Also, it's Job, which, once again, is a very poetic part of the Bible. They also ignore Job The Bible and Entropy Isaiah The second law of thermodynamics does not say that everything leads to disorder. It says that heat will not spontaneously flow from a colder body to a warmer one or, equivalently, that total entropy a measure of useful energy in a closed system will not decrease. This does not prevent increasing order. Regardless of all that, the Second Law applies only to closed systems, and the Earth isn't a closed system because it's powered by the Sun.
The Bible and the Water Cycle Ecclesiastes 1: He also points out Ecclesiastes 1: What he does not point out is Job It merely says that water returns to the source of streams; it does not say how. Once again, we have to ask: Energy and matter are coming from nowhere, according to Genesis. People have been building ships for thousands of years and boats for tens of thousands of years, so it's not unreasonable to assume they figured out the best ways to do so themselves, without having to be told by God.
Also, the ideal length-to-width ratio of a ship depends on the purpose of the ship.
The Mindful Revolution
Sailing vessels are typically built with a larger ratio; warships have a small ratio to help attain higher speeds; bulk carriers are built with a large ratio because load capacity is more important than speed the cargo does not depreciate during the voyage. Even in Biblical times this would have applied: First of all, Ecclesiastes is all about how nothing matters and nothing changes. So it poetically refers to the wind as not really changing no matter what it does, or where it blows.
So why couldn't God have told us that, instead of repeating what people thought at the time? For a book that supposedly contains a lot of scientific information, it doesn't seem to have tried to correct popular misconceptions of science. The Bible and Science Ray includes a quote from Richard Wurmbrand, Proofs of God's existence , that science confirms what the Bible has been saying for thousands of years. He says the Christians hold the key to the secrets of the universe, and they should be the owners of the lock and key that is, show there is no conflict between science and religion.
However, as we have reviewed, none of the above "proofs" presented are extraordinary or cannot be obtained with simple observation. With a bit of literary analysis, it's easy to make a book of stories look as you want it, but if the Bible was truly a source of scientific knowledge and science confirms what is in it, then we would expect Christians to point out in their Bible several breakthroughs in physics, medicine, chemistry, etc.
However, we do not see this. Muslims do the same thing, such as claim the Qur'an accurately predicted the Big Bang, speed of light, reproductive systems, plate tectonics, and such, but their claims are no more credible than those of Christians shoehorning these discoveries into vague passages in the Bible. Book of Job B. Charles Burckhalter, Chabot Observatory. Charles Burckhalter is an old source Also, modern scholars give Job a composition date of 6th—4th century BC, not that curiously specific It also tells us that water has weight.
The energy is dissipated in the water—the weight of the water is precisely measured. Secondly, Comfort ignores the passage right before this, Job Also, anyone can tell you water has weight; that part of it is hardly an impressive bit of science. And it hardly speaks well for your position when you cite someone who says that the water covering Earth means the Sun's and Moon's gravity are balanced perfectly. Is it still balanced, for instance, when the Sun and Moon are on the same side of the Earth, such as during solar eclipses or, really, any time you can see the Moon during the day?
The differences between night and day were believed to be caused by the sun revolving around the earth. Here is Job Curious that Comfort left out verse Here the author of Job is saying something is longer than the earth. A flat earth with ends could be compared for length, but longer has no meaning for a spherical Earth. Also, it should be remembered here that the Church itself not science insisted on a geocentric universe, specifically because of its reading of the Bible.
If the Bible were such a good science text, surely geocentrism wouldn't have become Church doctrine in the first place. These thermal vents release huge amounts of mineral-rich, super-heated water—springs in the darkness. The words of Job Clearly, no one could figured that out without divine revelation. And besides the fact that this is another poetic passage, not meant to be taken literally, if it's so clear-cut, why did not a single Christian claim that there were springs in the depths before they were discovered?
Better yet, instead of "springs", why didn't it say something more specific—and accurate—like "vents which put out hot water from the depths of the earth, surrounded by life forms unlike any ye have seen"? Science discovered this in The fact that light is parted is easily observable by shining it through a prism. And light does not and cannot scatter wind.
Parted light is almost always universally understood, not as scientifically split through a prisim, but as in a ray of light that is seemingly split into two still white, still full spectrum rays due to some object. The point of the Job passage is to say that no human power can do this, not to provide scientific reference of something man can do. Also, they ignore the fact that the bible treats darkness like it actually exists, when really it's the absence of light. Also, it's Job, which, once again, is a very poetic part of the bible.
The Book of Job and Dinosaurs Comfort says the following: Science can only speculate. However, the answer may be in Job However, one of the characteristics of this massive animal is that it had a tail the size of a large tree. Here are all the given characteristics of this huge animal: It was the largest of all the creatures God made; was plant-eating herbivorous ; had its strength in its hips, and a tail like a large tree.
