The more I read about the beliefs of Christian Evangelicals, the more incredulous I become. Snake handling, speaking in tongues and Young Earth Creationism are but a a few of the bizarre Evangelical beliefs and practices I’ve posted about here at Jamonation. But this has to take the cake: the belief that Earth is the center of the universe and that it stands still while the sun and planets orbit us. In other words, geocentrism as opposed to heliocentrism. Here’s an excerpt from the Credo of the Biblical Astronomer on The Association for Biblical Astronomy website:

We maintain that the Bible teaches us of an earth that neither rotates daily nor revolves yearly about the sun; that it is at rest with respect to the throne of him who called it into existence; and that hence it is absolutely at rest in the universe.

I maintain that what the bible teaches us is that it is nothing but a bunch of rubbish! What the hell is it about the Earth that is so special or different that it stands still while every other heavenly body rotates and orbits around us? The egocentricity inherent in the Christian religion and how Evangelicals view the universe astounds me. The term Christocentric is generally used to indicate a view within the Christian religion that focuses more on Christ than the other two members of the trinity. I’d like to suggest that we broaden the meaning of the term to include the egocentricity ascribed to Christianity by Evangelicals. Let’s call it Christocentricity. Excuse my digression.

Five hundred years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus, presented his heliocentric theory of the universe. Since then Copernicus' theory has become a "given" in how we view the universe: the majority of educated persons on this planet consider the sun to be the center of our solar system with the planets orbiting that center. Rather than taking a scientific "given" as the basis of understanding the universe and our place within it, Evangelicals would rather interpret choice passages of a book written by unknown scientifically illiterate persons some 2000 years ago. Here is a bible passage that Evangelicals quote to "prove" that the earth is the center of the universe:

Joshua 10:13:
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

But like most "evidence" that Evangelicals give for their beliefs, that evidence starts with a bible passage and ends with a bible passage. There’s no more substance to it than that.

So, let’s get this straight. Flying in the face of the past 500 years of the advancement of scientific knowledge, with the term “scientific” indicating that the knowledge is either provable or the best rational explanation for an understanding of the universe, Evangelicals simply take the Christocentric approach and have faith that the words written in a 2000 year old book provide the definitive answer. No thought process is required when faith makes it all so easy. I’m reminded of the office supply company’s marketing campaign that is centered around the use of an "easy button" to solve problems. The bible is Evangelicals’ "faith button", equivalent to the easy button, that they press to provide easy answers.