What are some of the scientific ideas contained in the Bible that were not known to science until much later?

Question

It's interesting to me that the Bible contains much scientific knowledge and facts that were not known or understood until recent times, yet how did the people that wrote the Bible know of them unless it was inspired by God. The universe is expanding, the fountains of the deep, the hydrological system of evaporation and rain, that air has weight, the atomic makeup of the universe (Hebrews 11:3), the earth is round and hangs on nothing in space, that light travels in waves and much more. Seems that someone very intelligent wrote the Bible but the authors were not science leaders of their day...any explanations? Does anyone have more science related facts in the Bible to add.
Link to a site with Bible science facts:http://www.newtestamentchurch.org/html/Christian_Evidence/Science_in_the_Bible.htm

The wrong value for "pi"? This argument has been laid to rest many times--see link for explanation---god's Word is true.
http://home.teleport.com/~salad/4god/pi.htm

Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Is that a pretty fair description of atomic level of the makeup of the universe? You can't see atoms yet they are the fundamental building blocks of everything. How would a person in biblical times know to write that?

Answer 1

Rubbish.
The Bible contains far more bad science than good science. It even gets the number for pi wrong.

Answer 2

There are two kinds of gems. Under polarized light Isotropic Gems go dark and opaque. Polarized light passes through Anisotropic Gems.

All of the Gems listed in the Holy City in the book of Revelation are Anisotropic.

Polarized light was first created in this century. There was no way the apostle John would have distinguished between isotropic and anisotropic gems.

Re: Pi
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i2/pi.asp is a site with a refutation that the bible indicates the value of Pi is 3.

In general, the argument doesn't make any sense. They would have measured the thing and recorded it. They probably had no idea of a concept like Pi at the time, and the point of the passage isn't to give a geometry lesson.

A lot of the supposed scientific inaccuracies can easily be attributed to poetic language. The bible does refer to the earth as an orb that was hung in the heavens. All the references to laying the foundations of the earth are merely poetic description of God creating the universe.

Answer 3

Actually, much of that knowledge was well known at the time. It was only during the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church repressed knowledge, burned the writings of the ancient Greeks and suppressed intellectually inquiry that the West forgot all that had been learned by the ancients.

Fortunately for us, the Islamic world preserved that knowledge and it is from the Middle East that the knowledge was reintroduced to the West and led to a new age of intellectually inquiring that led to the reduction of the influence of the Church.

As for the Bible, the sun does not revolve around the earth. The Hebrews believed the earth was disc shaped, not spherical. As for that amusing little website, most of it is interpretation of scriptures based on current knowledge. No one could have gone from "the heavens and earth was finished" to the Laws of Thermodynamics if they did not already know the Laws of Thermodynamics. That web site is a pretty poor example of apologetics.

Answer 4

Here's a GREAT one I stumbled across a few months ago:

Deut. 7:14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

It's well known that, in ancient times until maybe two hundred years ago, it was thought that it was the woman's fault if she couldn't conceive. Here, God explains that MEN can be barren, too!

Answer 5

The universe had a beginning and has not just always been here.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The universe expanded from the beginning.

He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. Job 9:8


He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent Psalm 104:2


By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place. Proverbs 3:19


All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. Isaiah 34:4


He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. Isaiah 40:22


This is what God the LORD says, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it... Isaiah 42:5


"This is what the LORD says--your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself... Isaiah 42:44


It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. Isaiah 45:12


that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth... Isaiah 51:13


But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Jeremiah 10:12


"He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Jeremiah 51:15


This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him. Zechariah 12:1

Answer 6

The fact that pi is exactly 3. To this day, this nut hasn't been cracked. Mathematicians are working round the clock to prove this fact. Maybe circles had a different shape back in Biblical times, and our modern circles have been contaminated by sin and irrationality (hence the irrational part, .1415926535...).

The second most difficult math problem in history, Fermat's Last Theorem, was way easier in comparison... only took a couple hundred years to solve.

Edit: WOW, I got pi thumbs down alerady!

Answer 7

Yes! Bible still insists "Earth is flat".

Sky & Earth have pillars?

Light without creation of Sun?

What else you need. Keep it up!!

In fact Quran is the only Holy Scripture which predicted many scientific theories & reasons before humanity came to know!

More than 1000 verses ( 1/6 ) of Quran discuss The Universe & Science which inspired Muslims to find out the natural laws and started basic experiments in sciences. Muslims part of inventions is always kept hidden by the Europ but Historical facts cnnot be changed!

Answer 8

the bible, (and all holy texts), are a cornucopia of ambiguity from which you can draw any conclusion you want. that is why there is not just one christian church but a multiplicity of denominations and sects. the bible is all things to all men.

Answer 9

So why didn't biblical scholars invent all the scientific theories before they were proposed by the recent scientists?

By your logic, Thomas Aquinas should have proposed Theory of Relativity long before Einstein.

Answer 10

the bible is not a book of science but is scientifically accurate

Answer 11

I have read the bible cover to cover and have found no evidence of even a scant grasp of scientific principles. No mention of universal red shift. No mention of atoms. Etc. It is no surprise that it may say the earth is round - this has been known for 4,000 years (its pretty obvious really), but the christian church denied and denounced it for over 10 centuries - based on (guess what) the bible.

The bible is the greatest book of ignorance ever written.