Bible     Science

Let me take you on a journey,

right back to the beginning, right to the beginning of time and space.

 The Universe is a huge place that seems to go on for ever, however it is not infinite and it has not always been here, in other words it has a beginning and it has limits. Up until quite recently it was considered that the universe had always been here, that it had neither a beginning nor an end. It was Edwin Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) who first confirmed the fact that the universe had a beginning, through his realisation that the universe was expanding. He noticed that light changed its frequency through red to blue (red = long waves and blue = shorter waves), this is know  as Doppler or Red-shift. Basically if a body emitting light is coming towards you, the light frequency will be in the short-wave-band or blue, conversely if it is travelling away from you, the light will be in the long wave-band, or red. As Hubble observed this he at first thought that light could be diminished over long distances, it took Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest and physicist, to use Hubble's data and show that it indicated an expanding universe, and the event that is now known as the 'Big Bang'.

If the universe is indeed expanding, this would suggest that at some point in the distant past all the matter in the universe originated from the same point. Indeed, modern cosmology proposes that the universe expanded from a single super-dense particle, the SPT. At this point in the past, science runs out of answers, it does not know where that particle came from or what force acted upon it to cause it to expand. Science does suggest one more condition, it proposes that prior to the event horizon of the Big Bang, nothing existed at all. Now when I say nothing, I mean no space or time, we cannot conceive of such a condition nor will we ever be able to reproduce that condition, so here any experiments stop dead in space. Space its self is not a void, it has a fabric, we know this because we know it can be bent, ergo we know that space is not empty.

For more information click here
http://examiningthebig-bang.webs.com/

Time Magazine article dated Dec. 1976 said

“Most cosmologists… scientists who study the structure and evolution of the universe,  that the biblical account of creation, in imagining an initial void, may be uncannily close to the truth.”  [ Emphasis Added]

Let us now turn to the first page of out Bible, the first verse of the first book, Genesis. Firstly, science expresses the universe in five terms: time, space, matter, power and motion. Strangely so does Genesis 1.

1 In the beginning (time) God created (power) the heavens (space) and the earth (matter).      2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering (motion) over the waters.

Now in verse three it tells us that God created by His word:

'God said' and it was so, and this theme continues throughout creation, and beyond, this also suggests that when God created He did so instantaneously, or close to it. Certainly many of His creations took less than a day to complete, according to the Genesis account. So it is very conceivable that He created the universe in a very short period of time, however because there was (possibly) no time and we know that God is outside of time [Psalm 90:4], we cannot even guess at a time-line for this immense creation. Science has no clue as to how matter, or light would react or act in conditions of total void or nothingness, so it is quite possible under cosmology that the Big Bang was indeed instantaneous, to a point. The Bible also tells us that the universe expanded, just as cosmologists believe today, the prophet Isaiah who lived almost 3,000 years ago stated:

"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. " [Isaiah 40:22]

The Bible actually confirms this no less than seven times; Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 48:13; Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; and Zechariah 12:1. The Hebrew word Isaiah used for "circle" means literally something with "roundness" or "spherically."  This is further confirmed in Job 26:10, which states:

"He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters,  At the boundary of light and darkness."

It is obvious from Luke 17:34-36, that Jesus knew that the Earth also revolved about an axis,

Luke writes that Jesus said:

34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’

From this statement we can easily conclude that, night would exist simultaneously with day, as Jesus intimates that at the same time, people would be both sleeping and working. Although it was suspected by Newton in the fifteenth century, there was no proof of the Earth's rotation until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

For thousands of years man thought that it was inconceivable that the earth would not be supported in some way, so many theories and superstitions were invented to explain this. Some thought that the Earth was supported on the back of a giant man called Atlas, others that it was supported on pillars, though what the pillars stood on was unclear, still others thought that it was supported by a giant animals. Yet over three-thousand years ago it was written in the book of Job that the Earth was suspended on nothing:

Job 26:7

"He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing."

