Do you think that the Bible contradicts science, or that science has made the Bible "obsolete"?

Question

Let me just mention some of the things that the bible said were true thousands of years ago and that science has just discovered to be true in recent years. These facts were all stated in the bible anywhere's from 2,000-4,000 years ago depending on which book you find it in.

1)The earth floats free in space(Job 26:7)---Job was written 4000 years ago. No one knew this fact 4000 years ago.
2)Creation is made of particle, indiscernible to our eyes(atoms, molecules, electrons,.......)(Hebrews 11:3)--- Not until the 19th century was that known.
3)There are mountains on the bottom of the ocean(Jonah 2:5,6)---This was discovered in the last century.
4)Blood is the source of life and health(Leviticus 17:11,14)---Up until 120 years ago, sick people were "bled" and many died as a result(e.g. George Washington). Today we know that healthy blood is necessary to bring life giving nutrients to every cell in the body. God declared that "the life of the flesh is in the blood" long before science understood it's function.
5)Our bodies are made of the dust of the ground(Genesis 2:7;3:19)----Scientists have discovered that the human body is comprised of 28 trace elements, all of which are found in the earth.
6) The universe had a beginning(Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 1:10-12)---Starting with the studies of Albert Einstein in the early 1900's, science has confirmed the biblical view that the universe had a beginning. When the bible was written most people believed that the universe was eternal. Science has proven them wrong but the bible was correct.
7) The earth is a sphere(Isaiah 40:22)---At the time when many thought the earth was flat, the bible told us that the earth is spherical. Incidently, for those who call christians 'flat earthers', that verse is 2700 years
old.
8)Scripture assumes a revolving spherical earth(Luke 17:34-36)----Jesus said that at his return some would be asleep at night while others would be working at daytime activities in the field. This is a clear indication of a revolving earth with day and night occurring simultaneously.
9)Light can be divided(Job 38:24)---Sir Isaac Newton studied light and discovered that white light is made of 7 colors, which can be parted and then recombined. Science confirmed this 400 years ago, The Bible declared this 4000 years ago.
10)The continents were created as one large land mass(Genesis 1:9,10)---Many geologists agree that the earth was originally one super continent.
11)Hydrological cycle described(Job 36:27,28)---About4000 years ago the bible declared that God "draws up drops of water which distills as rain from the mist which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man". The ancients observed mighty rivers flowing into the ocean, but they could not conceive why the sea level never rose.. Though they observed rainfall they had only quaint theories as to it's origin. Meteorologists now understand that the hydrological cycle consists of evaporation, atmospheric transportation,distillation and precipitation.
12)Circumcision on the 8th day is ideal(Genesis 17:12)---Medical science has discovered that the blood clotting chemical Prothrombin peaks in a newborn on the 8th day. This is therefore, the safest day to circumcise a baby. If you do it before that he'll bleed to death. How did Moses know that?
13)The universe is expanding(Job9:8,Isaiah42:5,Je... 51:15,Zechariah12:1 and other verses)---Seventeen times in the Old Testament it says that "God is stretching the heavens". During the 20th century most scientists(including Einstein) believed the universe was static. Others believed it should have collapsed due to gravity. Then in 1929 astronomer Edwin Hubble showed distant galaxies were receding from the earth and the further away they were, the faster they were moving. This discovery revolutionized the field of astronomy. Einstein admitted his mistake and today most astronomers agree with what the creator told us thousands of years ago--the universe is expanding.
14)Light travels in a path(Job 38:19)--- Light is said to have a "way"{Hebrew:derek, literally a traveled path or road]. Until the 17th century it was believed that light was transmitted instantaneously. We now know that light is a form of energy that travel at 186,000 miles per second in a straight line. Indeed, there is a way of light.
15)Air has weight(Job 28:25)--- It was once thought that air was weightless. Yet 4000 years ago Job declared that God established "a weight for the wind".
16)Ocean currents anticipated(Psalms 8:8)----About 3000 years ago the bible describles the "paths of the sea". In the 19th century Mathew Maury...the father of oceanography, after reading Psalms chapter 8, researched and discovered ocean currents that follow specific paths through the seas.

