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Neil deGrasse Tyson on the biblical meaning of – star

We continue, considering portions of an interview between Bill Moyer and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells Bill Moyers Why Faith and Reason are Irreconcilable.

The segments of which this consideration will consist, in toto, are:
On the Bible and the Qur’an / Koran
The historical meaning of – star
The biblical meaning of – star
On science proving the Bible wrong
The faith of the Atheist (Dogmatheism)

GRAMMATICAL CONTEXT
Beyond the context of Genesis (as we did in part 1), let us now consider Revelation since it is to that book which Neil deGrasse Tyson is appealing. Recall that Tyson stated within the account of nature within the Bible stars, “can fall out of the sky…that’s what happens during the Revelation.”

Revelation 1
John relates his seeing the resurrected and glorified Jesus who “had in his right hand seven stars” and we are then told, “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”
Thus, the Bible was actually employing the symbolism of stars and directly defined the symbolism: the term stars is referring to angles.

 Revelation 9
“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.” This is one of the texts that Tyson had in mind even though he surely would be unable to elucidate the context, even if Bill Moyer was interested enough in truth to ask him.
Note that this star is referred to in terms of personhood: him and he was given. Moreover, this star “opened the bottomless pit,” etc. Thus, he takes actions in keeping with personhood and not celestial bodies such as our Sun.

Revelation 12 “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” Here, again, the dragon, head, horns and crowns are symbolic. This is beyond our context so we will not chase it down here but the dragon is Satan aka serpent and the heads, horns and symbolic of world rulers, kingdoms, etc.

Now, the dragon’s “tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth” which is another on the uncited list of Tyson’s references. But yet again, the very same chapter defines the symbolism, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.”

So, when we actually cite, quote and read the Bible, we learn that the casting of stars to Earth is the fall of angels to Earth. neil2bdegrasse2btyson2b2-9263927

We now go back a few chapters in order to consider a text that does refer to celestial bodies (whether planets, stars like our Sun, shooting stars, etc.) do fall to Earth:
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Contextually, these stars do seem to be celestial objects of some or another kind as they are mentioned along with the Sun and Moon. Yet, whatever these stars are, they are involved in utterly devastating the Earth as “the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man” went underground to hide as they “hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.”

Revelation 8
This text is similar to the one above in that “there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”
Some have defined this star as symbolic of Russia’s 1986 AD’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster as the term wormwood correlates with chernobyl. If this is the case, then a star falling referred to the star-like energy within a nuclear power plant failing to be contained, contaminating the environment, etc.

Overall, we have seen that considering the historical and grammatical context, it is utterly illogical and un-scholarly to read the term translated as star within a circa 2,000 year old text and define the term with a 21st century AD English astronomical definition. And be reminded that even then, we use star in terms of a celestial body such as our Sun and also in reference to the meteoroid/meteor remnant shooting star.

In the next segment we will consider Neil deGrasse Tyson’s claim that people began reinterpreting the Bible once certain scientific discoveries were made.


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