How can you guys reconcile the science with some bible info?

Question

I really wanna believe more but it's so hard. Talking snakes - a massive flood - Red Sea opening wide. Its hard to believe in comparison to Darwin, fossils, etc.
How can we have 6 billion people only a few thousand years after Noah? And wouldn't first cousins be having sex at that point to repopulate the earth? Where did the different races come from?

Answer 1

..too many questions...eyes crossing! lol. I will broadly attempt to answer your main question, bible verses science. In short, I don't think the bible and science genuinely contradict each other for the most part, assuming that you are educated in both areas. For one, the bible was written from an observational view-point with very little scientific testing. For instance, the world was thought to be a snow-globe shape, witht the land being at the base, and having a half-circle ceiling that held water above the sky, and when the "doors, or floodgates" were opened, it would rain. Also the stars were thought to hang, basically by string, from the ceiling. Now this sounds ridiculous to us, but if you had no background in science, physics, etc and you simply walked outside and looked at the night sky, its really not that far fetched. Creation accounts in the bible are somewhat similar. Humans had to be created out of something, and someone had to do it, so God created humans out of dirt. If you read the Genesis 1 account closely enough, it almost makes it sound as if God just randomly found this dead thing covered in water that he decided to cover with dry land, make, plants, and populate with people. Now of course this begs the question of biblical infallability and inerrancy, if God inspired the bible how can anything be "wrong" in it? Simple analogy, he directly created us IN HIS IMAGE, and we screwed ourselves up, the bible was written through us, and its supposed to be perfect? Hardly, and in contrary to popular belief, the bible does not anywhere support its inerrancy. It simply says God's words are perfect along with his laws, teachings, etc. It does not however state that our words about God, i.e. the bible, is in fact without error.

Answer 2

Science is man's way of trying to understand and explain the wonderful works of God. At one time, science believed the world was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Evolution is still just a theory, missing evidence that supports it as a factual reality. I don't know about the talking snake thing, but there is ample evidence of worldwide flooding. The Red Sea parting was a one time, miraculous and unique event of God.

As for the repopulating after the flood, Noah and his wife had three sons, and their wives were with them in the ark. The different races? Good question. Perhaps the wives were of different races? Who knows. Even science has concluded that the origins of the races started somewhere in the middle east.

When I first became a Christian, I had problems reconciling my beliefs about what I felt were facts of science with biblical accounts and explanations. The bottom line was would I put my faith in man and his explanations, or in God and what He had inspired the writers of the Bible to record. Though it may not always make sense, and we may not fully know and understand some things, I find the information found in the bible to be more absolute.

Answer 3

Personally, I don't feel a need to reconcile science with the bible.

I realize the bible isn't intended to be a science text book. Sometimes humans believe stupid things. Sometimes some of those stupid things end up in spiritual texts. So, what?

It doesn't matter if a person believes the earth was formed in 7 days and is less than ten thousand years old. It doesn't matter if a person has evidence that some species have changed over time. We have seen species change through selective breeding of animals. Selective breeding works because the theory of evolution is the basis of it's system.

It doesn't hurt my feelings one bit to think that god actually took billions of years to complete this wondrous universe. It's such an incredible project, he is still working on it now. I'm perfectly content to accept that the description in the bible is just a loose framework of creation... I'll even accept that the only purpose for the story being told in a seven day format was to conform with the seven day week. An explanation for the Hebrew mandatory day of rest. It doesn' t matter to me HOW or how fast god made everything... I just believe however it was done, it was god's greatest miracle. The miracle that never ends. Why wouldn't god think to make the species change over time? If he hadn't he would have become bored. He knew better and took care of it.

Answer 4

Get six friends (or better, a dozen strangers) together. Give them a sheet of paper and pen, and put an apple, or just about any simple object in front of them. Ask them to describe it on paper.

Take the papers and read them. They will not be identical. Some will be radically different from others. Why, because we each come to a situation carrying all of the information and experiences we have had to that date, and WE do not live identical lives, or have identical interests. If you can have variation in the description of an apple, guess what is going to happen when you get a bunch of people and ask, "How does, life, or the universe work?"

Learn to discern between true observations and the jetsam of a persons life up to that moment.

The Bible, and Evolution are both trying to describe the same apple.

Answer 5

Having values is all well and good, but the church is a terrible place to look for factual explanations of how things came to be (e.g. how the stars and planets came to be, how life began and evolved, what humans role on the planet is, etc.). To "want to believe" is an odd concept. Do you want to believe something even if it is not true, or are you seeking the truth? Most religions start by saying you must believe certain things in order to be admitted. Science has as its primary purpose to discover the truth regardless of what that truth might be.

Answer 6

You've asked a lot of questions and space won't permit me to answer them all here. Here's a link for some of the answers, just click on the Answers button @ http://web.express56.com/~bromar/

You'll find out the latest scientific take on skewed and outdated theories regarding Darwin and the fossil record there.

As to things like talking snakes here's a link that you might find interesting that looks at the original language of that passage.

http://www.childrenofyahweh.com/Other%20Reading/the_serpent.htm

The different races came from the three sons of Noah who went in three different directions.

Answer 7

It is too do-able and so much has been reconciled. Like when God cloned eve using a cell from adam. We could not think of the human cell two thousand years ago, much less a hundred years ago. So you see the Bible had to use figurative terms.

Answer 8

The answer is simple: God exist. You should believe in him by faith, if not here are things you need to look at:

Google the following things:
The apparition of sain mary, Zeitoun, Egypt 1968 (Saint Mary Apprearing for a 3 years period in fron of thousand, government & international press recognized the miracle)
The Holy Fire in Jerusalem (http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/HvidtHolyFire.php)
The moving of the Mukatab Mountain in Egypt
Then do your research, ask religious people what they have to say.

Didn't they find pieces of Noah's ark by Armenia? (not sure about this)

Answer 9

Well I am not the person to talk science, I do think this..The fact that you have something in you that makes you want to believe more is..the Lord coming to you.. He doesnt have to smack you in the face with something..he comes in lots of ways. I understand that sometimes the bible is hard to understand. faith is what we have. I hope you can find some answers! God Bless

Answer 10

Why bother trying?

Quote from high school health teacher: "If you think Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, you're stupid." I'd still like to kick that little ****er right in the **ts for saying that in a public school environment.

But now that I'm an atheist, I think poetic justice would involve said teacher *finding jesus* and wasting the remainder of his days and treasure preaching the good book to crowds of snickering pagans like me.