Well, I'm back with a couple of new chapters. I have been putting this one off for a long time. I knew it had to be written, but just never got around to it, and I still consider it a work in progress. So, please feel free to post any Biblical science errors that you know of. If they fit in, I will add them. And, as always, if anyone would like a complete formatted copy of the book, just PM me your email address.
BIBLE SCIENCE
After a lecture on science, a little old lady atthe back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish.
The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down."
- Anecdote attributed to Bertrand Russell
When I was young, I was told that we know the Bible to be correct, because of the uncanny accuracy of its scientific knowledge. This conclusion was based on eight words. Here they are:
“The circle of the earth” – Isaiah 40:22
And
“Hanging upon nothing” – Job 26:7
If you ignore the prepositions and articles, you come down to two significant words – “circle” and “nothing”. That’s pretty thin gruel to base a life on. But, did the Bible display scientific foreknowledge by indicating that the earth was spherical and suspended in space?
Well, first of all, we need to determine if the Bible really meant what we thought it said. Secondly, is this knowledge remarkable enough to require divine guidance? And finally, is the Bible scientifically accurate in all of the other things it said?
The Circle of the EarthIf you look at a pizza from a distance, it looks like a circle. So, when the Bible speaks of “the circle of the earth”, did it mean that the earth was spherical, or just round? Well, the evidence seems to indicate that God thought the earth was flat and round, like a pizza. Here is why I say that:
"I saw a tree of great height at the center of the world. It was large and strong, with its top touching the heavens, and it could be seen from the ends of the earth." – Daniel 4:7, 8
So, God inspired Daniel to write that the earth’s surface has a center, and that a tree could be tall enough to be seen everywhere on the planet. But, a sphere has no center, and no matter how tall a tree is, it will not be visible from a large part of that sphere.
Jesus and the Devil make a similar mistake:
"The devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and displayed before him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence...." - Matthew 4:8
Now, you could argue that the Devil used a vision to show Jesus the kingdoms, but the scripture implies that the purpose of going up the mountain was to make it possible to see the ends of the earth.
A similar concept regarding height shows up in Genesis 11:4. In this story, the people are trying to build a tower that would reach right up to heaven. This was very threatening to God, because heaven was his realm. So, he confused their languages and scattered them. I wonder why he hasn’t put a stop to modern sky scrapers. Surely the height of a ziggurat could not compare to the Sears tower.
So, when the Bible talks about “the circle of the earth”, it appears to be talking about a flat, round surface, not a sphere.
But, let’s give God the benefit of the doubt and overlook this mistake. Let’s assume that he really did know the shape of the earth. Would that be evidence of divine inspiration?
Everyone who grew up watching Bugs Bunny knows that common knowledge held the earth to be flat until Christopher Columbus proved them wrong. Except, of course, for a bunch of Greek fellows. In 240 BC, Eratosthenes not only figured out that the earth was spherical, he even managed to devise a brilliant method of calculating its diameter using trigonometry. Aristarchus built on this information to calculate the diameter of the sun. He was a little off, but he realized that the earth and sun were both spherical, and that the sun was many times larger than the earth.
So, even if God had actually thought that the earth was spherical, it really wasn’t that remarkable of a conclusion. Other people, not too far away, had figured it out all by themselves.
God’s Other Scientific Gaffs
Now, you would think that the guy who created life, the universe, and everything in it would have a pretty good knowledge of how things work. But God managed to display the scientific knowledge typical of a bronze-age sheep-herder. Let’s spend a day in Jehovah’s classroom.
First Class: The Universe According to God.
"Let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two separate places... and it was done. So God made a dome, and it separated the water under it from the water above it." – Genesis 1:6,7
So, God put up a dome over the earth, to keep out the water that was in the upper “firmament”. This is where he got the water for the flood.
"You stretch the heavens out like a tent, you build your palace on the waters above.... You water the mountains from your palace." - Psalm 104:3,13
God lives up above the upper firmament, and turns taps on and off. The heavens are thin, like a tent canvas.