It had very strong bones, lived among the trees, drank massive amounts of water, and was not disturbed by a raging river. The Bible says Behemoth's tail "was like a cedar. A more likely translation for the phrase is, "His penis stiffens like a cedar" Mitchell The behemoth was probably a bull, and the cedar comparison referred to its virility.
Basically, Behemoth is not another dinosaur. That's another strike against this book. Also note the requisite science-bashing: We haven't worked out all the details about how it happened yet, but the fact that science can provide details about it in the first place is a huge step ahead of young-earth creationists, who flat-out denied dinosaurs' existence for many years, then changed gears and started to claim they lived side-by-side with people.
In fact the truth is the opposite of what Ray states here: YECs can only speculate about the demise of the dinosaurs, because the only source they accept is the Bible and it doesn't say anything about their extinction, notwithstanding their rather creative readings into poetic verses. Ignaz Semmelweis as the founder of the laws of hygiene and that the Bible led him to his discoveries. Ray says that Semmelweis was horrified at the terrible death rate of women who gave birth in hospitals. As many as 30 percent died after child birth.
Semmelweis noted that doctors would examine the bodies of patients who died, then, without washing their hands, go straight to the next ward and examine expectant mothers. This was their normal practice, because the presence of microscopic diseases was unknown. Semmelweis insisted that doctors wash their hands before each examination, and the death rate immediately dropped to two percent. Ray tells us to "Look at the specific instructions that God gave thousands of years ago to His people for when they encountered disease: Until recent years, doctors washed their hands in a bowl of water, leaving invisible germs on their hands.
Did Semmelweis insist the doctors wait seven days between examinations, as the passage would suggest? Or did he make the simple observation that deaths seemed to happen around childbirths when people's hands were dirty? Keep reading down Leviticus 15; it explains how to finish this divine sterilization process: On the eighth day, he shall take two turtledoves, or two pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and give them unto the priest, and the priest shall offer them, one for suffering, one for burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his issue.
Other ancient Hebrews had to use ritual baths, though the ashes of a red cow also did the trick! The Bible revealed this to us with these statements and others written around B. These are good proverbs, and good advice. But it doesn't require divine revelation to observe that our mood tends to affect our health and that people tend to ward off disease more easily if they're happy.
The Bible and Bacteria Just a single quote from Gunther and nothing else: Thousands of years before modern science identified bacteria, God made provision for Israel by banning the eating of meat that may be spoiled by bacteria. There is a very easy explanation for this. The Hebrew priests wanted to keep the people as far away as possible from pagan rituals, some of which likely would have involved eating wild animals found dead.
Also, meat lying in the field would likely be stinking, rotten, and revolting to the senses, which common sense would say to avoid. Finally, many of the biblical kosher laws were intended to teach the people that these were once living creatures that they were eating. In order to convey that, the priests commanded that all animals be slaughtered by people within the camp, as a reminder. Therefore, acting as a scavenger and taking meat just found in the field would degrade respect toward the animals, and degrade respect to nature in general.
The Bible and Fat Intake Comfort says the following: The American Heart Association says: Saturated fats, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol raise blood cholesterol. A high level of cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack.
It simply says, eat no fat. Once again, pagan rituals might have included a ceremonial fat eating. Also, fat would have been more important as a fuel to burn, since one, there were no lights at night, and two, winter nights could get cold at a time where there was no central heating and oil would have had more ceremonial use. The Bible and the Immune System Comfort says the following: The Bible instructs that male babies are to be circumcised on the eighth day Genesis Medical science has now discovered that this is the day that the coagulating factor in the blood, called prothrombin, is the highest.
It reaches its peak on the eighth day, then drops. These people seem to think the Jews were idiots who were unable to make any observations on their own. They could easily have known through trial and error. Babies died or were seriously injured more often on days that weren't the eighth, ergo, babies should be circumcised on the eighth.
Wrote it down on paper. Made sure that future Jewish parents not make the same mistakes, so they made this observation look poetic and sacred. The Bible and Laws of Quarantine Comfort says the following: Long before medical science discovered the importance of quarantine of persons with infectious diseases, the Bible instigated them.
Laws of quarantine were not instigated by modern man until the seventeenth century. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: One, biblical leprosy was reported to contaminate houses and clothing, so the people would not want to have it near them.
Two, leprosy was viewed as punishment for sin, so that is an even more obvious reason; religious people would not want to surround their holiest objects with sinners. And from a scientific point of view, is it really necessary for lepers to cry "Unclean, unclean"? Scientists Admit Genesis is "Close to the Truth. First one is Time from December , "Most cosmologists agree that the Genesis account of creation, in imagining an initial void, may be uncannily closer to the truth. The big bang bears an uncanny resemblance to the Genesis command. News and World Report , March 31, , "New scientific revelations about supernovas, black holes, quarks, and the big bang even suggest to some scientists that there is a 'grand design' to the universe.
