The Bible is not a science textbook. Nevertheless, it is accurate when it mentions facts within the realm of science. Furthermore, the Bible contains physical knowledge about the world that was not generally known when the writers recorded the words of God. God created the heavens and the earth, and He intimately knows all about His creation. He simply told His prophets about the nature of earth and the universe, and they wrote down the scientific information He gave them.
One of the chief arguments against the Bible is that evolution, not creation, is responsible for the origin of animals and man. Spirit & Truth Fellowship International joins its voice with thousands of other educated Christians in categorically denying that evolution is true and that men and women are the product of millions of years of unplanned and random changes. The evidence from all branches of science is confirming that God did create the heavens and the earth, just as the Bible says. We have material on the subject, and the reader is also referred to the many books, articles, and scholarly monographs on the subject done by The Institute for Creation Research, The Creation Evidences Museum, and Answers in Genesis, some of the organizations that specialize in teaching the truths about Creation. [For a full list please read Creation / Evolution References.]
Unfortunately, many bookstores do not have books written from a creationist point of view, so it is easy for the average person to assume that there are only a few “religious fanatics ” who still deny evolution. In fact, there are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of books written by competent and credible scientists that explain why creation, not evolution, is the most logical choice for the origin of the universe and of mankind. Why is it that a theory that has never been proven is so widely believed? Schools and museums and the media all discuss evolution as if it were fact. Often they call what does not qualify as evolution, “evolution,” attempting to make the theory easier to believe.
Before we go on, it is important to understand that when “evolution” is mentioned in this book, I am referring to “macroevolution,” which is actual evolutionary development including change of phylum, class, order, family, and genus. This should be distinguished from “evolution in the species,” which is not actually evolution at all. Within each species there is genetic room for change, and it is sad that this change within the species is often called “evolution.” For example, when dogs are bred to produce larger dogs, smaller dogs, blacker dogs, whiter dogs, etc., that is not evolution. It is change, yes, but technically it is “speciation,” not “evolution,” as the term is used in the creation/evolution debate. God, thankfully, created genetic room for change within species. That is why we humans can recognize each other—we are all a little different, yet all the same species. If tall people meet, marry, and have children, eventually (perhaps several generations later) the kids will be taller than average. This is change, but not evolution. It is development within the species. These developments can be quite stark, as we see among dogs, or not quite as stark but very noticeable, as we see among humans. Although we all came from Adam and Eve, there are many differences between the humans on planet earth. These variations within a species in no way confirms the theory of evolution, which requires that life develop from non-living material, and then that living material constantly organizes itself by random changes into increasingly complex organisms. [For further study read Creation or Evolution, What’s the Big Deal?]
Though not widely publicized, the theory of evolution is under attack from every angle. Darwin on Trial shows that evolution is not actually “science” in the accurate sense of the word. [14] Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! shows that the fossil record supports creation, not evolution. [15] If evolution had occurred, the fossil record would be one continuous plastic flow (i.e., in a state of flux or transition) with genera and species being mostly indistinct and always in transition. After years of digging up fossils and petrified remains, the “missing link” has yet to be discovered in any animal or plant form. Instead, what paleontologists find are distinct plants and animals at every level of the fossil record. This is exactly what you would expect to find if creation occurred as recorded in the Bible, because each genus was created by God.
In Not By Chance, Dr. Lee Spetner (who is not a Christian), writes convincingly that the discipline of information theory shows that random changes cannot lead to large-scale evolutionary changes. [16] Darwin’s Black Box sets forth the biochemical challenge to evolution and shows from biochemistry that random mutations could not have produced the biochemically complex organisms that cover the earth. This is a challenge to the theory of evolution that modern science has only recently become aware of because many of the biochemical processes regulating life had not been understood until recent years. [17] The Troubled Waters of Evolution shows that the theory of evolution, which suggests that “random” processes have led to complex organisms, violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that things naturally go from a state of order to disorder. [18] This is why things that work, break, rather than broken things fixing themselves, and why we humans are always cleaning and straightening. Any mom will testify that things do not get orderly on their own. We blow things up to destroy them, but evolution teaches that an explosion, the “Big Bang,” resulted in higher and higher forms of order. If that were the case, evolution would be the only thing science is aware of that violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. According to the laws of physics, creation, not evolution, accounts for the high order of life forms on earth.
The late Gordon R. Taylor was an Englishman and the chief science advisor for BBC Television in England. He wrote The Great Evolution Mystery, which questions many of the things American evolutionists believe. [19] But was he a creationist? No, he just did not believe in the kind of evolution usually taught in American schools. He believed in a different type of evolution, which brings up a noteworthy point. Although most non-scientists are not aware of it, there are a number of competing theories of evolution. Those who believe in evolution cannot agree among themselves as to which is correct. Because evolution is not really science at all, but actually just a theory, different scientists have posited different theories about evolution, and these theories contradict one another: Darwinianism, Neo-Darwinianism, the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, the Theory of Inherited Characteristics, and the list goes on. All these differ in how they explain the origin of the life forms we see on earth. When the entire picture of life on earth is examined, creation, not evolution, explains it best. [For further study material on Creation/Evolution, click here!]
Although the Bible is not a science textbook, it has some startling scientific information in it—startling primarily because at the time it was written, the information was not known to human beings.
- The hydrologic cycle
The fact that water is drawn up from the earth into the air and later comes down as rain was not known in ancient times. Yet God made it clear in His written Word.
