"Scientific" Facts in the Bible

This was a post that was sent to me recently. My answers are at the end of the supposed facts in the bible. 

1. Only in recent years 
has science discovered that everything we see is composed 
of invisible atoms. Here, Scripture tells us that the 
"things which are seen were not made of things 
which do appear." 

2. Medical science has only 
recently discovered that blood-clotting in a newborn 
reaches its peak on the eighth day, then drops. The 
Bible consistently says that a baby must be circumcised 
on the eighth day. 

3. At a time when it was 
believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant 
(1500 B.C.), the Bible spoke of the earth’s free 
float in space: "He...hangs the earth upon nothing" 
(Job 26:7).

4. The prophet Isaiah also 
tells us that the earth is round: "It is he that 
sits upon the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22). 
This is not a reference to a flat disk, as some skeptic 
maintain, but to a sphere. Secular man discovered this 
2,400 years later. At a time when science believed that 
the earth was flat, is was the Scriptures that inspired 
Christopher Columbus to sail around the world (see Proverbs 
3:6 footnote). 

5. God told Job in 1500 
B.C.: "Can you send lightnings, that they may go, 
and say to you, Here we are?" (Job 38:35). The 
Bible here is making what appears to be a scientifically 
ludicrous statement—that light can be sent, and 
then manifest itself in speech. But did you know that 
radio waves travel at the speed of light? This is why 
you can have instantaneous wireless communication with 
someone on the other side of the earth. Science didn’t 
discover this until 1864 when "British scientist 
James Clerk Maxwell suggested that electricity and light 
waves were two forms of the same thing" (Modern 
Century Illustrated Encyclopedia).

6. Job 38:19 asks, "Where 
is the way where light dwells?" Modern man has 
only recently discovered that light (electromagnetic 
radiation) has a "way," traveling at 186,000 
miles per second.

7. Science has discovered 
that stars emit radio waves, which are received on earth 
as a high pitch. God mentioned this in Job 38:7: "When 
the morning stars sang together..." 

8. "Most cosmologists 
(scientists who study the structures and evolution of 
the universe) agree that the Genesis account of creation, 
in imagining an initial void, may be uncannily close 
to the truth" (Time, Dec. 1976). 

9. Solomon described a "cycle" 
of air currents two thousand years before scientists 
"discovered" them. "The wind goes toward 
the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls 
about continually, and the wind returns again according 
to his circuits" (Ecclesiastes 1:6). 

10. Science expresses the 
universe in five terms: time, space, matter, power, 
and motion. Genesis 1:1,2 revealed such truths to the 
Hebrews in 1450 B.C.: "In the beginning [time] 
God created [power] the heaven [space] and the earth 
[matter] . . . And the Spirit of God moved [motion] 
upon the face of the waters." The first thing God 
tells man is that He controls of all aspects of the 
universe. 

11. The great biological 
truth concerning the importance of blood in our body’s 
mechanism has been fully comprehended only in recent 
years. Up until 120 years ago, sick people were "bled," 
and many died because of the practice. If you lose your 
blood, you lose your life. Yet Leviticus 17:11, written 
3,000 years ago, declared that blood is the source of 
life: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." 


12. All things were made 
by Him (see John 1:3), including dinosaurs. Why then 
did the dinosaur disappear? The answer may be in Job 
40:15–24. In this passage, God speaks about a 
great creature called "behemoth." Some commentators 
think this was a hippopotamus. However, the hippo’s 
tail isn’t like a large tree, but a small twig. 
Following are the 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. He 
appears impervious to attack because his nose could 
pierce through snares, but Scripture says, "He 
that made him can make his sword to approach unto him." 
In other words, God caused this, the largest of all 
the creatures He had made, to become extinct. 

13. Encyclopedia Britannica 
documents that in 1845, a young doctor in Vienna named 
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was horrified at the terrible death 
rate of women who gave birth in hospitals. As many as 
30 percent died after giving 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 examinations, and the death 
rate immediately dropped to 2 percent. Look at the specific 
instructions God gave His people for when they encounter 
disease: "And when he that has an issue is cleansed 
of his issue; then he shall number to himself even days 
for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his 
flesh in running water, and shall be clean" (Leviticus 
15:13). Until recent years, doctors washed their hands 
in a bowl of water, leaving invisible germs on their 
hands. However, the Bible says specifically to wash 
hands under "running water." 

14. Luke 17:34–36 
says the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will occur while 
some are asleep at night and others are working at daytime 
activities in the field. This is a clear indication 
of a revolving earth, with day and night at the same 
time.

15. "During the 
devastating Black Death of the fourteenth century, patients 
who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as 
the rest of the family. People often wondered why the 
disease was affecting so many people at one time. They 
attributed these epidemics to ‘bad air’ 
or ‘evil spirits.’ However, careful attention 
to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus 
would have saved untold millions of lives. Arturo Castiglione 
wrote about the overwhelming importance of this biblical 
medical law: ‘The laws against leprosyin Leviticus 
13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation’ 
(A History of Medicine)." Grant R. Jeffery, The 
Signature of God With all these truths revealed in Scripture,how 
could a thinking person deny that the Bible is supernatural 
in origin? There is no other book in any of the world’s 
religions (Vedas, Bhagavad-Gita, Koran, Book of Mormon, 
etc.) that contains scientific truth. In fact, they 
contain statements that are clearly unscientific. Hank 
Hanegraaff said, "Faith in Christ is not some blind 
leap into a dark chasm, but a faith based on established 
evidence." (11:3 continued)