Unfortunately, Comfort cannot reconcile with the Big Bang theory being discussed likely out of context here, as it involves the universe forming over billions, not thousands, of years. Also there is the old issue that, while the Big Bang is more compatible with Abrahamic ideas of the start of the universe, it's no more evidence that Christianity is right than it is that Hinduism or Buddhism is right and Hinduism at least gets the age of the universe approximately right through a lucky guess, but still.
Also, these quotes are from the popular press, not scientific publications, and contain several distortions of the Big Bang: The necessity to produce life lies at the center of the universe's whole machinery and design. This is a repeat of the old anthropic principle. Next quote from "evolutionist" Stephen Hawking, "the universe and the law of physics seem to have been specifically deigned for us. If any of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as w know if would not exist: Either atoms would not be stable, or they would not combine into molecules, or the stars would not form the heavier elements, of the universe would collapse before life could develop itself, and so on Austin American Statesman , October 19, Additionally, as PZ Myers pointed out, it's no great surprise that we live in a universe that's suited to our existence; it would be much more impressive if we lived in a universe that wasn't.
However, if the quote here is real, it may be a quote mine: News and World Report Dec. Except the Y-chromosome Adam is not a fixed individual, nor was he the only male of the species back then. The most recent common male ancestor was only one of many prehistorical humans, who just happens to be the progenitor of all Y chromosomes in living humans today , at this specific moment. As we march into the future and interbreed, the identity of the most recent common ancestor will by definition shift forward in time, too.
In the Book of Genesis, in contrast, all humans explicitly descend from a single couple, which would be unviable as far as genetics are concerned. The Bible and the Universal Flood Comfort only provides a single quote for this piece: Was it all under water at the same time? Or were they under water at different stages in time that all surfaced due to plate tectonics? Science sides with plate tectonics and against the "universal flood. This claim is irrelevant to the theory of evolution itself, since evolution does not occur via assembly from individual parts, but rather via selective gradual modifications to existing structures.
Order can and does result from such evolutionary processes. Hoyle applied his analogy to abiogenesis, where it is more applicable. However, the general principle behind it is wrong. Order arises spontaneously from disorder all the time. The tornado itself is an example of order arising spontaneously. Something as complicated as people would not arise spontaneously from raw chemicals, but there is no reason to believe that something as simple as a self-replicating molecule couldn't.
From there, evolution can produce more and more complexity. Remember, evolution has had over three billion years to tinker with life forms all over the world; even if the random formation of any given protein is highly unlikely, over millions of years over such a large area you're rolling the dice so often that very unlikely events are almost certain to happen from time to time. In other words, don't think "your chance of winning the lottery", but rather "the chance of someone winning the lottery this century". Genesis Explains the Origin of Sexes Comfort states the following: Almost all forms of complex life have both male and female—horses, dogs, humans, moths, monkeys, fish, elephants, birds, etc.
The male needs the female to reproduce, and the female needs the male to reproduce. One cannot carry on life without the other. But if evolution is true, which then came first according to the evolutionary theory? The variety of life cycles is very great. It is not simply a matter of being sexual or asexual. There are many intermediate stages. A gradual origin, with each step favored by natural selection, is possible.
Males and females of course don't evolve independently—that's not how evolution works. Sex, by definition, depends on both male and female acting together, and this can work because individuals don't evolve: As sex evolved, there would have been some incompatibilities causing sterility just as there are today , but these would affect individuals, not whole populations, and the genes that cause such incompatibility would rapidly be selected against.
Many hypotheses have been proposed for the evolutionary advantage of sex. Genesis and the Universe Comfort says the following: Science expresses the universe in five terms: And the Spirit of God moved [motion] upon the face of the waters. The Hindu cosmology and timeline is the closest to modern scientific timelines and even more which might indicate that the Big Bang is not the beginning of everything but just the start of the present cycle preceded by an infinite number of universes and to be followed by another infinite number of universes.
It also includes an infinite number of universes at any given time. In any case, one might argue that a perfect revelation would be a great deal more explicit than this passing reference in Genesis. Genesis Differentiates Man from the Animals Comfort states the following: What animal gazes with awe at a sunset, or at the magnificence of the Grand Canyon?
What animal obtains joy from the sounds of music or takes the time to form itself into an orchestra to create and harmonize music? What animal among the beasts sets up court systems and apportions justice to its fellow creatures? We are moral beings. So, Comfort's first proof that humans are unique is our self-awareness? Unfortunately for Comfort, other primates show signs of self-awareness. Using the mirror test, we have proven that other primates as well as whales, dolphins, and elephants have self-awareness.