Other than the conformation of the sky being spread out, the above verse also seems to mention something quite strange, that the north has empty space, I believe no one has understood this until again quite recently. In the general direction of the constellation Bootes, in the northern hemisphere of the sky, astronomers have discovered a hole, almost billion light-years across. In this area of space there are little or no stars, gas or other matter, and it also seems to be empty of the mysterious "dark matter" that permeates the cosmos. Here is a gap, an area where the distribution of the galaxies has missed ref:Mitchell Waldrop, Delving the Hole in Space, Science Magazine, Nov. 27, 1981.] Again this information has been hidden in full view in our Bible for three thousand years, yes in the twentieth century astronomers were surprised by it's existence.

It may also be that the Bible mentions black-holes and dark matter, Jude 1:13 (NIVUK) says this:

"They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for ever."

And Isaiah 50:3 (NIVUK) says:

"I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering."

Scientists tell us that over 98% of the known universe is made up of dark matter, with dark energy and black holes. A black hole's gravitational field is so strong that nothing, not even light, escapes. Beyond the expanding universe there is no measured radiation and therefore only outer darkness exists. These theories paint a seemingly accurate description of what the Bible calls "outer darkness" or "the blackness of darkness forever."

Not only does the Bible tell us that the Earth is a sphere, and that the universe has been stretched out but it also tells us about the Sun's orbit, in Psalm 19:5-6

5 "which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat."

When it was suggested that this verse was indeed about our star, Solaris, many people scoffed that the Sun did not orbit the Earth, but this is not what this verse actually says. We know now that the Sun actually does orbit, it travels around the galactic centre, in doing so it travels through space at 600,000 miles per hour and takes 200,000,000 years just to complete one orbit! It may seem obvious to us now, but this verse also states that the Sun is the source of our energy, and 'nothing is hidden from its heat.

One element of our universe that we could not do without is light, without it we could not live, we could not see, we would loose all of the energy that light gives us. All life, from us to plants, convert the light into energy that allows us to live. Until the 17th century it was thought that light was transmitted instantaneously. We now know that light is a form of energy that travels at ~186,000 miles per second (227,000,000 km/s ) in a vacuum in a straight line. Scientests should have taken notice to Job 38:1 where it is written that:

“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And darkness, where is its place,"

Light, is said to have a "way" the Hebrew word used here is: 'derek', which literally means “a travelled path or road” indicating that light is not just 'there' but it travels, and anything that travels has to have a speed, the Bible told us this over three-thousands years ago.

Another verse in the Book of Job, shows us that the people then were quite familiar with the constellations: Job 38:31-32 reads: (NIVUK)

“31Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear (Arcturus ) with its cubs?”

This shows an incredible insight about the stars that make up the constellation of Orion, although they are one of the most recognized constellations in the night sky, they are not bound together, just as this scripture indicates. Garrett P. Serviss, the noted astronomer, wrote about the bands of Orion12 in his book CURIOSITIES OF THE SKY.

“At the present time this band consists of an almost perfect straight line, a row of second-magnitude stars about equally spaced and of the most striking beauty. In the course of time, however, the two right-hand stars, Mintaka and Alnilam, will approach each other and form a naked-eye double; but the third, Alnitak, will drift away eastward so that the band will no longer exist.”

Each of the stars that make up Orion is in fact loose, there is no bond or attraction between them, one day thousands of years from now Orion as we know it will not exist as we see it today. The fact that each star is travelling at different speeds in different directions toward different destinations, has only been known since the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How could this fact be known if it was not revealed by God? On the other hand the Pleiades is a group (an open cluster) of two-hundred and fifty stars (suns) which are indeed bound together as a group and are travelling together as a group in the same direction and speed. Isabel Lewis of the United States Naval Observatory tells us:

“Astronomers have identified 250 stars as actual members of this group, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space in the same direction.” [Phillip L. Knox, WONDER WORLDS (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., 1964) p.61 ]

Each of the two-hundred and fifty stars in the cluster are bound together and exert an influence on the others, exactly as God has revealed in the Book of Job, as is asked, 'Can you, (like God) bind the beautiful Pleiades together?' Again, how is this possible that facts that were only discovered in the twentieth century, were revealed by God some three thousand years ago?