Ecclesiastes 1:7
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.Job 36:27,28:
27 “He draws up the drops of water,
which distill as rain to the streams ;28 the clouds pour down their moisture
and abundant showers fall on mankind.
How could writers who lived hundreds of years before Christ know scientific information that we have learned about only in the last centuries? God, who created the heavens and the earth, told them.
- The water in clouds
It was not generally known by ancient man that clouds are full of water. The association between clouds and rain was known because it rains only when it is cloudy, but it was definitely not known that even in good weather the fleecy clouds hold literally tons of water, something Job alluded to when he spoke of the “weight” of the clouds.
Job 26:8
He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.Job 37:11
He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.
Because water is heavier than air, clouds have to be “balanced” in the sky. This is not readily apparent to those of us on the ground. It is generally assumed that clouds float because they are lighter than the air, but actually there is a lot of complex physics behind the clouds floating in the air. God spoke of this “balance” to Job some 4,000 years ago:
Job 37:16
Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?Job 37:16 (AMP)
Do you know how the clouds are balanced…?
- The weather patterns
Modern scientists are aware of the circular patterns of the winds. We study them regularly by balloon, airplane, and satellite. Ancient man, however, had no such devices and could not track the patterns of the weather. However, God knew about the circular patterns of the wind currents and told His servants about them.
Ecclesiastes 1:6 (NASB)
Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.NIV:
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
- The Ocean Currents
Ancient man did not know much about the great currents flowing in the ocean, and it has been only very recently that scientists have discovered there are currents running like great rivers underneath the surface of the ocean at various depths. Ancient man did not know about these underwater pathways. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin published the first modern written account about the great ocean currents, and today we know a lot about the currents that are almost like roads in the ocean, traveling in a circular pattern. God, however, knows all about them, and through the writings of King David, almost a thousand years before Christ, first revealed to mankind about “the paths of the sea.”
Psalm 8:8
The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
- The springs at the bottom of the ocean
It has been only since the invention of the modern submarine and since contemporary undersea exploration began that man has learned some of the facts that God revealed to Job some 4,000 years ago. How could Job have possibly known there were springs at the bottom of the ocean unless God told him? Only in the last century could we finally confirm what readers of Job have known for millennia.
Job 38:16
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
- The earth suspended in space
Long before the Romans taught the earth was being held upon the shoulders of the god, Atlas, or those that believed the earth was held on the back of elephants or a large turtle, God revealed that it was simply suspended in empty space.
Job 26:7
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.Job 26:7 (NASB)
He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
God’s Word spoke of scientific facts hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years before mankind in general knew them or had the ability to confirm them. This could be the case only because God, the Creator, knew what He made and how He made it, and revealed information about His creation to man. The fact that the Bible reveals scientific information that was unknown to the people of ancient times is very solid and important evidence proclaiming that God, not man, is the Author of Scripture. There is one more important point that must be made about the Bible and science: not only does the scientific evidence in Scripture reveal God’s authorship, but also there is no truly scientific discovery that contradicts or disproves the Bible.
On occasion I have heard scoffers talk about the Bible as if no thinking person ever believed it. If the Bible is believable, then it makes sense that through the ages there would have been great men and women of science who had studied it and concluded that it was true. There are many such men and women. A few select examples include:
- Johann Kepler (1571-1630). He is considered to be the founder of physical astronomy. He was the first to state that his research was only “thinking God’s thoughts after Him,” a succinct statement, and one later echoed by other believing scientists.
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He is considered to be the formulator of what we today call “the scientific method.” He recognized that men learn from both the Bible and the world around them, and wrote: “There are two books laid out before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.”
- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). He is one of the founders of hydrodynamics. He was a deeply devoted believer, and wrote religious works as well as scientific ones. To him is attributed the “Wager of Pascal,” the essence of which is that a man cannot lose if he becomes a Christian. If he is right, and God does exist, he will have everlasting life and everlasting joy. If he is wrong, he has enjoyed a wonderful life on earth. However, if someone does not believe and is wrong, he will lose everything.
- Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Famous for the discovery of the law of gravity and the formulation of calculus as a branch of mathematics, he was perhaps the most intelligent man of this millennia. He was a devout Bible believer, fluent in both Greek and Hebrew, and wrote many books on biblical subjects, including Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, a book on the prophecies of Daniel. [20]
- Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Faraday is recognized as one of the greatest physicists of all time. He invented the electric generator, and discovered magnetic lines of force and electromagnetic induction. He had faith in the Bible and prayer, and believed the tenets of his church, one of which was: “The Bible, and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, is the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all time and in all circumstances…”
- Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). He is considered to be the founder of the science of comparative anatomy, and helped forge paleontology into a separate scientific discipline. He was a strong proponent of catastrophism, and believed the Flood of Noah was the last global catastrophe our earth has faced. He strongly supported creation, and defended it in important creation/evolution debates.
- Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was the leading American geographer of his day. He authored the very first American geography textbook, which was almost universally used in schools and went through 25 editions. He was a strong believer in the six-day creation of the earth and Noah’s Flood, and his textbook included a section about the animals being saved from destruction by Noah’s Ark and their subsequent distribution around the earth. His son, Samuel Morse, invented the telegraph, and was also a strong Christian. The first message sent across telegraph wires (1844) was: “What God hath wrought.” [21]
These few examples could be multiplied by the hundreds and thousands, both yesterday and today. What the Bible says makes sense, and many thinking men and women of science and other academic disciplines have long recognized that fact.
Courtesy of http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=646
Faithandthelaw's Blog 