Scientific accuracy of the Bible

[Ashles]

You may not be aware of the fact, but the Bible is actually an accurate scientific factbook in many ways.

See this article and discover how the Bible predicted all sorts of scientific things long before scientists did.

Here is an example:

Consider the field of astronomy. Before the invention of the telescope, man actually believed that the stars could be numbered. The great Ptolemy gave the number as 1,056. Tycho Brahe cataloged 777 and Kepler counted 1,006. The astronomers of those days were certain that they could count the number of stars. Since the invention of the telescope by Galileo in 1608, we now know that the number of stars are limitless. Today, astronomers estimate that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy with an additional 20-100 billion galaxies in the universe!

But long before the telescope was invented, the Bible had put forth the notion that the stars are countless in number. God spoke to Abraham that his descendants would be "as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17). Jeremiah 33:22 states: "The host of heaven cannot be numbered." Thousands of years later we see the confirmation of the Bible by modern astronomers.

I know some of you skeptics will say something like "Well maybe the Bible was written by people and they couldn't count how many stars there were so they just put 'countless'".

Buit you'd be wrong beause the Bible is right and you aren't.

If the Bible had said a specific number it would have been wrong, but because it said 'countless' it must be scienifically accurate.

So there.

And also:

For centuries, man believed that the earth was flat. Christopher Columbus was criticized for his proposition that he could reach the Indies by sailing west. When he sailed out of the harbor, many expected Columbus to sail off the edge of the earth. But few of us realize that Columbus received his inspiration and motivation from the Bible.

I bet few of you knew that.

The Bible is the first source to mention that the earth is spherical. The prophet, speaking in Isaiah 40:22, mentions that God "sits above the circle on the face of the deep." The word circle in Hebrew, khug, is best translated in terms of sphericity or roundness. The Bible had refuted the flat earth theory long before scientists actually disproved it.

That's indispuatably true. Don't try and dispute it. You can't. So don't try.
Stop it. I said not to.

Oh I know what the link in my sig says, but it disagrees with the Bible. So it must be wrong.

So the Bible is correct because the Bible says so.

 

[Mid]

What a fool I’ve been, well I'm totally convinced! And this must also mean that creationism, the flood etc. are scientifically accurate as well. I would quote some inspiring biblical passage to cover my religious awakening, but I don’t know any still that can soon be changed!

 

[Atlas]

God spoke to Abraham that his descendants would be "as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17).

Perhaps you should also post this on RaptureReady and remind them that it'll probably be a while.

 

[Nucular]

Also, the Bible mentions fish many times. It is striking to note that fish actually do exist - another example of the scientific superiority of the Bible over all other books.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

What some people won't do to reinforce an image of idiocy.

They use scriptures that are full of crap to put forth the idea that all of it must be true..

Someone needs to tell them that there is no reason to believe that :

" The number stars of heaven = the grains of sand on the seashore.."

Then they say this is backed up by:

" The host of heaven cannot be numbered."

Which contradicts the earlier ' proof ', that contains finite quantities.


Furthermore, God lied when he told Abraham

" that his descendants would be "as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore . "

Since it is obviously not the case and not even close.

 

[H3LL]

Also, the Bible mentions fish many times. It is striking to note that fish actually do exist - another example of the scientific superiority of the Bible over all other books.

Shhhhh! Don't mention bats.

 

[delphi_ote]

How can you forget the expert medical advice given in the bible?

When anyone has an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to the priest. The priest is to examine him, and if there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white and if there is raw flesh in the swelling, it is a chronic skin disease and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He is not to put him in isolation, because he is already unclean.

If the disease breaks out all over his skin and, so far as the priest can see, it covers all the skin of the infected person from head to foot, the priest is to examine him, and if the disease has covered his whole body, he shall pronounce that person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean. When the priest sees the raw flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean. The raw flesh is unclean; he has an infectious disease. Should the raw flesh change and turn white, he must go to the priest. The priest is to examine him, and if the sores have turned white, the priest shall pronounce the infected person clean; then he will be clean.

http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=Leviticus 13&version=31;

Truly a marvel of science.

 

[Nucular]

Shhhhh! Don't mention bats.

Can I mention any other types of bird?

 

[Ersby]

Funnily enough, on one of my only debates on the Religion and Philosophy forum, I resorted to quoting a greek philosopher (the name escapes me right now) who hypothesised a "round" (ie, spherical) world long before the Bible came along and spoiled it for everyone.

I never pushed the point, since I thought that "round" could equally mean "spherical" or "disk-like". It's nice to see the other people aren't so cautious and just plough on regardless., as long as it makes them feel better about their life choices.

 

[Ashles]

From the nice link in my sig :

A round earth appears at least as early as the sixth century BC with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others in observing that the earth was a sphere. Although there were a few dissenters--Leukippos and Demokritos for example--by the time of Eratosthenes (3 c. BC), followed by Crates(2 c. BC), Strabo (3 c. BC), and Ptolemy (first c. AD), the sphericity of the earth was accepted by all educated Greeks and Romans.

