When science and the Bible differ, science has obviously misinterpreted its data.
—Henry Morris (founder of Institute for Creation Research)
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Wouldn’t it be nice to compile a list of scientific theories that are denounced by the bible and then point out their real-world uses and implementations?
And I not only mean evolution, because that’s something of a hot potato. Plus, it’s too well-known to take anyone by surprise.
“Having sex in front of a stripy wall doesn’t lead to stripy kids”, you mean?
I’ve never read much of the bible, so I can’t pick any examples, but there clearly must be countless examples of ancient worldviews that clearly clash with science. And not just something apparently as hard to grasp as evolution, but say … physics. Astronomy. Chemistry. Whatever you have, as long as it’s used in only slightly obscure applications today.
Ignoring evolution is one thing (I can’t sympathize with people who deny it, but since the timeframe of evolution is so large, I can at least understand why they’re unable to grasp it), but ignoring the rest of science when there are examples of it in actual real-world applications does get a bit … surreal.
I’d really be delighted to hear examples.
i’ve been studying The Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy, by C. Dennis McKinsey, to sort of, you know, be able to defend myself against believer arguments… and i found this gem in Malachi 2:3 (KJV) where their god is speaking to some priests about what he’d do if they were bad priests… ” Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts…” sorry, but i just can’t shake the visual of the Almighty Creator of the Universe smearing dung on some bad apples in his flock… WTF!?!
Never have I seen a quote which better illustrates the pathetic insecurity of religion, nor the delusions of its followers.
… and how unbiased are creationists
It’s the adjective “obviously” that does it. Like there’s no other possible answer, it’s completely out of the question that the bible could be wrong and he’ll never accept any statement to the contrary. Absolute idiot.
I seriously thought this was a sarcastic statement until I noticed who it was attributed to.
“When the Bible says that you can breed animals with stripes by putting sticks near their watering trough (Gen 30), but Mendelian genetics says otherwise, science has obviously misinterpreted its data.”
“When science says that the Earth orbits the Sun, but the bible says otherwise, science has obviously misinterpreted its data”
How many more of these can we think of?
When bats are classified as mammals and not as birds, science has obviously misinterpreted its data.
I’ve never seen nor heard of a rabbit chewing cud, yet all of science has obviously misinterpreted its data.
(shakes head)
The Bible actually has this one sort-of right, although the mechanism is different in rabbits than in cows and sheep. Rabbits, like cows, have to have multiple attempts at digestion in order to get the most nutrition possible out of grass, which is energy-poor food and difficult to break down. In rabbits, the first time through partially digested food from the caecum or “second stomach” is excreted as slimy-looking pellets (caecotrophes is the correct name). The rabbit eats the pellets and has a second go at digestion. As a process it is only marginally grosser than that of cows, which kind of sick their food up to re-chew it.
Cud, by definition, is the regurgitant of a ruminant. Based on your broader use of the term my neighbor’s dog chews cud vicariously via my cat.
While I understand what you’re saying I still maintain that the idea of cud chewing rabbits indeed shows that science has obviously misinterpreted its data. :)
I’m a bit curious about where it contradicts the fact the earth rotates around the sun. Not arguing, just would like to know for my own benefit.
Um… I’ve opnly read the bible once, so I’m gonna have to ask somebody else for a citation on that one! Genesis I think.
Yeah. And when the bible says that “the stars of heaven will fall unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely fig” (Rev 6.12), while astronomists claim stars are actually much bigger than any planet, it’s obvious they can’t see sh*t with those telescopes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=fvw
That is a fantastic video. Sharing that on FaceCrack right now :-)
Here is another one, which also feature two stars bigger than Antares.
Incidentally, can I recomend you to Celestia?
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/
Basically it’s a virtual reality program that lets you fly around the known univers :D I particularly like that there are add-ons to have Babylon 5, Deep Space 9 and the Starship Enterprise floating around in the apropriate places :D
Looks awesome. Downloading now… Thanks.
You can also add-on all of the Star Wars planets as well as both Death Stars and most of the space craft :D
I’m such a geek…
… downloadin’ now. Thanks for the tip!
That was awesome.
I love the end: YOU ARE NOT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!
What a great cosmos we live in…!
That quote boggles the mind. How will you ever convince anyone who thinks like that? It is impossible.
Everything in the Bible is true because…
well, the Bible says so.
So f*cking ridiculous.
this is the kind of willful ignorance we must face every time we try to challenge the uber-religious views held by some theists.