Contrary to all the jibberish you hear in todays secular humanist public schools about how we used to believe a lot of myths in the bible and then science came along and proved the bible wrong.....on the contrary, the bible was way ahead of science. Even though the bible is not a scientific book, when it does speak on science it is accurate. To quote Robert Jastrow:
"This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth... [But] for the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; [and] as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

- Robert Jastrow
(God and the Astronomers [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1978], 116. Professor Jastrow was the founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute, now director of the Mount Wilson Institute and its observatory.)

PS---Robert Jastrow is not a christian.

Source(s):

http://www.johnankerberg.org/articles/_p...
http://www.johnankerberg.org/articles/_p...
http://www.johnankerberg.org/articles/_p...
http://www.johnankerberg.org/ankerberg-a...
http://www.johnankerberg.org/articles/_p...
http://www.johnankerberg.org/articles/_p...
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/7547/...
http://www.thematrix.co.uk/
http://www.pleaseconvinceme.com/...
http://www.reasons.org/index.shtml...

I'd like to give credit where credit is due...these science facts were given to me by another user in an answer to another question...
The problem is, I've forgotten his name...but here's to you, Unknown User...may your research bring glory to God!

Answer 1

Thank you for this it was really awesome. Mind if I borrow the info to send in a devotional to some friends?

Answer 2

"Do [ I ] think that the Bible contradicts science, or that science has made the Bible obsolete?"

Before Galileo (about 1590), virtually all of Western Civilization readily accepted Aristotle's Solipsism -- an unsubstantiated philosophical opinion which maintains that the basis of reality is each person's subjective mental experiences. Solipsists also view the physical realm as the imaginary fabrication of the human mind. Solipsism caused the Dark Ages, because people believed their subjective dreams and hallucinations were actually real. Superstition ruled Western Civilization and very little technological progress was made because everyone believed the church was correct when they taught that the physical realm was imaginary.

About 1590 Galileo discovered that the basis of reality was not the human mind. Aristotle's "wisdom" was obviously in error because simple physical experiments seemed to indicate that the physical realm was actually real. By the late seventeenth century, Isaac Newton's mechanics had essentially used mathematics to prove beyond any possible doubt that the physical realm was objectively real. Educated men quickly realized this implied that human subjective mental experiences were themselves imaginary. By the early twentieth century the invention of the electroencephelograph (EEG) proved beyond doubt that all of a person's thoughts, memories, perceptions, and emotions originate within the neurological structures of their living human brain. It is undeniable that subjective mental experiences are imaginary.

Christians typically imagine that there is some "controversy" about whether the Solipsistic or the Scientific version of reality are correct. This is not true. Solipsism is well and truly dead -- proved utterly false by incontrovertable mathematics and rock solid science. The physical realm is objectively real and only an ignorant fool would argue otherwise. In our times, the term "spirituality" is applied to all things of a Solipsistic nature and there is absolutely no evidence which suggests any of it is valid -- except within the subjective opinions of those who believe in such unfounded superstition. This explains precisely why religious belief requires "faith." One must accept that which is undeniably false, as if it were absolutely true.

It would be fair to conclude that science has proved the Bible obsolete because, of the two, only science relates to that which is objectively real. The Bible contains only meaningless superstition because the forty men who wrote it were all confirmed Solipsists, who imagined their own thoughts were absolutely real and that everything physical was imaginary.

Answer 3

Not this again!!!
You're forgetting the verses that state the earth sits on pillars. You're forgetting India, who already had the idea of atoms in the 6th century B.C.E. and the folks before them. You're forgetting people who live on volcanic islands in the middle of the ocean. You're forgetting the majority of history where people ate stuff when they were sick, therefore pumping crap into them. Einstein refuted the idea that the universe had a beginning; many people agreed with him. Billions more thought it had a beginning; your Bible is not alone (Hinduism has an even better hold on this, claiming that everything came from a singularity). Again, you're ignoring other passages that are convinced the earth is flat. People worked in fields at night, keeping their livestock safe from predators.

Do I really need to keep going? Making the Bible look reliable is really easy if you ignore everything else, isn't it?

A book is not scientific if it's no use without hindsight.

If the Bible was soooo advanced, why did the Church burn Giordano Bruno at the stake for suggesting the sun was a star?