Nor did this situation change with the advent of Christianity. A few--at least two and at most five--early Christian fathers denied the sphericity of earth by mistakenly taking passages such as Ps. 104:2-3 as geographical rather than metaphorical statements. On the other side tens of thousands of Christian theologians, poets, artists, and scientists took the spherical view throughout the early, medieval, and modern church. The point is that no educated person believed otherwise.

I guess it really annoys some people that some things actually happened in history before the Bible was even written.

 

[bruto]

I seem to recall hearing of primitive tribes for whom any number larger than two is "many," or "countless." I'm sure the ancient Israelites went a bit higher before they gave up, but calling the stars "countless" doesn't really qualify as science, I'm afraid.

Of course it would also be surprising if the writers of the Bible hadn't gotten some things right. They were alive, awake, and presumably fairly intelligent, so they undoubtedly made some good observations. There's probably some real history buried in there too. A few years ago I read a book by Charles Pellegrino (title forgotten, sorry) that made a pretty good case for some of the biblical accounts being conflations and streamlined retellings of some real events. It doesn't make the biblical accounts accurate, of course - it just explains where they might have originated. You can acknowledge that the bible contains some truthful accounts (yes, there really are some fish out there!) without having to accept that everything it says is true!

Years ago I read somewhere that the account of the building and caulking of Noah's Ark described a relatively well-tested example of natural polymerization. Of course it doesn't prove the flood any more than the ink stain on the wall proves that Luther saw the devil. It does suggest that the people who wrote the bible were pretty good boatbuilders, for whatever that is worth.

 

[Nucular]

A few years ago I read a book by Charles Pellegrino (title forgotten, sorry)

Return to Sodom and Gomorrah: Bible Stories from Archaeologists - good book.

From there,

All philosophy ultimately dovetails with religion - which is ultimately reducible to history. All history is ultimately reducible to biology. Biology is ultimately reducible to chemistry. Chemistry is ultimately reducible to physics. Physics is ultimately reducible to mathematics. And mathematics is ultimately reducible to philosophy.

 

[kedo1981]

If you believe the Bible is the oldest book on the planet, I for one can see how people could claim all kinds of amazing things; most fundys think that it was carved into clay tablets or something by Adam and Noah and Moses and so on starting on “day one”.
But it was really written between 1500 and 400 bc so none of these “facts” that people of little faith have to sight as proof of divine authorship are original, and most had been around for centurys.

 

[H3LL]

Can I mention any other types of bird?

I think you are safe there. Apart from ducks. Eddie Izzard is convinced the world is full of evil ducks. I'm with Eddie on this one. Definitely keep away from ducks. Mean, evil creatures that often give you a bill for no reason.

 

[Nucular]

I think you are safe there. Apart from ducks. Eddie Izzard is convinced the world is full of evil ducks. I'm with Eddie on this one. Definitely keep away from ducks. Mean, evil creatures that often give you a bill for no reason.

And God said, "I shall kill everything - except the floating ones and the swimming ones, who will get out due to a loophole"

And don't even get me started on evil giraffes...

 

[bruto]

One of the things fundies seem to forget is that what we call "the Bible" is a collection of many texts of various ages, selected at a much later date by St. Jerome and others who were already at that time filtering the material on the basis of their understanding of Christianity. When the various old and new testament texts were being written, there were other scriptures and other books, some very good and some pretty dreadful. While we may question their judgment now, it's important to remember that the committee which established the septuagint, St. Jerome, and others responsible for the selection, did not have any qualms about subjecting these texts to critical judgment and selection.

I happen to think that Jerome and the bishops did a pretty good job of sorting it out (check out the New Testament Apocrypha for some of the junk that didn't make it in), and the result is a book full of wisdom and poetry, well worth reading and thinking rationally about. But people wrote it and people edited it, and they deserve both the blame and the credit for the results.

 

[Teetop]

The world is round??

We'd all be hanging from things if we lived on the side--
of course unless we lived on the top...
naw---it has to be flat!

 

[El_Spectre]

And God said, "I shall kill everything - except the floating ones and the swimming ones, who will get out due to a loophole"

And don't even get me started on evil giraffes...

The best part is that the track on the CD is called "The Tyranny of Ducks"

(duck in water) "Hey, what are you two doing up there???"

(duck on Ark) "We're.... we're special!"

 

[CerebralWrestler]

Countless number of stars? What a risky prediction.

Now, if the Bible only told us something we didn't know at the time, such as the structure of the atom, Newton's inverse square law, entropy...

 

[Francois Tremblay]

, and the result is a book full of wisdom and poetry

Which part is that ? The part where God kills almost all life on Earth because he messed up, the part about murdering your children, or the part where 80% of the population will suffer eternal torture ?