Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A Reasonable Post on Faith

It seems that when discussing issues of Biblical faith with those of the scientific doctrine, I have experienced what I perceive to be a superiority complex from those of the scientific persuasion.
It would appear that many who follow (some blindly) the faith of scientific interpretation think that the Bible and science are opposing forces. As if to say that science is based on nothing but facts, and The Bible is only about dead myths from primitive people

Some have said that if anything in the Bible contradicts, then the entire thing is to be thrown out and discredited. This is an interesting sentiment as many people who assert this claim have never actually looked into the Bible's validity at all.  To say that something doesn't make sense because you do not understand it or have never really looked for an answer seems lazy.

Some cite trivial things to attempt to disqualify the text. Others have a slightly more merit to their claims for example, in the books of Matthew and the book of Luke, the genealogy of the Messiah differs.  A little resaerch shows that one is through the mother, the other through the father, neither contradict, and the emphasis on Hebraic thinking and understanding explains it nicely.

To say that the Bible contradicts without ever studying it is equal to saying that  A + B cannot = C because AB and C are letters and not numbers therefore algebra is a lie.

Did you know that the reason that we even have some discoveries is because the Bible says so?
For example,  Matthew Maury, the father of oceanography, was an avid believer in the Bible. After study of Psalms 8 he sought to study these "paths of the sea" and is credited to have helped reduce sea travel.

This kind of example of partnering faith and a bit of reason should be encouraged.

Before Sir Isaac Newton discover that light can be divided into prisms, God mentioned that light can be divided when he was yelling at Job . ( Job 38:24)

Scientist have tried for a long time to state that the universe is eternal . Well, the Bible states that  it had a beginning in Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 1:10-12. Many Scientist refer to the discovery that the universe has a beginning as "The Genesis problem" in which it admits that there is no explanation for the origin of the universe outside the hand of a creator.
In light of this discovery, it in fact takes more faith and belief to hold to the doctrine that there is no "god" or "creator" It is interesting that many in critique of Biblical understanding, accuse others of finding things that fit and explain supposed conflicts in the text... but easily dismiss the fact that science does this in their own research and on occasion... has no answer at all.

The second Law of thermodynamics states that the universe is running down and becoming more disorderly, as cited with the article above we can see that this is more proof against the idea of an infinite universe. Also this was cited in Psalm 102:25-26.

Where Scientific study has been revised, reworked and edited... the Bible had pretty consistently been the Bible.

Consider this, The bible states that the earth is round long before it was "discovered" as being so (Isaiah 40:22)

Pangaea and continental drift are inferred in the Biblical text  in  Gen 1:9-10 and  7:11

The Law of Bio-genesis is outlined in Genesis 1. all life comes from existing life.

Scientist have laughed at the verse in Psalms 19 , which in speaking of the sun states
"Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat."

They laughed thinking in their understanding that it taught geocentricity, that the sun revolved around the earth. They laughed saying that the sun is stationary. Science has recently discovered the fact that the sun moves.... fast... on a circuit, thus giving even more credibility to the Bible.

It is even more interesting that this is something known without a ancient Hebrew version of NASA.  How did they know that the earth hung independently in space, as Job 26:7
"He stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on nothing"
This is thousands of years before Armstrong or Russian Cosmonauts. Yet there in the text it states matters of scientifically proven fact.

The text states that there is weight to the wind in Job 28:25, something that meteorologists have come to discover as storms carry thousands of pounds of rain. To carry this load, air must have mass.

At a time when the wind was thought to just blow strait, The Bible mentioned Jet streams.
Ecc. 1:6 
Blowing toward the south,
Then turning toward the north,
The wind continues swirling along;
And on its circular courses the wind returns.

It wasn't until WWII that airmen discovered the Jet streams.


The Bible describes dinosaurs in Job 40:15-24, this is the description of Sauropods

The Bible states that there were cave men. Job 30:1-8

Pleiades and Orion star clusters were mentioned.  Pleiades is gravitationally bound while Orion is loose and disintegrating because the gravity of the cluster is not enough to bind it together. 
This is a recent discovery, yet God asked Job 4,000 years ago
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion? Job 38:31


There is no mention of primitive ancient aquanauts, But Jonah is about as close as we get... and He mentioned underwater mountains. Jonah 2.