1. The verse you quote is referring to the word of god as what is unseen, not atoms.

2. Which is more likely?  That God magically transmitted the message that baby boys should not be circumcised before eight days.  Or, that it was learned the hard way that whacking off the ends of the penises of boys younger than eight days causes them to bleed to death.  There is nothing here that could not have discovered by trial and error. And the real story is that cutting off part of the penis does little good and actually causes many problems. The AMA does not endorse circumcision. http://www.sharecare.com/question/is-circumcision-medically-necessary

3. The earth is not hanging on nothing. It is orbiting the sun at 66,700 miles per hour. 

4. A circle is not a sphere. A circle is flat. And that is why they believed that Satan could take Jesus to a high mountain and show him the entire world, which is impossible on a sphere, but conceivable, although still unrealistic,  if the world is flat. 

5. However, radio waves do not manifest themselves as light. Your attempt to tie these two concepts together is silly. 

6. Speed is not a location. 

7. 

What does one hear from a radio wave?

Actually, nothing! While everyday experience and Hollywood movies make people think of sounds when they see the words "radio telescope," radio astronomers do not actually listen to noises.

First, sound and radio waves are different phenomena. Sound consists of pressure variations in matter, such as air or water. Sound will not travel through a vacuum. Radio waves, like visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays, are electromagnetic waves that do travel through a vacuum. When you turn on a radio you hear sounds because the transmitter at the radio station has converted the sound waves into electromagnetic waves, which are then encoded onto an electromagnetic wave in the radio frequency range (generally in the range of 500-1600 kHz for AM stations, or 86-107 MHz for FM stations). Radio electromagnetic waves are used because they can travel very large distances through the atmosphere without being greatly attenuated due to scattering or absorption. Your radio receives the radio waves, decodes this information, and uses a speaker to change it back into a sound wave.

8. Oh please, a 36 year article hardly reflects the current view that science holds about the formation of the universe. 

9. Umm, no. Air constantly moves over the face of the Earth in currents. These currents are caused by temperature differences on the surface of the planet caused by the sun. Earth's weather results from the interactions of warm and cold air currents.

Solar influence

Air currents move from areas of high pressure to low pressure. The sun causes differences in pressure by heating air. When air is heated, it rises, creating an area of low pressure. The heated air cools as it rises higher into the atmosphere. The cooling air falls back to Earth. This cycle creates air currents.

High and low pressure

As heated air rises, fewer air molecules are present. Air pressure goes down. The air pressure of surrounding cooler areas is higher because there are more air molecules present. Air then moves to the area of low pressure until the pressures are the same.

Equatorial heating

The sun shines most powerfully on the Earth's equator. The energy from the sun causes the air at the equator to become hot. The hot air rises, causing low pressure at the equator. Air from the cooler poles moves toward the warmer equator to equalize the pressure difference. Air currents form every day moving toward the equator.

By the sea

Air currents change direction by day and night around oceans and seas. During the day, the sun heats the ground, making the air above the ground warmer and creating low pressure over land. An air current develops from the cooler ocean, where there is higher pressure. In the evening, the land cools while the ocean retains heat. The warmer ocean air rises, causing air currents to come off the land toward the sea.

Speed

Air currents can move extremely fast. Air current speeds increase when there is a large difference in temperature. If the area of low pressure is very hot, the air will rise faster, causing air currents to be pulled in faster. This results in high wind speeds. Large differences in temperature can result in damaging winds

Read more: How do air currents form? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2067032#ixzz27E9TZHcK

10. Arbitrarily assigning scientific meanings to words in ancient documents does not automatically lend any scientific credibility to the stories they tell.  One can play the same word game with a number of ancient creation stories.  Consider the following from a part of a Chinese creation story:

In the beginning (time), the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos.  The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself.  After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep.  He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might (power) to crack open the egg.  The light, clear part of it floated up (motion) and formed the heavens (space), the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth (matter).

I have inserted the words "time," "power," "motion," "space," and "matter" using the same logic (or lack thereof) that you used in your example above.  Does this lend any scientific credibility to the creation story of Pan Gu?

11. Leviticus 17:11 is referring to the need for a sacrifice, not that blood is critical to the health of someone. Besides, after observing numerous animals die as a consequence of losing substantial amounts of blood, it is hardly surprising that man should have been able to make the obvious connection that blood is somehow related to the maintenance of life.  The animal is wounded, the blood drains out, and the animal dies. Therefore, blood is somehow involved in keeping animals alive.  Again, there is nothing indicative of supernaturally transmitted wisdom here.

12. First off, there were thousands of different dinosaurs that were of many different shapes and sizes. Second, there is nothing in the verse that suggests that every behemoth was killed off. That is quite a stretch on your part. Third, the bible makes other references to imaginary creatures. The behemoth could certainly be made up. Much of the bible is simply made up. 

13. Let us look at that verse more closely. "And when he that has an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself even days 

for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his 
flesh in running water, and shall be clean" . ¹⁴ And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest:

¹⁵ And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue.

Odd that you left out the critical part of sacrificing birds and the ceremonial aspects as part of this sound medical procedure. 

14. It was not uncommon for people to travel to different countries at that period of time. And when they did, they would have noticed that there was a difference in when people worked and slept. This is the same nonsensical book that claimed that god stopped the sun from moving across the heavens so that the day could be longer. 

15. It is a religion that attempts to stretch fables into something more, which is common for all religions.