Why didn't god, in the bible, discuss platetechtonics, or germ theory, or fission, or...?

Question

1:6 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Okay, a five year old could understand this. But maybe if he'd had explained platetechtonics, we'd have known not to build large cities on fault lines, and millions of innocent people wouldn't have died in earthquakes over the centuries.

1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

This is uselful info to be sure, but if only he'd said, "don't feed dead cows back to live cows", we wouldn't have mad cow disease.

Now, god WAS very specific about the size of the wings on the chrubs in the house of Soloman (5 cubits) , but for some reason he never mentioned that germs spread disease, so the black plague killed 2/3 of Europe.

Funny how selective god was in the info he gave us. Maybe he really is a comedian?

Larry,

The problem is, that as poor a guide as the bible is for science, it is even worse as a guide for good morals and ethics (those things which Christians purport to be of such great import for the "saving" of ones soul.)

Lets suppose I accept your argument as valid. Why, then, does the bible bother to contain ANY references to the natural world, or it's function? If it is only meant to be "instructions" on how I am to live, and I am god's intelligent creation, then there is no reason it should be contradictory, ambiguous, allegorical, or patronizing. It should simply say what I am supposed to do to get this incredible reward. It is, after all, the word of god.

Actually, the bible's writings reveal basically clever (for their day) authors with limited knowledge of the natural world, but who never expected their work to be critically examined by vastly more knowledgeable people thousands of years later.

Answer 1

Actually, common sense would have been the solution to all the problems you described,but history has shown time and time again that common sense is most definitely not mankind's strong suit compared to its greed. Why would God have these things written in the Bible when it should have been so obvious to anyone with even a modicum of common sense and intelligence? God is certainly not responsible for our stupidity and bad judgement.
I'm still chuckling over the absurdity of your question. Thanks for the laugh.

Answer 2

Actually, underneath the childish "looky looky I'm so smart" crud, you have a REALLY REALLY GREAT question.

One of the biggest mistakes people (of all faiths) make when the look at the Bible is they don't stop and look at what the Bible is, what it is designed for, and who it was given to. Instead they carry with them all THEIR ideas about what THEY think the Bible should be, and then criticize it for not being what THEY think it should be. This is a lot like getting an F-16 and then complaining that it doesn't have a lot of trunk space, you can't use it to pick up your son's soccer team, and it is hard to make toast in it; or getting a beautiful stuben glass sculpture and complaining that it makes a lousy hammer. You don't go to McDonalds and expect a waiter, linnen table cloths, an extensive wine list, and excellent steak. Neither do you go to the Palm, order a cheesburger, and expect to get it in less than 3 min and play less than two bucks for it. That's as stupid as those guys that say they only buy Playboy because of the well written articles!

The Bible is NOT a science book. It is NOT DESIGNED to be a science book. Niether is it a schollarly peer reviewed history journal, an astrophysics text, an encyclopedia of evolutionary biology, a political constitution or a geological study guide.

Neither is the Bible here to save your life, the purpose of the Bible is to save your SOUL. Everbody dies sooner or later anyway, exactly when and how really isn't very important in the long run. If you die at 15 or 150 isn't that big a deal when you are talking about an afterlife that is ETERNAL. ("When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun; we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.)

So the purpose of the Bible is to teach you how to live your life here and how to achieve eternal life after you die. Nothing more, and nothing less.

So whining that the Bible doesn't have this or that particular nugget of information in it is just dumb. What's next, are you going to buy a Brittany Spears C.D and expect decent music on it?

Answer 3

Sorry, God was more interested in a relationship with those He created, and people were not building large cities on fault lines in those days.

He even stopped the building of the tower of Babel, and it was much smaller than our skyscrapers.
I wonder what He thinks about buildings a thousand feet in the air.

grace2u

Answer 4

At least you acknowledge that God could have given us that information in an easier to understand format. For all we know God did. Maybe God said to the prophet watch for germs and never go around down crossing gates. The people who put God's word into written word may have changed it as they saw fit.

Answer 5

Truth there are many scientific facts in the bible But its us look how long we though the earth was flat even though the bible claims it round over and over. I'm sure its there we just had no Idea what it was until we found out for our self's. The reason why all the ocean currents are know today is because a man, I forgot his name, decided because they were explained in the bible would go and see for himself. he mapped out most of what we know about the ocean and it currants because the bible explains them. Some one tells you a store sells this or that you don't really know until you go and look for yourself. The bible tells us things over and over but we don't listen that is the problem.

Answer 6

The Bible is not a science book. It is the instruction manual for a relationship with GOD. If we do not understand the simple facts of a man dieing on a cross for our sins, then how would we ever understand the breakdown of creation?

Answer 7

The people writing it down wouldn't have understood it. Heck, look at Revelations--I've heard many people make guesses about things in our modern world which John may have "seen" but was unable to understand, so he wrote it down in a way he could express what he saw.

Answer 8

see Srimad Bhagavatam for an in-depth discussion of creation; seriously, it's quite fascinating. All knowledge is in the Vedic literatures...and God does have a sense of humor, my friend. He created us and we're quite funny people, what?

Answer 9

Luke 16:19-31
Study the scriptures the the Greek,Hebrew,and Aramaic.You will be suprised what it says.

Answer 10

He wanted us to discover it for ourselves, but with so many Atheists around who hinder that we are about 5000 years behind in developing... We could be so much farther along if Atheists would stop the persecution.