holy Land.

The Bible is a history-book; in so far, the existence of cities, palaces and temple-complexes have been proven, to be (mostly) correct. Some places, like Jerusalem, Megiddo and Bethlehem, still exist. This gives a kind of legitimacy to Bible-stories. Many think that Jericho was brought down by the sound of trumpets and horns of the Jews. A God-given miracle! It seems much more plausible, that earthquakes destroyed Jericho. Digs show layer after layer of collapse, due to earthquakes and the rebuilding by the survivors of the city of Jericho (10 times or even more). Almost all the centres of mankind in the area have been struck by earthquakes many times (Troy, Mycene, Crete, Alexandria and Jerusalem). Jerusalem was struck by one, at the moment Jesus died.