Hidden Science
Okay you are not impressed yet. What about this from Psalm 8:8 (NIV) “the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” The Hebrew word translated as path can be way or path.
This is Matthew Fontaine Maury, the father of Oceanography and this is one of his books the physical geography of the sea. Matthew Fontaine Maury lived between (1806-1873) Maury was a US naval officer whose attention was arrested by the phrase “paths of the seas” in Psalm 8. He vowed to find these “paths of the seas.”
“I have always found in my scientific studies, that, when I could get the Bible to say anything on the subject it afforded me a firm platform to stand upon, and a round in the ladder by which I could safely ascend. As our knowledge of nature and her laws has increased, so has our knowledge of many passages of the Bible improved. The Bible called the earth ‘the round world,’ yet for ages it was the most damnable heresy for Christian men to say that the world is round; and, finally, sailors circumnavigated the globe, and proved the Bible to be right, and saved Christian men of science from the stake. And as for the general system of circulation which I have been so long endeavoring to describe, the Bible tells it all in a single sentence: ‘
Maury said this about ocean currents: “There are rivers in the sea. They are of such magnitude that the mightiest streams of the land are rivulets compared to them. They are either of warm or cold water, while their banks and beds are water of the opposite temperature. For thousands of miles, they move through their liquid channels unmixed with the confining waters. They are the horizontal movements called currents. The mariner can sometimes detect them by the different color of their stream, while, if they give no such visible sign of their existence.
He can trace them by testing their temperature with his thermometer. There is an equatorial current sweeping from east to west all along on either side of the equator, and well-nigh encircling the globe. There are polar currents setting from the polar regions toward the equator; and there are return currents setting from the equator toward the poles.
Do you know what he called navigating with the ocean and wind currents. Pathfinding. And to this day navigators are referred to as “pathfinders”. You have to admit that is pretty cool.
“The earth, from it comes food, And underneath it is turned up as fire. “Its rocks are the source of sapphires, And its dust contains gold. (Job 28:5-6). Modern science of geology has only understood this less than a hundred years, but again the Bible has the science before science did. There are geological processes that can produce sapphires in the rocks. Dust can really contain gold.
How about Astrophysics. “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.”
What world religion correctly states what holds up the world.
Every world religion has some version of something holding up the world. This image is the Hindu version, Islam, Buddhist, and other eastern religions. Even the ancient Greek thought Atlas held up the earth.
But the Bible says God suspends the earth over nothing.
What about this from Isaiah 40:22 (NIV), “ 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.” Most world religions think the world was flat and in fact modern man did as well until the 1500’s.
Pretty cool, huh. Oh and did you miss “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent” This is Isaiah clearly describing the expanding universe, several thousands of years before science ever imagined it. The Bible is unlike any other book ever written, today or in ancient times. God revealing himself to humanity.
Now I’m going to show you something really cool. Job 38:31 NLT “Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?” Cool huh. Oh, I’m sorry you are not astrophysicists, me neither.
This is an image from the Hubble space telescope of the Pleiades. The Pleiades is also known as the seven sisters. This star cluster is about 444 light years away.. It is actually a group of more than 250 stars. It spans about 13 light years from one side to the other. Now listen to this.
According to Astronomers, this group of stars appears to move in the same direction and speed. This is unlike anything else in the sky. These stars are moving in unison. They are held together and will never be separated. Science can’t explain this. But the Bible did. See all the stars are the same color in the picture this is an indication of speed and direction. Amazing.
This is an image from the Hubble space telescope of the constellation Orion. “looseing the cords” or the NKJV actually says, “loose the belt of Orion?”.
Orion is very different . Here is Job God says He can loosen the belt of Orion, but how? Orion’s belt is formed by three bright stars from left to right, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Alnitak is actually a triple star system of 4th magnitude. Alnilam is 29th brightest star in the nighttime sky. Mintaka is actually a binary star. These three star groups form a nearly straight line which comprises Orion’s belt.
Astronomers predict that Alnilam is moving to the right and will eventually form what they call a naked-eye double with Mintaka. Essentially looking like a single star. Alnitak will drift off to the left resulting is a complete loss of the belt. Effectively, God has loosened Orion’s belt. Amazing huh.
Here is the very next verse in Job, (Job 28:32 KJV) “Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? “ If you are using a modern translation you will find words like constellations or bear. I’m using King James because the Hebrew terms Mazzaroth and Arcturus are used. And sometimes King James just sounds good. Like we are smarter for using it or something.
Now Bible scholars argue about what Mazzaroth is referring to exactly. But it is the Hebrew word for constellation or constellations. It looks like this is referring to the seasonal change of the nighttime sky. Constellations change with the seasons. Most modern Bible translations actually use the word constellation or constellations instead of Mazzaroth.
What about Arcturus. Arcturus is a red giant star the brightest star in the constellation Bootes which you can find easily by following a slight arc from the handle of the “big dipper” or “big bear” constellation.
Arcturus is big. Many times larger than our sun. But it is an anomaly of the heavens. Arcturus is about 37 light years away from earth and it’s the 4th brightest star in our night sky. Arcturus is like a runaway train in the sky. It is huge. It moves astronomically very fast.
This star stumps scientists because it appears to defy all the known laws of the universe. It has been said that Arcturus is like it has laws of itself. Even our modern science and physics do not understand how it moves and why. But God does and Job wrote it down thousands of years before the birth of Astrophysics, astronomy or even physics for that matter.
How about Hydrology Eccl 1:7 (NIV), “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.” Again the Bible describes a scientific principle of the water cycle very clearly. Streams flow to the sea but its never filled. The water evaporates and returns to the place the streams come from via precipitation.
