From: Dick Fischer (dickfischer@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2003 - 13:26:34 EDT
It was written:
Is the bible truly reliable enough to defend with science?
The Bible is. Science is. Read a Biology book. It tells you about life. It does not tell you how to live.
But what about the natural world? Since the Renaissance four centuries
ago, the growth of science (knowledge based on physical evidence and
reason) has been explosive. This gives us a powerful tool to see whether
or not the ancient writers had access to knowledge unavailable except
through divine revelation. What a harvest of souls for Christ, if the
Bible had correctly predicted the existence of neutrons, the age of the
universe or the size and shape of the planetary orbits!
Hard to describe in Hebrew. Rejecters will always find reasons to reject. " ... but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent" the rich man cried out to father Abraham from the depths of hell. Do you remember the answer? "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" Luke 16:31.
Heb. 11:3: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." H'mmm ... now how did the Bible writer know that?
But instead, we find the biblical authors didn't know what they were talking about:
Even Daniel didn't know what he was talking about, but his words were for another age.
Geography:
"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
shewith him all the kingdoms of the world" Matt. 4: 8. Can any Christian
name a mountain that would show all the kingdoms of the world at that
time, including the kingdom of Kadphises 1 of the Kushans (Afghanistan),
the kingdom of Kutakanna Tissa (Ceylon), and the kingdom of Kuang-wu- Ti
(China)? The writer of this passage assumed that the Earth is flat. Do
you believe it?
When I was in navigation training, one of my instructors told us: "We fly over a flat earth depicted on a flat map. Remember that and you won't get into trouble." We should be less concerned about what the Bible writers didn't know and didn't say and more concerned with what they did know about and told us.
"I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth" Rev. 7: 1.
"The world also shall be stable, that it be not moved" 1 Chr. 16: 30. But
the world is not flat, four cornered and motionless; the Bible is wrong.
Belief that the Earth is a globe was a stock charge against heretics
prepared for burning. (1)
The phrase should have been translated "four quarters" which was a common expression. Gilgamesh reigned over the "four quarters" of the earth, for example. It is just a lot of territory, not intended to be all-encompassing.
We modern folk say "world" every day without intending it to mean the entire continental land mass of our planet. The wide "world" of sports may "span the globe," but only covers sporting events. The "world" of entertainment concerns films, TV, and stage plays. The "world" of fashion includes cosmetics, hair styles, and clothing. So although we sometimes mean planet when we say world, we may also use "world" to connote all of a category of something. Bible writers did the same thing.
"World" was sometimes used in the sense of planet (what little they knew of it). In John 21:25, "I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Many times, however, the Bible authors used "world" to mean just the human occupants. "But the world may know that I love the father ..." (John 14:31). Also in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world ..." applies to human beings living in the world.
Astronomy:
"And the stars of heaven fall unto the earth... And the heaven departed
as a scroll when it is rolled together: Rev. 6: 13, 14...
Typical phenomenal language replete in Scripture. God "spreads his wings," did they think He was a chicken?
Biology:
"And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he
is unclean unto you" Lev. 11:6. Hares (rabbits) have a single stomach, so
they cannot make cud,
They do chew their own feces which is a similar form of recycling.
and they don't have hoofs; they have feet which
divide into toes. The Bible also speaks of four-legged birds (Lev.
11:20),
From the NIV: "All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you." You could claim that insects have six legs, but if the front two are considered as "arms," well, you get the picture.
unicorns (Is. 34: 7)
Unicorns I haven't seen, but there are a lot of animals I haven't seen.
dragons (Is. 27: 1) and other mythological creatures.
"In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea" Lev. 27:1.
Are there no gliding serpents in the sea? The Lord doesn't wield a sword as far as I know, but we should get the picture of divine judgment that is being painted here.
"The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed... Which indeed
is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among
herbs, and becometh a tree" Matt. 13:31, 32. The mustard seed is not the
least of all seeds; many plants, such as the orchid, have smaller seeds.
How could the Christian god fail to know basic biology?
It was an example of a tiny seed THEY KNEW ABOUT. Who in the audience knew of orchids growing on Pacific islands?
Instead the book of Genesis
makes the preposterous claim that the entire universe was created by
divine fiat in six days.
Read this: "The Days of Creation: Hours or Eons?
Medicine:
Science has given us no greater benefit than our control over many of the
loathsome diseases that have plagued humanity. We would expect that a
loving, all-knowing god would have left simple instructions on basic
sanitation and disease prevention that would have immeasurably eased our
suffering. Instead we are given the tedious genealogies of Numbers, the
pointless fantasies of Daniel and Ezekiel, and the meaningless lists of
ritually-clean and unclean animals of Leviticus. No hint is given of the
true cause of diseases.
God instructed in the Old Testament how to make soap by mixing animal fat drippings with ash, the earliest recording of sanitation.
Medical advances have been actively opposed by the clergy, as
interference with the ways of a wrathful God. When Ethan Allen, the
Revolutionary War hero was inoculated against smallpox, he was threatened
with persecution for violating a local ordinance against it. (2) That
disease, which horribly disfigured and killed millions of people a year,
has now vanished from the face of the Earth thanks to modern medicine.
According to the World Health Organization, leprosy will be eliminated as
a public health problem in a few years, thanks to the drugs Clofazimine
and Rifampicin. (3) What miseries could have been avoided if Jesus had
done as much! Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale did more to benefit
humanity than all the ministers, priests, rabbis, prophets and messiahs
put together.
You are far too absorbed in the physical and have overlooked the spiritual altogether. God has observed over 100,000 years of human death, 530 million years of animal death, and 3.8 billion years of physical death on planet earth. He is concerned with how we live, not how long we live, or how or when we die. And He is far more concerned with your spiritual soul than even you seem to be.
Just remember, friend, there are no atheists in hell.
Yours in Christ,
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
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