Willful ignorance will hold people back as long as they are not consistently challenged. Once given enough counter-arguments and consistent challenges to their views they start doubting their hard-headed view (the bible being 100% truth).
“Once given enough counter-arguments and consistent challenges to their views they start doubting their hard-headed view”
Or they just leave to beg god for a little more faith and come back knowing that through our voices speaks Satan, testing their faith!
I think you are being a bit optimistic here.
Unfortunately they feel the same way.
What I really don’t get is why Biblical inerrantists don’t understand why *others* don’t believe in Biblical inerrancy. It is always that we just want to act immoral and selfish, not that the evidence indicates Biblical falsehoods.
I border on being an anti-vaccination kook but I can at least recognize that the weight of the evidence is against me.
I don’t get it either. It seems to come down to a choice between reason and faith. Science is either the ultimate authority or the Bible. Argument from evidence vs. argument from authority.
But what I really don’t get is how, after examining the evidence, you can come away thinking that the -what should I call it- ‘cosmology’ of the biblical world is something desirable. A God determined to torture forever the overwhelming majority of people who ever existed.I get fundamentalists. The Bible is reality and they have no choice but to bow down to the celestial tyrant. But moderates, I don’t quite understand. If it’s not literally true why voluntarily subscribe to such a horrific metaphor?
I have some doubt as to the validity of the English translations of the word Hell in the old and new testaments, especially as it relates to eternal punishment. I am most certainly not an expert and am relying on my own research, checking several sources (for what their worth).
My understanding is the words we read as Hell are improper translations.
The Old Testament word that was translated as Hell is actually the Hebrew word “Sheol” which should be translated as “grave” or “state of death”.
The Greek word Hades seems to have the same meaning as the Hebrew word “Sheol” or is the Term from Greek mythology that means “Abode of the Dead”.
The Greek word “Ghehenna” refers to the trash dump outside of Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom.
It seems as though the traditional view of Hell as a place of fiery eternal punishment was first put forth by the theologian Tertuillian around 200AD. It was reinforced by various doctrines and theologians through the ages, sometimes for power, sometimes for profit or perhaps sometimes by ignorance.
Of course this does nothing to either prove or disprove of a divine or supernatural power but its fun to learn. Please let me know where I may be (or probably am) wrong
> “It seems as though the traditional view of Hell as a place of fiery eternal punishment was first put forth by the theologian Tertuillian around 200AD.”
I don’t see that. Matthew and Mark speak of divine punishment in a “furnace of fire” or “hell of fire”, and Revelation speaks of a lake of fire.
Hi TRJ. Your right, they do speak of it. There seems to be a school of thought that considers these mentions to be Aramaic hyperbole. I’m trying to determine (in my limited ability) the validity of this point of view. Thanks for the push to look further!
My understanding is that the fiery version of hell pops up in several ancient cultures that may have influenced Judiasm. It’s not a hard concept to come up with if you’ve ever been in a volcanically active area.
For example, I think the Zoroastrians believed in a fiery, foul-smelling hell. We’d almost have to expect that some Jews would pick up on it during the Persian period.
Not to mention that fire seems to be cross-culturally considered an instrument of purification as well as punishment. From that POV it would make double sense to let sinners be thrown into fire.
What a difference from Maimonides, who said if science and the Torah disagree, we must’ve misunderstood the Torah.
@Nope
From tonight’s House:
House: Well played. Religion just killed another person.
I love House.
Hugh Laurie is an amazing actor. Watch him as George in Blackadder Goes Forth and then as House. Can hardly believe it’s the same man.
Oh yes.
Or as Bertie in Jeeves and Wooster. Which has the added bonus of the fantastic Mr Fry.
Obviously!
Want more jokes like this one? Subscribe to Acts & Facts from the ICR. It’s free, plus every two months you get a book of daily devotional readings. The magazine is beautiful and full of actual facts. However, most of the conclusions they draw from these facts are somewhat different from the ones you and I might arrive at.
This is Thomas Aquinas, in a nutshell.
I’ve been spending the last few weeks wracking my brain trying to interpret my experimental data. Maybe I should look up what the bible has to say.
I hear pi = 3.
If that helps.
it’s 3-ish
Much better. I will be sure to enter “3-ish” into my calculations from now on. :)
You mean you found irreducibly complex data? One point more for the designer! (kidding)
What happens when the Bible differs from itself?
An atheist is born.
WIN
Well, at least this will stop any pretenses that what they do is science.
Btw, I count and count the legs of a lot of insects, and I continue to get six rather than four…