They have a much less well-developed sense of self-awareness than us, but they do have one. Plenty of other animals don't, of course. Finally, many animals have the ability to use tools. Humans are capable of great innovation, but that reveals our great ability to manufacture — this does not mean by definition we are not animals, just that we're exceedingly smart animals. We are very curious about our environment and universe, so we develop processes like science to help uncover the mysteries of nature and engineering to build things for us.
Gold, oil, and diamonds are special to humans because we give them value. On its own, gold is just another metal, like tin. Nature does not value one over the other; we do. Other animals do possess some ability to reason and figure things out, just less so. While we have a great deal more intellectual ability than other species, it's a difference in degree, not kind.
Ray states "Many of the great scientists of the past who founded and developed the key disciplines of science were creationists. Make a special note that Ray says that they were "creationists. It should also be stated that smart scientists have been and can be religious, but their work was not "discovered" or proven by the Bible. These men were not religious for scientific reasons, otherwise they would have dedicated their life to using science to actually prove there is a god of some sorts.
But their work only opened new discoveries of the natural world. Physics Newton Faraday Maxwell Kelvin. It should be mentioned that physics was not created by any of these men. Physics goes back to Antiquity like Archimedes and Ptolemy , as well as the ancient Babylonians. Fancy this, those guys were pagans, not Christians. Chemistry Boyle Dalton Ramsay. Independent ancient civilizations produced their own versions of chemistry thousands of years before Christ. The protoscience of chemistry starts with alchemy , which has its historical roots in Hellenistic Egypt.
Biology Ray Linnaeus Mendel Pasteur. While the concept of biology was created in the 19th century, biological sciences emerged around ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle and Galen in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Here is an interesting note: Geology Steno Woodward Brewster Agassiz. Developments in geology go as far back as Antiquity. Aristotle made several works documenting the slow rate of geological change. Note the requisite evangelical denial that Catholicism is a form of Christianity, as if it was invented by Martin Luther in Ray then says "These men as well as scores of others who could be mentioned, were creationists, not evolutionists, and their names are practically synonymous with the rise of modern science.
To them, the scientific enterprise was a high calling, one dedicated to 'thinking God's thoughts after Him. Remember, most of these men were way before Darwin. It's not surprising that they didn't accept the theory of evolution, because it was not constructed yet. Ray doesn't name the scientists who made great contributions but did not believe in the Bible. Go far back to where science started to take place: The Greeks made many scientific discoveries, and they were pagans. Move around the map, and you'll find the Arabs invented algebra, for instance.
Harvey, Boyle, Faraday, and Maxwell were committed Christians. Boyle was a lay preacher, Faraday read only from the Bible for a sermon, and Maxwell said "Lord, it belongs not to my care, whether I die or live. To love and serve Thee is my share, and that Thy guard must give.
A person's private faith and devotions really have no bearing on their professional work unless they make a point of bringing the two together. These examples serve mainly to show that scientists of faith can be very good at compartmentalizing. Kepler believed science was a way to discover God's handiwork, Kelvin believed life came from a creator, and modern day science is based on the works of these Bible-believing men: While all these men have done a great deal for the progress of science, they did not do any of this from revelations from the Bible. Just as we stand on the shoulders of these innovators, they stood on the shoulders of those who came before them.
Aristotle performed numerous dissection and vivisection experiments in animal anatomy and physiology — composing the most scientific range of zoological works then known. His successor, Theophrastus, extended this work to botany and plant physiology, and produces the first known works in pyrology, mineralogy, and other fields. A research institute was built in Alexandria, Egypt in the third century BCE, in which Ctesibius and Philo completed the first known scientific works in experimental pneumatics.
Herophilus became the first scientist to dissect human cadavers, and became known as "the Father of Anatomy". Also, he and his pupil Erasistrus originated neurophysiology, establishing with detailed experiments that the mind is a function of the brain and that specific mental functions were controlled by specific areas of the brain, and they distinguished motor from sensory nerves and mapped them throughout the body.
Altogether, their study of the human body and its bones, muscles, and organs was so thorough that we still use much of their anatomical terminology. In Rhodes, Hipparchus discovered and measured celestial precession, made the first scientific observation of a supernova, established the first detailed scientific star charts, made numerous advances in planetary theory, and developed the first scientific system for predicting lunar and solar eclipses.
