Any insightful science in the Bible?

[dcalling]

Yeah it can help stop the Sun being worshipped but it seems according to science the sun, moon and stars were formed before plants...

You can imgaine the entire world as a simulation, all designed out. I can perfectly create something in my lab (a plant), sustain it with LED light, and then design a bigger LED (sun) to sustain a lot more of this design in the wild permanently.

 

[Kylie]

Well I found this:
101 Scientific Facts & Foreknowledge from the Bible | Rapture Forums

Things that haven't been mentioned yet include:

87. – Safe drinking water (Leviticus 11:33-36). God forbade drinking from vessels or stagnant water that had been contaminated by coming into contact with a dead animal. It is only in the last 100 years that medical science has learned that contaminated water can cause typhoid and cholera.​

88. – Pest control (Leviticus 25:1-24). Farmers are plagued today with insects. Yet God gave a sure-fire remedy to control pests centuries ago. Moses commanded Israel to set aside one year in seven when no crops were raised. Insects winter in the stalks of last year’s harvest, hatch in the spring, and are perpetuated by laying eggs in the new crop. If the crop is denied one year in seven, the pests have nothing to subsist upon, and are thereby controlled.​

I must point out that humans of the time could have figured this out for themselves...

 

[Daniel Marsh]

Do you think this is good evidence that God himself was speaking to the author? Or could people of that time figured out that value of pi for themselves?

1 Kings 7:23
Easy-to-Read Version
23 Then Huram melted bronze and poured it into a huge mold to make a tank,[a] which was called “The Sea.” The tank was about 30 cubits around. It was 10 cubits across and 5 cubits deep.

3 does not equal 22/7 nor does it equal 3.14........

question, a triangle where each side is 10 inches all 60 degree angles --- would it be 10 inches across?

 

[Kylie]

1 Kings 7:23
Easy-to-Read Version
23 Then Huram melted bronze and poured it into a huge mold to make a tank,[a] which was called “The Sea.” The tank was about 30 cubits around. It was 10 cubits across and 5 cubits deep.

3 does not equal 22/7 nor does it equal 3.14........

question, a triangle where each side is 10 inches all 60 degree angles --- would it be 10 inches across?

Given that it works if the value was 9.5 cubits across and they just rounded it, I don't generally use this as an argument that they got the science wrong.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Given that it works if the value was 9.5 cubits across and they just rounded it, I don't generally use this as an argument that they got the science wrong.

No rounding needed. The measurements were as stated. Pi is irrelevant.

 

[ChetSinger]

Well this thread is about evidence that the writers of the Bible got their knowledge of science from God rather than it coming from people of the time....

I don't see the Bible as a science textbook. It contains other subjects: law, history, prophecy, biography, theology, correspondence, wisdom, and a hymn book.

Scientific investigation has been left to us by God:

It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out. - Proberbs 25:2​

By saying this God has blessed scientific investigation. And has left it up to us.

 

[ChetSinger]

Well I found this:
101 Scientific Facts & Foreknowledge from the Bible | Rapture Forums

Things that haven't been mentioned yet include:

87. – Safe drinking water (Leviticus 11:33-36). God forbade drinking from vessels or stagnant water that had been contaminated by coming into contact with a dead animal. It is only in the last 100 years that medical science has learned that contaminated water can cause typhoid and cholera.​

88. – Pest control (Leviticus 25:1-24). Farmers are plagued today with insects. Yet God gave a sure-fire remedy to control pests centuries ago. Moses commanded Israel to set aside one year in seven when no crops were raised. Insects winter in the stalks of last year’s harvest, hatch in the spring, and are perpetuated by laying eggs in the new crop. If the crop is denied one year in seven, the pests have nothing to subsist upon, and are thereby controlled.​

I once read the entire Mosaic Law. I was surprised at the amount of detail regarding subjects such as the handling of corpses and the rules of isolation regarding diseases. I saw a lot of common sense there.

 

[Kylie]

No rounding needed. The measurements were as stated. Pi is irrelevant.

If you think the measurements were exactly as stated, then could you build for me please a circle with the stated dimensions?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

If you think the measurements were exactly as stated, then could you build for me please a circle with the stated dimensions?

Two circles are described in the account, the flared rim, and the laver body.
The diameter of the rim is given, while the circumference of the laver body is given. Pi is irrelevant.

 

[Kylie]

Two circles are described in the account, the flared rim, and the laver body.

Citation required.

The diameter of the rim is given, while the circumference of the laver body is given. Pi is irrelevant.

I'm astounded that someone with more than a primary school level of mathematical knowledge would claim that pi is irrelevant in a discussion of circles ...

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Citation required.



I'm astounded that someone with more than a primary school level of mathematical knowledge would claim that pi is irrelevant in a discussion of circles ...

Citation:
1Kings 7
23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it (the laver body as distinct from the brim) was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.

26 And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

The brim was flared outward from the laver body, therefore the two measurements cannot be conflated to indicate a math error regarding pi.

Pi is irrelevant in the discussion about the laver measurements. The real problem here is reading comprehension, not math.

 

[ChetSinger]

If you think the measurements were exactly as stated, then could you build for me please a circle with the stated dimensions?

I've seen this particular discussion before and I'm a little bemused by it because I don't see any relevance for us today.

• As OldWiseGuy says, if the brim was flared then all bets are off: the circumference would be measured by wrapping a line around the bottom and the diameter would be measured by throwing a line over the top.

• Or, if the circumference were truly 30 cubits then an exact diameter is 9.55 cubits. How would the Hebrews represent this in their numbering system? Should they be faulted if they rounded it up?

