Incredulous Logic

[The Grand Nudger]

If you didn't want this brush applied to you, then you shouldn't have offered the verse as justification for the notion that such a thing as "fixed laws of heaven" existed and could be discovered. I simply pointed out to you that those laws would have been the laws postulated by the Babylonians, and specifically the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans cosmology was flawed due in large part to their reliance on a mythic structure as a mechanism or agent that produced effects. They were much more concerned with collecting data and predicting events than postulating the cause of said events, and the default was then (as it is for some today) goddidit. These are borrowed notions. The Jews never invented their own cosmology, through the revelation of god or otherwise. The fixed law of the heavens and earth that are being referred to in that verse is the law that states that god is physically pushing the cosmos around. No other mechanism needs be proposed. And of course no other mechanism IS proposed within the text. It is not a justification for the notion of fixed laws that could be discovered or understood, it is merely a way to stress gods power to back a promise he is said to have made. In Babylonian cosmology, the Earth was seen as a flat surface, and the heavens and Earth are seen as one round whole. This body revolved around the house or temple of a deity that was personally charged with organizing the entire affair himself. The Babylonians also believed that there was more than one universe, more than one earth. We see analogs to each of these in the Jewish tradition, though you may not be familiar with all of them as you have most likely focused on the Christian canon. The Jewish people of course had other sources for their cosmologies which is pretty much a who's who of the near east, and in fact gives us great evidence as to who the Jews had contact with, and when. This is by no means a comprehensive list. While the influence of Babylonian mythical cosmology is relaxed in some verses, in others it is very strong.

Isa. 27: 1; 30: 7; 51: 9-10; Hab. 3: 8; Ps. 74: 13-14; 89: 10-11; 93; Job 3:8; 9:13

The point is this, the cosmology of the Isrealites, is an amalgam of the cosmologies they borrowed from neighboring and conquering cultures. Not a revelation from god, unless god decided to reveal these things first through those cultures and then engineer their way into what you would one day call the Bible. Hardly something you can substantiate. Even if it were so you would be in the position of having to describe why the babylonian "revealed" cosmologies contained within them the "prerequisites for knowledge" that you claim so arrogantly as your own. I assume you're linking Walton because you believe that I have a literal interpretation of Genesis? Or that I believe that the bibles purpose is supposed to have been a science text? I do not. Your fellow "brothers in christ" like to indulge themselves in that notion. Criticize a YEC, not me. Nothing but a myth to me. You'll end this with a thinly veiled insult and more quote mining? Whatever floats your boat.

The passage of time, seasons, days and nights, the sun and the stars needed no revelation from god, human beings had been aware of these things for well over 180,000 years before the first breath of Yahweh ever escaped a human mouth. By the time your scriptures were cobbled together people were already forming an actual understanding of the world around them, without the aid of your particular fairy. Its just a case of claiming for yourself what is the labor of others, all the while showing nothing but contempt for the very people who developed the things you cherish so much.