Seleucus of Babylon discovered the effect of the Sun on the tides not just the Moon , and developed the first mathematical lunisolar tide theory. Just to name a few, Dioscorides in botany, mineralogy, and pharmacology Hero in mathematics, pneumatics, and theatrical robotics Ptolemy in astronomy, cartography, optics, and harmonics Galen in anatomy, physiology, and medicine The point is this: The ancient Greeks who let's not forget were pagans were the first to use science; in fact they invented reason in the very sense he means, developing the formal sciences of logic, philosophy, mathematics, and rhetoric.
The reason why the scientists Ray Comfort quotes were "Bible believers" is because they came from a time when scientific inquiry that contradicted scriptures was prohibited, so they had to meld their work with spirituality or risk losing their career, freedom, or life. The Christian religion dominated the whole of the Western world from the fifth to the fifteenth century, and yet in all those thousand years there was no scientific revolution.
Nor did any scientific revolution occur in the Eastern Christian world, such as the Byzantine Empire, even though the East was just as prosperous and was largely peaceful for five centuries. The very existence of the amazing world of the atom and radiation points to a purposeful creation, to the idea that there is a God and an intelligent purpose back of everything…An orderly universe testifies to the greatest statement ever uttered: Nobel Prize winners tend to be a smart bunch, but like having a Ph.
Arthur Compton is tacking his religious preconceptions onto what he knows of physics—which doesn't detract from his work in the field, but doesn't add to it either. Basically, his scientific findings didn't lead him to a belief in God, and his belief in God didn't add to his scientific findings; it's simply colored the language he uses to describe them. See also Nobel disease. Newton combined his work with his theology, believing that theology was more important.
Newton, though a great scientist, believed many things that we would shake our heads at today—including alchemy. Comfort gives a short bio of Lister: Joseph Lister — founded antiseptic surgical methods. Like Louis Pasteur, Lister was a Christian. Nothing wrong with Lister being a Christian—but again, critically, he based his contributions on the discovery of microorganisms made by Pasteur; he didn't develop antiseptic surgical methods because of what he read in the Bible.
Comfort provides the following: He laid the foundations for hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, differential calculus, and the theory of probability. If, when he dies, there turns out to be no God and his faith was in vain, he has lost nothing—in fact, has been happier in life than his non-believing friends. If, however, there is a God and a heaven and hell, then he has gained heaven and his skeptical friends will have lost everything in hell!
Not a great example, as Pascal's Wager has been shown to be fallacious on a number of counts. Sir John Frederick Herschel, an English astronomer who discovered over stars, stated: A religious scientist finds a sense of wonder in his subject matter, and attributes it to the god he was brought up to believe in. It's common enough, but it doesn't really prove anything. Would Ray have found it a convincing argument for Islam if Herschel had happened to be Muslim?
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Comfort says Einstein was not an atheist as some claim, but admits that Einstein did not believe in the Bible. He knew that there was a Creator. This quote is taken out of context. Look what Einstein said afterwords: However contrary to Ray's claim, Einstein also explicitly stated that he did not believe in a personal God. His religious beliefs were more complex or more nebulous? He also laid a solid foundation for gynecology and predicted the discovery of the x-ray. Simpson was president of the Royal Medical Society and Royal Physician to the Queen, the highest medical position of his day.
There is nothing incompatible between religion and science. It was to know I am a sinner and that I could be saved by the grace of God. A man has missed the whole meaning of life if he has not entered into an active, living relationship with God through Christ. A Google search for the words "therefore supremely livable" quotes included as written in the quote returns no original source for the quote, making it impossible to tell where, when or even if Simpson actually said this.
A further search for the second part of the quote, "A man has missed the whole meaning of life", gives nine hits, of which five are in books credited to Ray Comfort. None gives an original source for this either. This would not be the first time Ray has played somewhat fast and loose with quotes he wants to use in support of his position. Given that we can't see any of the context in which Simpson allegedly said this, and it may be he never said it at all, this is a naked appeal to authority.
In any case it doesn't really matter, because again, we have a scientist who didn't use the Bible to make his discoveries, but instead attributed what he discovered through the scientific method to the God he was taught to believe in. The Bible and Plant Life Ray states that plants need water, sunlight and minerals to survive. If one is missing, they cannot produce chlorophyll. Ray notes the chronological order of events in Genesis. Plants require sunlight, not light in the general sense.
This is why we expose plants to UV light.
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Note that the sun was created on the fourth day along with the moon and stars , BUT plants were created on the THIRD day - so God created plants before sunlight came to be. Of course, if the light Ray mentions Gen. Bible Statements Consistent With Biology Here, Ray argues that historically people dealt with health issues by bleeding the patients out, but Leviticus Ray then goes into detail how blood affects the human body, and concludes that the Bible verse is correct that blood is the essence of life. The view of blood as the essence for life predates the Bible.