How about Meteorology Eccl 1:6 (NIV) “The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.” Wind currents blowing all the way around the globe, not a flat earth. Science before the scientist knew the concept. Matthew Fontaine Maury who discovered the ocean currents is also credited with discovering the trade winds which greatly enhanced and changed navigation. Commercial airplanes and ships use this information still today.
How about Laws of Physics. In Job 38:33 (NIV), “Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?.” What are the laws that govern how the earth and the entire cosmos behave. The laws of nature. Gravity, Thermodynamics, etc. Ancient people did not have a concept of this. Only the Bible among all the ancient texts says this.
How about Thermodynamics. Isaiah 51:6 (NIV), “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” The world will wear out like a garment. This is an excellent description of the 2nd law of Thermodynamics. Entropy. That the useful energy is becoming less and less here on earth and really all over the cosmos.
Not convinced, here is Psalm 102:25-26 (NIV), ”In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.” Looks like entropy to this scientist.
Let’s do a few more quickly.
Medicine
- Physiology. Leviticus 17:11 tells us that life is in the blood
- Anatomy Psalm 139,says we are knit together in our mother’s womb. Clearly the growth of a baby.
- Health Leviticus 15:13 Washing hands to reduce transmission of disease
- Hematology Genesis 17:12 Circumcision was to be done on the eighth day. Which is the highest level of the blood clotting factor and the best day to avoid infection and is the only day in which the blood-clotting factor is at its highest level. Today we know, that on the 8th day after the birth is the only day that vitamin K and Prothrombin are at their highest levels and therefore would be the safest day in which to perform this procedure.
What about the flood. Genesis 7:17-20 (NIV) For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 15 cubits is between 30-40ft. So the tallest mountain under 30+ft of water.
The flood is a favorite of bible critics.
- There is not enough water on earth!
- The flood in the Bible is a combination of earlier flood stories from at least 2 others cultures!
- The flood defies the laws of Physics and moves into the realm of miraculous.
Okay is all I can say.
As far as the Bible Flood being stolen from other cultures. It is true nearly every ancient culture has a flood story. This is just a short list I found. If you ever have a chance to visit the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. They have a display that details all of these ancient stories in some detail. The fact that nearly all ancient cultures have a flood story only leads us to believe there was a worldwide flood, it is not evidence against it. As far as the dates for these flood stories? It is very unclear how you can date these stories earlier than the Bible flood story. We know very clearly when Moses wrote his account but even if there are earlier written accounts, so what. Nearly every ancient culture had a flood story and the Hebrew scripture was not written until around 1500BC. So, this critique seems unfounded.
The law of Physics and miracles argument is mute. I think all Christians believe this story is a miracle, actually many miracles rolled into one story. So this is not an argument from the Bible but a philosophical position about miracles in general. So, we will not address it here.
Another criticism is the animals. It is impossible to get all the animals and food on this little boat.
First, it’s not a little boat. It is huge. I think one thing the Ark Encounter did for me was give me a visual of just how big this huge boat was. And by the way, it is not really a boat. It was a refuge from the flood. There is no mention of navigation, steering or propulsion in the Bible story. So, pseudo boat well maybe yes, but not a boat in terms of what we think of today.
Back to the size. What if all the animals were babies or eggs? What if God had them all hibernate during the boat ride? There are many ways this could have worked. Both miracle and non-miracle to get all the animals inside. So, this does not disprove anything. The skeptics will still be skeptics because they choose not to consider options that could work. So, fine. I’m not trying to prove my case. I’m showing there are practical options that make the story plausible. Still miraculous on many levels but physically possible.
Now the Water. The skeptic says there is simply not enough water on earth to cover the tallest mountains. So, how much water do we need?
According to National Geographic the radius of the earth is approximately 6378 km at sea level or about 3964 miles. I’m going to use km because I’m a scientist and it makes the math a little easier for me. Any way the Volume of a sphere is equals to 4/3 times PI times radius cubed (4/3 π r3) which mean the volume of earth at sea level is about 1.086E+12 km3 or approximately a tera-cubic-Kilometer or 1,000 trillion plus or minus a hundred million km3.
Mount Everest is thought to be the highest point on Earth. It is approximately 29,000ft above sea level or about 8.85 km. So, I’m sorry but this is going to get a little math intensive but this is not a complicated calculation. Without taking into account the volume that the land and mountains takes up. Stay with me. So, if we add the height of Everest to the radius of earth and recalculate the volume of the sphere at the tip of Everest. The radius is about 6387 km. That is about only about 0.14% change in volume.
Any way if you find the difference it is about 4.5 trillion km3. That is certainly a lot of water to cover Everest plus or minus a hundred million km3. That is a lot of water.
To put it in perspective, the USGS estimates that all the world’s oceans contain approximately 1,340,000,000 km3 of water (1trillion km3) plus or minus a hundred million km3.
So you can see the problem the critics use. We would need a lot more water than all of the oceans hold to flood the entire earth. In fact, God needed about 5 times more water than all the oceans contain to flood the earth.
But there has been some amazing scientific discoveries in recent years. I actually just read about this in October, Geoscience World published an article which documents the recent discoveries of water in the mantle of the earth. According the article, the mantle contains about 5 times the amount of water that is in the oceans. They estimated about 7 trillion km3 of water.
Now, let me try to put this into perspective. If all that water was on the surface of the earth, the water level would be between 10,000 to 15,000 ft above Everest. The Bible only claims 30 or 40 feet. So, it turns out there is plenty of water on earth. And frankly this is not all but I’ll stop here since I think I’ve made my point.
Hidden Science in the Bible. No science to refute the Bible. What do you think.?
This is the end of How to Defend your Faith Session 10: Hidden Science (Part 2 of 4)