• Even if one of the measurements is wrong, who cares? Men measured it, not God, and men make mistakes all the time.

In sum, I think this is much ado about nothing.

 

[Tinker Grey]

I've seen this particular discussion before and I'm a little bemused by it because I don't see any relevance for us today.

• As OldWiseGuy says, if the brim was flared then all bets are off: the circumference would be measured by wrapping a line around the bottom and the diameter would be measured by throwing a line over the top.

• Or, if the circumference were truly 30 cubits then an exact diameter is 9.55 cubits. How would the Hebrews represent this in their numbering system? Should they be faulted if they rounded it up?

• Even if one of the measurements is wrong, who cares? Men measured it, not God, and men make mistakes all the time.

In sum, I think this is much ado about nothing.

Nevertheless, a perfectly communicating god could have simply dictated that "it was round and it's diameter was 10 cubits." Done. No confusion. The problem for the writer is in thinking that specifying "10" and "30" was helpful. It just opens it up for a modern audience for ridicule. Surely, an omniscient god could have done better.

Of course, if mere humans wrote it, it is, as you say, much ado about nothing.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Nevertheless, a perfectly communicating god could have simply dictated that "it was round and it's diameter was 10 cubits." Done. No confusion. The problem for the writer is in thinking that specifying "10" and "30" was helpful. It just opens it up for a modern audience for ridicule. Surely, an omniscient god could have done better.

Of course, if mere humans wrote it, it is, as you say, much ado about nothing.

Nothing 'divine' in those measurements.

 

[ChetSinger]

Nevertheless, a perfectly communicating god could have simply dictated that "it was round and it's diameter was 10 cubits." Done. No confusion. The problem for the writer is in thinking that specifying "10" and "30" was helpful. It just opens it up for a modern audience for ridicule. Surely, an omniscient god could have done better.

Of course, if mere humans wrote it, it is, as you say, much ado about nothing.

Actually, I think it unlikely they made a measurement error. Between numerical rounding issues and the potential of a flared lip and I see no confusion unless it's insisted upon. They built cities out of stone; does anyone truly think they couldn't measure a big basin? Really?

 

[Tinker Grey]

Actually, I think it unlikely they made a measurement error. Between numerical rounding issues and the potential of a flared lip and I see no confusion unless it's insisted upon. They built cities out of stone; does anyone truly think they couldn't measure a big basin? Really?

Again, if a god were communicating it have eliminated confusion by eliminating one of the dimensions as only "it was round and 10 cubits across" was necessary. This would be sufficient communication and eliminates all confusion and debate. It is bad writing from an allegedly perfect being to say "round, 10 across and 30 around."

Too, if you wanted to convey that it was measured or somehow emphasize the measurements you could say "It was 10 across and, lo, a cord for 30 could NOT compass it about".

 

[ChetSinger]

Again, if a god were communicating it have eliminated confusion by eliminating one of the dimensions as only "it was round and 10 cubits across" was necessary. This would be sufficient communication and eliminates all confusion and debate. It is bad writing from an allegedly perfect being to say "round, 10 across and 30 around."

Too, if you wanted to convey that it was measured or somehow emphasize the measurements you could say "It was 10 across and, lo, a cord for 30 could NOT compass it about".

It seems to me that you have designed a god and that the God of the Bible doesn't act like you think he should. But how can any man attempt to critique a timeless being who builds galaxies and designs life? You might as well try and critique Aristotle's Prime Mover. It's futile. My cat can't comprehend me and his mind is much closer to mine than mine is to God's.

 

[Tinker Grey]

It seems to me that you have designed a god and that the God of the Bible doesn't act like you think he should. But how can any man attempt to critique a timeless being who builds galaxies and designs life? You might as well try and critique Aristotle's Prime Mover. It's futile. My cat can't comprehend me and his mind is much closer to mine than mine is to God's.

Seems to me you've got the GWIMW problem.

 

[dóxatotheó]

Is there anything related to physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, etc that is mentioned in the Bible that couldn't have just been reasoned about by thinkers and philosophers of the time? i.e. that suggests that the knowledge came from God rather than from people of the time?

Sometimes I hear about hygiene (which doctors didn't bother with until around the mid 1800s).... but that might just be about ceremonial cleanliness.

The Bible could have said that more than a thousand thousand thousand years ago the heavens were created as a speck that was incredibly hot. Then it spread out and formed the stars. Then more than a thousand thousand thousand years later the Sun, Earth and "wandering stars" (planets) were formed. (rather than the Bible seeming to say that the stars were formed before the Earth)

If you think those numbers are too big for the Bible consider these:
1 Chronicles 21:5 - 1,100,000 ("eleven times one hundred thousand")
Revelation 5:11 - "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands"

Or it could have said that our mind comes from our head.... instead it seems to be saying that our mental abilities come from our heart and gut, etc.

Note that I don't think there is anything in the Bible that contradicts the idea that the Earth is flat. Isaiah 40:22's "circle of the earth" could be interpreted as talking about a ball but it doesn't contradict the idea that the earth is a flat disc.

Apparently some Christians say that the Bible isn't meant to be a science textbook. But I think its poetry could involve real science rather than seem to involve a very non-scientific world-view.

Creationists would say that the universe is really only a few thousand years old, just like the Bible implies but do you have any evidence that the universe is that old besides the genealogies in Genesis?

theres many christian physicians and geologist who had explained verses in the proper context and related it to proven theories the bible isnt a book that should even be used for science but we can explain it with it of course
Science and the Bible
The Stones Cry Out - Geology and the Bible: Updated April 22, 2020