The Code of Hammurabi from Mesopotamia about B. Ugaritic and Egyptian sources also note the importance of blood Meyers Blood is not the essence of life. We would not survive long without lungs, lymph, muscles, nerves, etc. Our bones produce blood, but bones are nowhere mentioned or credited in the equation.
Some animals are alive without blood at all jellyfish, sponges, etc. Therefore, blood is not the essence of life. Rather, living things are all made of cells, which, when alive, collectively form a living organism. The Bible and Biogenesis Ray argues that the Bible is consistent with the law of biogenesis: Ray quotes Genesis 1: Ray points out the phrase "according to its kind" when the animals reproduce they bring forth after their "kind.
Actually, if you look closely, you will notice that the Bible contradicts the law of biogenesis. Remember, the law of biogenesis says living organisms develop from other living organisms. Reading the Bible verses provided by Ray, note the multiple phrases that say "Let the Earth bring forth That is, the nonliving material of Earth produced living material. Unfortunately for Ray, there are also transitional fossils in between families and genera. Louise Agassiz even argued that species are God's individual thoughts, made incarnate so that we might perceive both His majesty and His message.
Species, Agassiz wrote, are 'instituted by the Divine Intelligence as the categories of his mode of thinking. This is a typical creationist quote mine of Stephen J. Gould, which was exposed in in an article, "Scientific Creationism: The Art of Distortion" by Laurie R. Godfrey that appeared in Science and Creationism Ashley Montagu, ed. Oxford University Press, pp. Within the article, Gould is not saying as the creationists would have it that creationism better explains the evidence. While the "common sense" notion that species are real "natural kinds" is well suited to creationism, there are at least three possible resolutions of the apparent but not substantial difficulty with evolutionary theory that arises when it is viewed as requiring constant change.
A more detailed explanation of this quote mine can be read here. All of this points to the shallowness of creationist use of quotes. In scholarly work, the use of quotations is intended to show an understanding of the relevant literature and is, in effect, a representation on the part of the person using the quote that she or he is intimately familiar with the author's work and positions.
Ray argues the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible testify to its truth and validity, such as the Bible predicted that empires like Greece and Rome would fall in Daniel 2: None of these prophecies is significant or convincing. There are several mundane ways in which a prediction of the future can be fulfilled: The "prophecy" can be written or modified after the events fulfilling it have already occurred. The prophecy can be worded in such a way that people can interpret any outcome as a fulfillment.
Nostradamus's prophecies are all of this type, at best. Vagueness works particularly well when people are motivated to believe the prophecies. The prophecy can predict something that is almost sure to happen, such as the collapse of an empire. Since nothing lasts forever, the empire is sure to fall someday. You'll note that prophecies of the fall of an empire, when they do seem to come true, were never specific about when they would occur thus including the vagueness aspect. If it has not yet , it can be said that according to prophecy, it will.
One can claim that the fulfilling events occurred even if they have not. Or, more commonly, one can forget that the prophecy was ever made, or claim that it did come to pass, but in a symbolic way, or some other way that's not falsifiable as the original prophesy was. This happened with Harold Camping's predictions of the end of the world, for instance. A person can act deliberately to satisfy a known prophecy. The restoration of Israel is a good example.
There are no prophecies in the Bible that cannot easily fit into one or more of those categories. The prophecies from Daniel were written after the event took place, and it is inevitable that civilizations arise and fall. Finally, Ray is pleased to present that Isaiah 23 was fulfilled when Alexander the Great conquered it. The sad thing is that Ezekiel 26 predicts that Nebudchadnezzar would destroy Tyre and make it "as a bare rock". Best of all, biblical scholars are in agreement that this book was written hundreds of years before Tyre was destroyed.
Yet we know from history that it was Alexander the Great, not Nebudchadnezzar, who destroyed Tyre. See above about vagueness and inevitability. Let's go in order, The gospel of Matthew Matthew 2: The prophecy if that is what it is does not refer to the Messiah, but rather to a military leader, as can be seen from Micah 5: This leader is supposed to defeat the Assyrians, which, of course, Jesus never did.
It should also be noted that Matthew altered the text of Micah 5: He did this, intentionally no doubt, to make this verse appear to refer to the town of Bethlehem rather than the family clan. This claim is false, for a few reasons: Finally, Isaiah 53 is not about a suffering messiah.
As mentioned above, this is an example of self-fulfillment—Israel was created because the Bible predicted it. Comfort says this will happen after peace treaties have been achieved in Israel v. Signs of the Times Verify the Bible Comfort says the following signs reveal the Bible is correct about the coming end of days. They are; There will be false Christs Wars and rumors of wars; Nation rising against nation Famines, disease pestilence , and there will be earthquakes in various places False prophets who will deceive many Lawlessness forsaking of the Ten Commandments The gospel will be preached in all the world.