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
So, the sky is thin and can be rolled up. Stars are also small and can fall to earth, presumably when the glue gets old.
Can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze? – Job 37:18
I could go on like this for a long time. For instance, there are references to the “foundations” and “pillars” of the earth, and its “socket pedestals”. But, the point is made – God really didn’t have a clue that the earth was spherical, revolved around the sun, and that stars are actually distant suns.
Second Class: Biology according to God
Well, I would expect God to do a little better in this field of study. After all, he created plants, animals, and humans. Let’s take a look:
And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. – Leviticus 11:6
God actually thought that hares chewed their cud. It was an easy mistake to make, because if you put a rabbit in a cage without food, before long, you will notice it chewing something. Like many animals, it will eat its own feces, in order to gain nutrients from undigested material. It’s the type of mistake that a casual observer might make.
All winged insects that go upon all fours are an abomination to you. Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those which have legs above their feet, with which to leap on the earth. – Leviticus 11:20,21
Has anyone seen a winged insect that goes on all fours? And, what’s up with “legs above their feet”?
And these you shall have in abomination among the birds, they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey… the stork, the heron according to its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. – Leviticus 11:13,19
Here is another mistake that a casual observer would make. The bat flies like a bird, but is actually a mammal.
As well, God seems to think that dragons (Isa 13:22), satyrs (Isa 13:21), and unicorns (Isa 34:7) actually existed.
I won’t take a detailed look into the creation account, since that was covered earlier. However, don’t forget that God made plants before the sun. He also created the various types of animals in the wrong order – the fossil record shows otherwise.
So, God fails his biology lesson, too. Let’s try a physical science after lunch.
Lunch
I opened my lunch bag and found, to my surprise, that mom has packed me a Jehoagie – that’s a hoagie that is so big that it seems to have no beginning and no end (Hebrews 7:3). Afterwards, I cruise the halls for chicks.
Third Class: Physics according to God
And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stood still and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. - Joshua 10:13
The apparent motion of the sun in our sky is actually caused by the rotation of the earth. Do you realize what would happen if the sun “stood still”? The surface of the earth is moving at the rate of just over 1,000 miles per hour at the equator. In order for the sun to appear motionless, we would need to come to a screeching halt, then accelerate rapidly to get back into motion.
The implications of this would be huge. First of all, the papers on my desk would be scattered, to say the least. Imagine that the earth stopped moving. The atmosphere would continue to move, at least until it died down. Visualize the effect of 1,000 mph winds. There would certainly be many other implications as well, but it wouldn’t matter, since we’d all be dead, and my desk would be messed up.
And, on the subject of physics, he appears to have no understanding of the implications of scale when it comes to surface area and mass (see the chapter “The Long and the Short of it”.) The Bible claims that giants once existed – but they didn’t.
Fourth Class: Mathematics according to God
And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about. - 1 Kings 7:23
So, according to God, the value of pi was 3. Jehovah really should have been working with the Greeks, because they knew the real value of pi long before he did.
Every now and then, I go to a hockey game that has 5,000 people present. And, at times, I watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders play football. They draw around 30,000 people. If I stood up in the middle of one of these games and made an announcement, no one would hear me. But Abijah spoke to 1.2 million people (2 Chron 13:3, 4) That’s roughly the population of the state of Hawaii. But, God figured that Abijah could be heard by all those people.
In conclusion, I should mention that the Bible also makes numerous statements that are scientifically correct. For example, it correctly classifies many different types of animals. But then, why shouldn’t it? The Hebrews were not stupid.
My point is that the scientific knowledge displayed in the Bible was right on par with what you would expect from a group of ancient farmers and herdsmen. If anything, God’s scientific knowledge would have been lower than that of the ancient Greeks. If the Bible is considered inspired because of its scientific content, then so must the writing of Homer.