Talking about one of the most massif bodies in the universe, the star Arcturus, Charles Burckhalter, of the Chabot Observatory, says:

“This high velocity places Arcturus in that very small class of stars that apparently are a law unto themselves. He is an outsider, a visitor, a stranger within the gates; to speak plainly, Arcturus is a runaway. Newton gives the velocity of a star under control as not more than 25 miles a second, and Arcturus is going 257 miles a second. Therefore, combined attraction of all the stars we know cannot stop him or even turn him in his path.”

Why was this star, above all others used as an illustration for God's power, who knew then that Arcturus would be almost impossible to lead or divert.

The Bible often uses the stars to illustrate high numbers, here in Genesis 22:17 (NIVUK), god says:

“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,”

Well God could not have chosen a better comparison, but it was not something that looks like a good comparison just by looking at the sky. We can only see around three thousand stars with the naked eye, so I suppose God intended to give Abraham rather more descendants than 3000. We do not know how many stars there are in the universe, we do not even know how far the universe stretches, but astronomers have estimated that there are about 1021 stars [ref NASA], if you write that number out, it looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Interestingly, the estimated number of grains of sand on every beach on the world is 1025 (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). As more stars are being discovered all the time it would be interesting if the two numbers turned out to would be the same, another huge coincidence.

Many of us is familiar with the term 'Song of the Spheres' this phrase may be just a literary sound bite or it may have as it's source Job 38:7

"When the morning stars sang together..." 

Science has discovered, since the advent of radio astronomy in the early twentieth century, that stars do emit radio waves, which are received on earth as a high pitch sound wave. In fact…

“The galaxy is full of objects that emit radio waves, including black holes and stars of various kinds”

[ref: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0302_050302_galactic_radio.html ]

Yesterday, (May 1st 2014) like many, I received the 'Days of Praise' offering from ICR, which talked about wandering stars, and quoted the verse:

“[They are] wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:13)

What made no sense to me at all was the application of this verse to the other planets in our solar system, The study that was connected with the verse stated:

"This short reference is somewhat enigmatic. The five “wandering stars” of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were clearly known in Jude’s day, and their behavior had been plotted for many centuries."

I have to challenge this, as those planets do not 'wander' nor do they exist in darkness, as they share the same solar energy as planet Earth.  Instead, could this be yet another example of fore-knowledge in the Bible?

Just last year, for the very first time, a true wandering planet was discovered, a planet that is a true orphan, not being a part of a parent solar system, or a galaxy, floating in intergalactic space in total darkness.  There are many free-floating planets in our galaxy, possibly more than the planets that have solar associations, but this is the first one in intergalactic space.  It is to these free-floating planets that the Jude 1:13 seems to refer to, in my opinion, and as I said, yet another piece of information in the Bible that we have only just re-discovered.

Ref:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/10/1381423117793/Artists-conception-of-PSO-009.jpg

The Anthropic Principle

Anthropic means “relating to human beings or their existence.” Principle means “law” it is a scientific principle pertaining to cosmology and astronomy. The principle refers to all the precepts that must be present to support the conscious life that observes it. Many say that this is obvious and that it is a self-fulfilling principle, however if those conditions are not right, the basic needs for conscious life are missing, no life will occur or survive. Amazingly God told Isaiah, this, who then recorded it in Isaiah 45:18 (NIVUK)

"For this is what the Lord says he who created the heavens, he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited –
he says: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other."