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Homosexuality will increase There will be blasphemy; cold-heartedness; intemperance; brutality; rebellious youth; hatred of those who stand up for righteousness; ungodliness; pleasureseeking; much hypocrisy. False Bible teachers will have many followers, be money-hungry, and slander the Christian faith see 2 Peter 2: Their motivation for hating the truth will be their love of lust 2 Peter 3: Comfort says "The Scriptures tell us that they make one big mistake.
Their understanding of God is erroneous. In truth, He is merely holding back His wrath, waiting for them to repent and escape the damnation of hell. Jesus warned that the sign to look for was the repossession of Jerusalem by the Jews. That happened in , after 2, years, bringing into culmination all the signs of the times. These are the "tell-tell" signs of the last days? While there certainly are countries where Christians are persecuted, they're a distinct minority. Sorry Ray and other evangelicals , you're not persecuted in the United States; on the contrary Christianity is a strongly privileged religion here.
Losing some of that special privilege doesn't constitute persecution and, frankly, makes you look like whiners when you claim persecution as a result of it. Bible and Armageddon Comfort says "Joel 2: As this vision which seems to entail flame-throwing tank warfare was given to him approximately 2, years ago, the prophet relates it to the only thing he has seen in battle—horse-drawn chariots.
Think of modern warfare and compare: Here, Ray Comfort is quoting the Tanakh, not the Bible. The Tanakh is a textual source of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament. Verses 12—15 describe what will happen after what many see as the Battle of Armageddon: And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: Before the days of nuclear warfare, this portion of the Bible would have made no sense to the reader. We are told that even the weapons left by the enemy will have to be burned Ezekiel So many will die that it will take those specially employed for the purpose seven months to bury the dead v.
The Scriptures are very specific about the method of burial. When even a bone is found by searchers, a special marker is to be placed near the bone until the buriers have buried it. This would seem to be a clear reference to radioactive contamination after nuclear war. This thought is confirmed in Joel 2: This passage still makes little sense, even with current knowledge of nuclear warfare. Not only would bodies and weapons be sources of contamination, but so would tools, buildings, vehicles, etc.
In fact burying wouldn't be enough because the ground itself would be contaminated. If you want a clear visual of what the aftermath of nuclear war is likely to look like, see the movie Threads. This is certainly not something that could have been explained in 67 A. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up 2 Peter 3: The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. Fire was probably the most destructive weapon the Hebrews knew of, so it's not surprising they would predict the world to end in fire. Ray says it can only be divine revelation that Moses 3, years ago could know that "lights" were determining factors of year's length.
What Ray does not take into account is that the Sumerians, thousands of years before Moses, already figured it out as well as the 24 hour cycle without the help of divine revelation or the book of Genesis. The Bible and the Stars Jeremiah Ray says this was written 2, years ago "when no one knew who cast the stars were, since only 1, of them were visible. Ray also says 1 Corinthians Close inspection shows a difference in of light spectra. Ray does not provide any source that shows that only 1, stars were visible or explain if only that many were visible in one sector of the earth.
Actually up to 10, or so stars can be seen over the course of the year under ideal conditions; on any given night, without light pollution, one can see around 3, stars. A simple observation of the night sky, not divine revelation, could reveal that different stars have different brightnesses or special positions, and even different colors. This is quite a stretch of interpretation.
Remember the bit about "vagueness" back in chapter 7.
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Also, astronomers knew before Hubble that the galaxies out there are very far away; in fact it was partly in order to see them that Hubble was constructed. Ray notes many people criticized this verse that it supported geocentrism. Now, science tells us that the sun moves at great speeds. Ray argues the "circuit" in the Bible verse supports this.
It claims or strongly implies geocentrism, not heliocentrism. Otherwise, why would the Church have insisted for so many centuries on geocentrism? Ray concludes this must mean that the Bible knew the earth revolved, since day and night existed on earth at the same time. Ray also argues that science did not discover this until the 15th century.
The Bible and the Expanding Universe Ray says that the Bible mentions about seven times that God "stretches out the heavens like a curtain" but he only notes Psalm Ray says only recently is science understanding that the universe is expanding. Curtains don't expand; they're fixed in length. And "stretch[ing] out the heavens like a curtain" sounds very much like a reference to the "firmament", the solid dome of the sky above the Earth as the Israelites saw it, rather than an enormous three-dimensional universe going out billions of parsecs in all directions. Astronomy Confirms the Bible In , Drs.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell Labs discovered a noise coming from all directions, permeating the universe. This was hailed by physicists as "the radio echo of creation. He also said that "the creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far. Also Penzias's statement is no more meaningful than others who make religious claims for nonreligious discoveries; there are those who ascribe things to the Bible that aren't there, because they're predisposed to believe that kind of thing.