Answer 4

I wonder if you actually checked these passages in the bible and read more than just the one liners you list here. I'd have to check myself to actually believe any of it personally, but that said, I have read the bible many times. And while I don't remember every word, I don't recall these passages.

There are so many mistakes and contradictions proved to be false in the bible, so if these are the only passages that people can contrive some sort of real life truth from, I'd have to say that's pretty sad (For a book that is supposed to contain so much truth....)

Also it's a bit odd to me that you are surprised by things like them knowing when to circumcise. Do you think they just randomly cut on babies back then, like mindless Neanderthals? There were doctors, things were tested even back then. Humans studied and watched the stars long before the Bible existed. It would stand to reason that someone would assume that the earth was "floating" in space. Come on now, use some logic.

I see you were inspired by someone else's words, enough to copy them here, but I wonder if you took the time to verify any one of them or think about just how valid the claims are....

Answer 5

Neither Galileo or Aristotle are in the Bible.

BTW, there was an article in Scientific American which pointed out that Galileo was set up by others who were jealous of the funding he was getting and they weren't, and their supporters in the Church lied to the then Pope about what the hearing found.

Answer 6

Science explains how stuff happens. Like, the creation of the universe. It hasn't contradicted any of the genesis creation story, if you take said story loosely.

It's just much more rational to believe in science as cause/effect than just saying "God did it" in every day life. The explanation "God did it" has become obsolete because we understand things better, ie, Science.

If you believe that the universe created itself in a big bang, instead of the giant guy in the sky creating it, it naturally follows that said giant guy in the sky isn't really doing anything or isn't there.

Also, your arguement is based more on bias and individual phrases of where the bible got lucky rather than any kinda coherent point. And if the ancient greeks figured this stuff out, what's to say it wasn't common knowledge in the roman empire, who were pretty smart guys? (I mean, they invented central heating. Cmon. That's good.)

Your arguement also neglects to mention that the bible is also seriously WRONG on a lot of things. Jehovas witnesses, blood transfusions, stoning gays to death (When homosexuality isn't a choice), etc

Discuss

Answer 7

The Bible is full of revelations about the earth, God, the universe, and the way things are, based on the observations of men and the inspiration of God.

Science is a way of determining predictable events based on observation and the testing of hypothesis, in conjunction with controlling factors which may have an altering effect on the variable of interest to the scientist. Science can be used as a tool to verify the revelations of the scriptures, or put them to rest as mythology, but it is not fool-proof. Human error in experimental design occurs often.

Science can make the revelations of the scripture obsolete, but as you mentioned in the numerous examples, it has confirmed more "truths" than contradicted them. It should not be viewed as a rival of biblical teachings, but as a means to support faith.

Answer 8

Who deserves more credit? The founders of a particular science or the bible? I personally have to give my credit to the scientists who worked long and hard to create theories.

2)Creation is made of particle, indiscernible to our eyes(atoms, molecules, electrons,.......)(Hebrews 11:3)--- Not until the 19th century was that known.

Im sorry, creation is not science, it's hypothesis.

WHY SPECIFICALLY YOUR GOD AND NO OTHER?

Answer 9

Yes I personally think that science and the bible work hand in hand. The people of the bible just didnt know the science behind creation for example. Most scientific findings corroborate the bible. For example the evolution theory says simple organisms then plants where fromed first..later came man. Its the same as the bible story.
The story of the tower of babel and how people developed different languages and settled in different areas could be the same as the historic account of migration out of africa hence the development/adaptation of different races.
THERE IS NO CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY.
Science explains the 'HOW', while Religion is the 'WHY'.

Answer 10

You are definitely right that the Bible was correct on many scientific issues that have been proven correct only in the past few centuries. I think your question is a bit long for Yahoo! Answers. You may want to focus your rhetorical questions and narrow them down.

Answer 11

I think that the Bible isn't a science textbook. But I do think that whatever science is present in it is accurate. I mean, God created science didn't He!

Know which other ones I like that your user friend forgot? The verses in Leviticus that tell the Israelites how to quarantine people with contagions before anyone even knew that germs existed, and the other verses that tell them to wash their hands under running water. This was back in the day when the Egyptians were still putting mud and dog dung on open wounds.

I think that some scientists today don't want to acknowledge the Bible because then they would have to acknowledge the Author and they are too proud (or afraid) for that.