Materialistic Scriptural Inerrancy

By Timothy Casey

Yes; I have a bee in my bonnet about scriptural omniscience. Consider: There is not the slightest hint of any idea remotely analogous to semiconductor theory in any religious scripture - and yet here you are pondering my overstated opinions using technology that is "unscriptural" to say the very least. It just goes to show that truth can and does exist outside scripture. However, there is a great deal of ambiguity even within religious scriptures, because values, having been defined, are assumed. So given a text of a spiritual/ethical subject, do we take a materialistic interpretation that gives rise to compulsory material/scientific implications, or do we stick to a spiritual interpretation that confines its implications to the subject of ethics?

Ian R. Plimer, in his book, "Telling Lies for God", details some wonderful examples of materialistic Biblical misinterpretation. If we allow the "Word of God" to decree that PI=3 or that the greatest tree is the mustard tree, what then do we do with practical geometry or for that matter, the mountain ash or even the sequouia? 

See:

Daniel 4:10-11, Matthew 4:8 
(Basis for some modern Flat Earth theories)

Joshua 10:12, 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, & Psalm 104:5
(Basis for a Geocentric Universe with a fixed non-rotating Earth - A view used to convict Galileo of heresy)

1 Kings 7:23, 1 Chronicles 4:2 
(10 X Pi = 30, not 31)

Mark 4:31-32
(The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds and becomes the greatest of all trees)

Genesis 7:19-24 
(Global flood)

Literal "scriptural inerrancy" has lead to a clash of science and religion of titanic proportions, not to mention the questioning of the ethics of religion in general. Even Islamic societies suffered this scourge if what Baha'u'llah wrote one of their members is of any relevance:

"We gathered from his statements that unless a man be deeply versed in them ["sciences"] all, he can never attain to a proper understanding of this transcendent and exalted theme. Among the specified sciences were the science of metaphysical abstractions, of alchemy, and natural magic. Such vain and discarded learnings, this man hath regarded as the pre-requisites of the understanding of the sacred and abiding mysteries of divine Knowledge."
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 186)

"Among the sciences which this pretender hath professed is that of alchemy.  We cherish the hope that either a king or a man of preeminent power may call upon him to translate this science from the realm of fancy to the domain of fact and from the plane of mere pretension to that of actual achievement.  Would that this unlearned and humble Servant, who never laid any pretension to such things, nor even regarded them as the criterion of true knowledge, might undertake the same task, that thereby the truth might be known and distinguished from falsehood."
(Baha'u'llah:  The Kitab-i-Iqan, Pages: 189-190)

This issue reflects the vital importance of drawing the line between scripture and interpretation. What is on the page is scripture, but what we glean from reading scripture is interpretation - even if it is literal. If we generalise or homogenise our interpretation, we will always encounter problems. This is why the purpose of religion as expressed in religious mission statements, is so vitally important. Religious mission statements determine the reliability of our interpretation. So when one reads Baha'u'llah's statement that copper in its own mine, turns into gold over a period of seventy years; one need not throw away 200 years of geology to conform the decree of literal inerrancy; nor need one neglect the vast majority of copper deposits in the world on the basis that they are much older than seventy years by several orders of magnitude - Nor need one allow the literal inerrancy stance to determine that one should fraudulently mislead mining operations and their shareholders into believing that all these ancient copper deposits must really be gold...!
...One only need question one's own very fallible interpretation of the verses as to its relevance to the purpose of the religion concerned (Eg. the Covenant or the Ninth Ishraq in the case of the Baha'i Faith).