Here is another thing. The chicken or the Egg... Which came first? The Bible says it was the chicken in Gen. 1: 20- 22.

Which came first, DNA or Proteins? The code for each protein is in the DNA/RNA system, however proteins are required in order to manufacture DNA. The explanation is that they were created together.


Based on statistical probabilities, Either God created us, we are part of some intelligent design, or we are by and far the luckiest most random result of a meaningless purpose.  For example, we wouldn't exist without water, and if the earth were closer to the sun it would boil and evaporate or something, of if we were farther we would freeze.( see Isaiah 40:12) Upon that, the amount of radiation solar radiation should kill us... except for the "magic" barrier that is keeping it off of us. ( see Isaiah 45:18) Further more, the "random mutations that occurred"  to enable such things as the eye. Further more, the probability of cells being able to exist, because the probabilities of the right random gasses swirling in the just right way, to randomly have the right combustive properties, To randomly combust. There are many things which have such a narrow chance of happening, let alone all happening together, That make the mathmatic probability of all these probabilities coming together to form life...  all those narrow possibilities, stacked upon each other... according to Occam razor,  God is the scientifically more likely cause of the universe that we live.

Hebrews states that the world was created from things not seen. Later we discovered atoms and subatomic particles, things not observable to the naked eye.

We have learned that Stars emit radio waves.  Stated in Job 38:7.

Science expresses the universe in five terms: time, space, matter, power, and motion. Genesis 1:1,2 revealed such truths to the Hebrews in 1450 B.C.: "In the beginning [time] God created [power] the heaven [space] and the earth [matter] . . . And the Spirit of God moved [motion] upon the face of the waters." The first thing God tells man is that He controls of all aspects of the universe.


The Bible talks about not eating swine or shellfish, which scientific studies have found links to all kinds of health risks.



So, to draw to a close... Believing in the validity of the Bible isn't just a blind endeavor. The people following the Bible like sheep are no better or worse than those who lean on the religious  elements of scientific faith. Both sides of the isle can be ignorant or arrogant.

The Bible is far more than dead myths.  Perhaps there are elements of life and death that we have yet to discover.




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In putting this together I pulled from various sources... and it frustrates me a little bit to see that now at the end, I find this site that did it all better and cited more things than I did

2 comments:

  1. Science fiction stories have made futuristic claims, many that were proven true later and many that weren't (that's how probability works). I agree that people should use their imagination and creativity to try and explain the observable universe, this is a very crucial part of science as well and usually the first step in the process. The bible is full of claims and hypotheses, some of which (vague as they may be) could be interpreted to match more modern scientific findings; but where the bible differs from science, is that it doesn't offer substantiation, experimentation, procedure, evidence, room for rebuttal, or ability to change/evolve.

    If the Bible is the infallible word of God (and that's a VERY bold statement to hold up to), then finding even ONE error in it does discredit it. Though people tend to try and change the interpretation rather than accept that.

    If you'd accept the fact that the bible was written by humans, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to put more trust into the claims of more modern people rather than the claims of those who lived millennia ago. Why do you trust the numerous random authors in the bible more than someone alive today (like me for example)? What makes them so special, especially when you can stand on the shoulders of giants that these ancient writers never had access to.

    I think it's awesome that you took the time to go through and list these things, and I learned some cool stuff about the history of these ideas, but it doesn't prove that these people had any special vision of the universe's inner workings. When a student writes the correct answer on a test, but doesn't show his work, I can't give him credit because for all I know he made a lucky guess.

    Obviously science doesn't explain everything, because we continuously find new questions to ask, or other times we are short on leads. We'll probably never know all there is to know... does that thought make you uncomfortable? It should, that's normal. Your curiosity should drive your continual search for answers, and you should be content with the substantiation given to these answers. If you're ever not satisfied, then there is more science to be done...

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