SKEPTICISM, SCIENCE, AND THE BIBLE

Skeptics argue that if the Bible comes from God, it should contain scientific revelations about this universe, a foretaste of future scientific discoveries. The blog of atheist and scientist, Massimo Pigliucci, lays out this challenge:

·       Many religious people since Thomas Aquinas actually want to argue that their beliefs are also rational, that there is no contradiction between the book of nature and those of scripture. If so, then they need to answer Sagan’s question about why it is that the so-called holy books don’t tell us anything at all about how the universe really is.” www.naturallyspeaking.blogspot.com.

Similarly, atheist Sam Harris has charged:

·       [The Bible] does not contain a single sentence that could not have been written by a man or a woman living in the first century. (“Reply to a Christian”)

Even though it doesn’t seem that it was Christ’s first concern to provide previews of future scientific discoveries, Scripture does condescend to provide this very thing. Here is a small sampling:

1. TIME IS NOT ETERNAL: 2 Tim. 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

2. ENTROPY (DE-EVOLUTION) Hebrews 1:10-12 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” (also Isaiah 51:6; Psalm 102:25-26)

3. FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS (Matter/Energy neither created nor destroyed): Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (This argues against a slowly evolving universe.)

4. THE UNIVERSE HAD A BEGINNING: Genesis 1:1  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Contra the steady-state theory that had ruled science).

5. THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE PHYSICAL WORD AREN’T VISIBLE: Hebrews 11:3  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

6. GENETICS NOW SHOWS THAT WE ALL CAME FROM A SINGLE SET OF PARENTS: Acts 17:26 (ESV)  “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” (Genesis 1:26)

7. THERMAL VENTS: Job 38:16  “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?”

8. WATER CYCLE: Job 36:27  "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams.” (Also Amos 9:6; Eccl 1:7)

9. DINOSAURS: Psalm 74:14  It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

10. STARS AS GUIDES TO SEASONS AND GEOGRAPHIC POSITIONS: Genesis 1:14  lights in the expanse of the sky… [would] serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.”

11. GOD WORKS THROUGH FIXED LAWS: Jeremiah 33:25 states that God accomplishes His purposes through “fixed laws of heaven and earth.”  (Although science demonstrated that phenomena operated according to laws, the Bible long before posited the operation of the God’s laws.) (Also Job 38:33)

12. COUNTLESS STARS:  Jeremiah 33:22 states, “I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore. " (Also Job 11:7-8; 22:12)

13. ROUND EARTH, EXPANDING UNIVERSE: Isaiah 40:22 states, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in” (42:5).

14. THE EARTH DOES NOT SIT ON A PEDESTAL AS ANE COSMOLOGY HAS IT: Job 26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

15. STRESS NEGATIVELY IMPACTS HEALTH: Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

16.  NECESSITY FOR QUARANTENE: Leviticus 13:46 “He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

17. UNHEALTHY QUALITY OF EXCREMENT: Deut. 23:12-13 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

18. FOSSIL FINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS: Psalm 104:6 …the waters stood above the mountains. (Even Everest, according to the Genesis account of the worldwide flood)

The creationism has also been able to predict many other phenomena that science is just beginning to appreciate, like the evolutionists’ baseless assertions that leftover (“junk”) DNA and organs serve as evidence that we had descended from primate “ancestors.” However, even if we provided 50 more examples, these might not satisfy the atheist, who is as committed to his faith just as we are to Christ.