Why "... when it does touch on scientific matters [the Bible] is accurate" is bogus BS.

by Island Man 15 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Island Man
    Island Man

    JWs and other christians would often point to the handful of the bible verses that seem to be scientifically accurate as evidence of its divine inspiration. But not surprisingly, they ignore the ones that are scientifically inaccurate, or when they address those verses they put a spin on it like saying the account is not a reflection of what the bible is teaching but what men at the time erroneously believed and which god allowed them to record in the bible. Really?! Would you believe a JW actually told me that! She said words to that effect to explain the striped-stick pseudo-genetic mumbo jumbo recorded at Genesis 30:37-41:

    "Jacob then took freshly cut staffs of the storax, almond, and plane trees, and he peeled white spots in them by exposing the white wood of the staffs. 38 Then he placed the staffs that he had peeled in front of the flock, in the gutters, in the drinking troughs, where the flocks would come to drink, that they might get into heat in front of them when they came to drink.39 So the flocks would get into heat in front of the staffs, and the flocks would produce striped, speckled, and color-patched offspring. 40 Then Jacob separated the young rams and turned the flocks to face the striped ones and all the dark-brown ones among the flocks of Laʹban. Then he separated his own flocks and did not mix them with Laʹban’s flocks. 41 And whenever the robust animals would get into heat, Jacob would place the staffs in the gutters before the eyes of the flocks, that they might get into heat by the staffs. "

    Imagine persons who believed the bible to be the inspired and inerrant word of God living 1000 years ago reading that account. What are they going to think about Jacob's pseudoscience? Are they going to think it's bogus or are they going to think it's legit? Is there any hint anywhere in this passage of god's "inspired and inerrant word" to suggest that Jacob's thinking was faulty - that the bible does not endorse his methods as legitimate? No!

    The common way that JW apologists try to get around this inconvenient problem is to point at another text later on where Jehovah speaks to Jacob in a dream and tells him that he has been blessing him. The JWs point to this and say: 'See? it was God who made his share of the sheep multiply and not his method'. The problem is the text does not say Jacob's method was bogus. In fact, anyone trying to tell those christians living 1000 years ago that Jacob's method was bogus, and that it was God that increased his portion of the sheep, can be met with this argument:

    "Yes, God blessed Jacob's legitimate scientific endeavors to ensure his success, in the same way that God blesses our legitimate agricultural endeavors to give us a good crop. The methods are still working and legitimate even though God ensures it works - or works even better - by his blessing. So God taking credit for it does not prove it was wholly a miraculous work of God and that Jacob's methods were completely wrong and ineffective."

    So there are scientific inaccuracies in the bible - if not deliberate then by virtue of poor communication, by virtue of the fact that the bible does not clarify that Jacob's method was indeed bogus.

  • Darkknight757
    Darkknight757

    My favorite is Genesis chapter one where god made green vegetation one creative day before the sun. 😂

  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe

    If the bible records an account of someone doing something that we know to be an effective method at achieving some result and they get said desired result then it is evidence of the bible's scientific validity.

    If the bible records an account of someone doing something known to be ineffective at achieving some result and they get it anyway (i.e. Jesus rubbing spit in the eyes of a blind person) then it's a miracle and is evidence of the existence of god and that the bible is the word of god.

    If the bible makes a statement of fact that we know to be scientifically accurate (or, through some mental gymnastics, like the "circle of the earth" bit, can be made to seem scientifically accurate) then it is evidence of the bible's scientific validity and divine inspiration.

    If the bible makes a statement of fact that we now know to be false then it was merely figurative language, metaphor or use of popular ideas of the day to make a point and is in no way evidence of the bible being scientifically invalid.

  • EverApostate
    EverApostate

    The Sun stood still for Joshua's bloody Genocide, as the Bible says. Perfect ignorance of the writer revealed here, supposed to be inspired by GOD.

    Sun Stood still means it was understood to be moving, prior. Like, if we say that the train stood still, means it was moving prior.

    But the JW would spin as "The sun appeared to stand still from the viewer's aspect and it was by other means that Jah made this marvel work". I heard this comment form a sis in one of the meetings long back.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    Dyslexic Dog, Creator of Everything!...

    Image result for dyslexia god

    Day 1: God creates light.

    Day 4: God creates the Sun...

  • waton
    waton
    My favorite is Genesis chapter one where god made.... Dk757;

    made the Earth in the beginning.rather than after generations of stars that had to die. Made the flat Earth, so Satan could show all the kingdoms from a high mountain on a clear day at the 4 corners.

  • ttdtt
    ttdtt

    I mean you could go on and on and on...

    • How about no mention of Microorganisms, or Insects being created.
    • How did the plants grow without what you need in the soil from insect or how about Worms (which are animals) that were created later.
    • How about bees? How did the plants pollinate?
    • Oh and what day did doG create Bacteria and Viruses?

    It's almost like Genesis was written by Bedouins 4 thousand years ago who had no knowledge or understanding of basic science, chemistry, or biology.

    Oh and by the way - the saying - 4 corners of the earth - comes from the bible. Why would a inspired writer say that about a Globe?

  • EverApostate
    EverApostate

    Jehovah thinks its more important to provide statistics and details of gruesome murder and slaughter than to provide information about microbial pathogens and viruses.

  • Phizzy
    Phizzy

    The Bible has a multitude of Scientific inaccuracies, if it were inspired to any degree by an all-knowing god, it should have none.

    It should also contain at least one thing the writer could NOT have known, and several accurate prophecies.

    It fails in all those areas.

    And in others, History for example.

  • sir82
    sir82

    A 100% wooden vessel with the dimensions of Noah's ark would get ripped apart by anything stronger than the ripple caused by tossing a pebble into the sea, much more so if caught in a 40-day thunderstorm.

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