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| Before taking up any discussion on Bible and Science, it must be
understood very clearly that Bible was NOT written primarily to
serve as a textbook of science. Rather, it was written mainly to
communicate divine truths to the common man, and hence the language
is popular and not technical in style. However, since it is a
communication inspired by God, and since God is all-knowing, nothing
written in the original autographs can go contrary to the facts of
any discipline of science. Every age has its popular theories and fads, and many of them seem to contradict some statement or other of the Bible. However, we must remember that the popularity of a theory has nothing to do with its scientific accuracy or merit. Therefore if any theory seems to contradict any portion of Bible, it is better to wait till more facts come to light. In relation to the discussion of Bible and Science, the history of Christianity shows two major types of errors. First, some people who do not have a proper perspective about scientific theories immediately try to harmonize each and every currently popular theory with the Bible, sometimes in every minute detail. Sooner or later that popular theory is discarded by the scientific community, making that "harmonization" laughable. The second major error is to reject those biblical passages that seem to be in conflict with a scientific theory. People who do this are only exhibiting their ignorance of history which has time and again shown that it was our knowledge, not the Bible, that was in error, at a given point. An examination of the repeated controversies will demonstrate immediately that there is a curious prejudice in the human hearts against the Bible. If a scientist makes a statement, it is generally accepted with awe even if there is insufficient data to support his statement. On the other hand if the Bible makes a similar statement, it is looked upon with suspicion even if there are enough facts to support it. Such a prejudice is surprising because many of the theories and assumptions expressed by scientists are highly unstable and are often based upon incomplete knowledge. The reason for this peculiar behavior is obvious: the world is in revolt against God, and it will therefore accept anything which negates God's existence and actions. It is no wonder that men are hasty to play up each and every new scientific theory against the Bible. Errors of Ancient Scientists and Philosophers Before we actually take up Bible verses that deal with scientific subjects, we must have a look at the "science" of ancient men of learning. This is done to show how erroneous their popular ideas were. Since their knowledge was accepted as supreme, people accepted their theories without any question or doubt. Since the human writers of Bible lived in the periods when such teachings were widespread, there is every possibility of those wrong theories getting included in the Bible. But not even a single such theory has been incorporated into the biblical text. Without any doubt, one has to invoke Divine Inspiration to explain how the biblical writings remained uncontaminated. A sample of the scientific ideas of reputed ancient scientists and philosophers are as follows: I) PLATO: One of the greatest men of learning, Plato wrote: "Using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living soul and truly rational through the providence of God". He believed that there were only four elements in this universe: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. According to him, 'Out of such elements which are in number four, the body of the world" was created. Further, he used to believe and teach the world was a vast and visible animal that produced earth-quakes when it moved. II) ARISTOTLE: Aristotle is credited with giving birth to modern science. He had accumulated a vast mount of knowledge, yet many of his theories were wrong. He used to teach that the earth was the center of the Solar-system. According to him the function of the blood was to cool the brain; also that women had fewer teeth than what men had. |
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III) ANCIENT GREEKS: The ancient Greeks, who were among the most learned people, thought that god Atlas bore the heavens on his head and shoulders. That is why even today a map of the world is called an ‘atlas’. |
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TERM PAPER: For successful completion of this course you are required to write (typed double space) a 2,000 word research paper. The topic area is very broad. Your topic area consists of picking ONE scientific theory. Trace its’ origin, and find compatible support for it in the Bible. Quote verses used. (i.e. the theory of Atomos-small particles make up the universe). If you have questions regarding this assignment, e-mail the admissions office. Remember: this paper counts for 15% of your grade. |
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| IV) THE EGYPTIANS: The sciences and arts were highly
developed in Egypt as is clear from the Pyramids and the mummies
left by the ancient Egyptians. In spite of their technological
advances, their scientific ideas contained a lot of error. For
example, they used to believe that originally only the oceans
existed. On this ocean appeared an egg (or a flower) from which the
sun-god was born. The earth, the sky and everything else in the
skies came out of their bodies and activities. They had such a collection of myths that no person educated in Egypt could have escaped their influence. Yet Moses who was trained in "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" never incorporated even a portion of this mythology in his five books. |
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| [The Behistun Inscription, carved into a Cliffside (in
current day IRAN), gives the same text in three languages, telling
the story of King Darius’ conquests, with the names of twenty-three
provinces subject to him. It is illustrated by life-sized carved
images of King Darius with other figures in attendance.] |
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The Behistun Inscription (also Bisitun or Bisutun, meaning "the god’s place or land") is a multi-lingual inscription located in the Kermanshah Province of Iran. |
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V) THE BABYLONIANS: The Babylonian ideas of creation go back to the days of Hammurabi (around two thousand years B.C.E.), who was an acknowledged philosopher-king of his times. Yet all that he wrote, or that is available from ancient Babylonian sources, is full of myths similar to the Egyptian stories. Conclusion We have cited some of the philosophies and beliefs held by only a few of the most learned of the ancient people. Their beliefs provide the background in which the biblical writers wrote their books. Since their ideas were widely accepted, there was every possibility of these ideas being carried into biblical writings, but this never happened. (Note- there is much disagreement as to the incorporation of outside ideas in the Torah into it – Five Books of Moses). Some might try to argue that pagan philosophers held to wrong notions because they did not have access to modern scientific equipment; but we must point out that neither did the biblical writers have access to such equipment. On the contrary, most of the writers of biblical books were flooded from all sides with wrong hypotheses and theories cited above. Yet none of them included any wrong theory in their writings; even Moses who was trained in all the colleges of higher learning of the Egyptians did not include a single such hypothesis in his five books. This unconformity can be explained only by the presence of an "all-knowing" hand behind the writing of the books of the Bible. |
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| Chapter 2
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