It's worth noting that he didn't discover the microwave background radiation because of accurate scientific knowledge he found in the Bible—he read that into it after the radiation was discovered see "retrodiction" and "vagueness" above. Ray then quotes Newton claiming that he found the Bible more historically authentic than any other. Newton also believed in alchemy and claimed it was the key to great understanding of nature, but one man's personal beliefs do not give any special credence to alchemy or the Bible. Samuel Morse Believed the Bible Morse created the telegraph, who claimed four years before his death that the closer he approached death he saw the divine origin in the Bible.
An inventor who was also religious Napoleon Believed the Bible Ray provides a quote from Napoleon who finds the Bible very enjoyable and reads it daily. Napoleon was neither a man of science nor a great moral example to follow. There's nothing wrong with him enjoying reading the Bible, but it doesn't prove anything.
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Woodrow Wilson Believed the Bible. Thomas Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the United States may have believed in the Bible, but what Ray does not share is that Wilson also believed in the theory of evolution: He is among the last people Comfort should by citing. Thomas Jefferson Believed the Bible. More accurately, he believed parts of the Bible. Jefferson was a deist , who eventually created his own Bible called the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson stripped it of all its miracles and every instance when and where Jesus claimed to be divine. If Ray remained consistent with himself, he would label Jefferson an "idolater" - that is making a "god in his own image.
Indeed, Jefferson also studied parts of the Quran, and was a strong supporter of religious tolerance. In fact, he's the one who coined the term "Separation of Church and State". Herbert Hoover Believed the Bible. Hoover was a firm defender of religious tolerance: My ancestors were persecuted for their beliefs. Here they sought and found religious freedom. By blood and conviction I stand for religious tolerance both in act and in spirit. John Quincy Adams Believed the Bible. He also believed the Earth was hollow. Roosevelt Believed the Bible. So too did the members of the Spanish Inquisition.
Again, arguments from authority carry little weight in deciding what's true and what's false.
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Lee Believed the Bible. Like Napoleon, not a great moral or scientific leader. Grant Believed the Bible. Grant, commander of the Union Army in the American Civil War, may have been a Christian, but also he had some views Ray might take exception to. For instance, he was a staunch supporter of the separation of church and state, and he supported the taxation of church property: Sir Winston Churchill Believed the Bible. But again, arguments from authority are a poor indicator of what's true. Charles Dickens Believed the Bible. Dickens also did not like missionaries.
He said, "Missionaries are perfect nuisances and leave every place worse than they found it. It contains more than all the libraries I have ever seen. Know what else John Adams said? Ronald Reagan Believed the Bible. Ronald Reagan promoted the national day of Prayer, which has recently been ruled in court as unconstitutional. He believed in teaching biblical creation in science classrooms and believed God was the source of all knowledge. Reagan also believed that he was living in end times. If Ray is the suspicious type and it's reasonable to assume so , perhaps it would be interesting to share that for years Reagan was believed to be the antichrist.
Everyone was on the lookout for a sign, particularly Counting each letter in Reagan's full name Ronald Wilson Reagan , each adds to 6 6 6. It just so happens that Ronald Reagan's original address was St. Cloud Road, until he changed the address to George Washington Believed the Bible. George Washington may have been a Christian, perhaps more likely a deist , but above all things he was a secularist. Several other quotes Ray did not share cast doubt on Washington's views as Ray tries to portray them.
Dwight Eisenhower Believed the Bible. Plain and simple argument from authority again. Nothing wrong with Ike, but he was no scientific expert or anything. Albert Schweitzer Believed the Bible. Albert Schweitzer was a French philosopher, physician, and musician who founded and spent much of his life at a missionary hospital in present-day Gabon. However, did Albert Schweitzer believe the Bible? He entirely disputed the picture of Jesus in the classical Christian creeds: Calvin Coolidge Believed the Bible.
Not only a poor authority on such matters, but an odd choice of authorities to bring up, since nobody particularly looks up to him. Christopher Columbus Believed the Bible. Let's take a look at how much of a good Christian Columbus was. Upon arriving in North America, he immediately began enslaving the natives. Among the first things to follow was a genocide much greater then that of the Holocaust. It should also be noted that Columbus was convicted in a Spanish court of "Crimes of Brutality" - which translates today as genocide. The original population under Columbus's direct control was 8 million in , which was reduced to 3 million by , many as a result of having their hands cut off and bleeding to death as punishment for failing to pay taxes Tribute.
By the time he was arrested and returned to Spain in the population was reduced to , - by no more than were left alive. In "40 Days to Personal Revolution, " Baron Baptiste one of the world s most beloved master yoga teachers inspires us to transform more than body and mind: He gives us the tools we need to set ourselves free to live the healthful life we ve always imagined.
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