God says that He made the Earth to be inhabited, He made it for habitation. Interestingly God does not say that the universe was made to be inhabited, although that is mentioned in the verse ('heavens' here relates the the whole universe), not just the Earth. These fundamental characteristics of our Earth and cosmos are so finely tuned for our species, and all the animal species of the is planet, that, if they were varied by just a few percent, we could not exist. Our breathable atmosphere, our distance from our star the Sun, the size of our star, the strength of the Earth's gravity and size of our planet, and many more are all essential for our existence.  Of course we could have grown into our world, rather than the Earth been created for us, but considering everything there is at least a fifty-fifty chance, and considering the information that was imparted to a stone-age people, my bet is on God creating the Earth for us.

Thermodynamics

The whole of our universe is governed by laws, most of which can be expressed as equations, laws that govern the physics here on Earth also govern the physics in the next galaxy, 2+2=4 will be as true on a far off planet in the Andromeda Galaxy as it is here on Earth.  Two of these laws are the laws of Thermodynamics, The 1st Law of Thermodynamics states that matter or energy can neither be created or destroyed, and that the amount of matter and energy in the universe remains finite. There being no evidence whatsoever that there are any exceptions to this second law, it means that the universe could not have created itself.  Genesis 2:1 says:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array." (NIVUK)

The original Hebrew word used here, from which the word 'completed' was translated, is the past definite tense for the verb "finished," indicating an action completed in the past, never again to occur. The creation was "finished" (completed) once and for all. Because God wrote these laws, we would expect everything to conform to them, therefore it is true to say that there is no creation continuing today.

Moses also seems to confirm this knowledge of an infinite universe in Genesis 2:1:

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed* in all their vast array.”

(*some translations use the word 'finished')

In this statement Moses also uses the Hebrew past definite tense for the verb "finished," (completed) which indicates that this was a past action, never again to be repeated.  Which is exactly what the First Law of Thermodynamics says, that matter and energy is finite and can neither be created or destroyed.

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, states that in all closed* systems order tends to degenerate from order to entropy.  Basically this just means that all things wear out, or degrade over time, nothing actually improves with age (except a fine wine perhaps and even that has it time limits and becomes undrinkable).  Motor cars rust and their engines wear out, an economy car does not turn into a Rolls Royce, out bodies wear out starting from the day we are born.  The Bible accurately describes this Law:

"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 for ever, my righteousness will never fail"

(Isaiah 51:6)",

and also a New Testament rendering:

10 He also says,

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.  11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.” (Hebrews 1:10-11)

* Many argue that, although this second law is correct the Earth and the Universe, are not closed systems, however this is just a matter of scale and the solar system can certainly qualify as a closed system, if not the universe.  The first law of Thermodynamics acknowledges this as it states that the energy and matter in the universe is finite, there will be no more than that, ever.

The Atmosphere and the Weather

In the distant past ancient religions and science accepted that lightning and thunder storms were the result of the anger or moods of the gods, fork-lightening and plasma lightening (thunder balls) were thought to be missiles thrown to Earth to punish the people. In Europe the weather phenomena was blamed on Thor's hammer, or Woden's rod, in Kenya Mkunga Mburu is the god of thunder who travels across the sky on a big black bull, and The Yoruba people used to believe that lightning was actually magic made by the storm spirit. According to Zulu mythology rainbows are snakes which drink from pools of water created after rain, but in China they taught that the rainbow was a deadly rain dragon. The ancient Japanese believed in the existence of the Snow Woman spirit. During snow storms she could make people fall asleep and sometimes cause their death.

Rain of course is essential to life on the planet, and the weather generally affected everyone, so ancient peoples pondered about the causes, some even sought to control the weather. In times of drought some peoples tried to poke holes in the clouds by throwing spears and rocks at passing clouds. In India it was taught that fixing a frog with its mouth forced open, to the correct tree (tallest) tree would induce rain. Of course we know better today and almost all of us understand the weather better than the ancients or their sacred texts. The big difference is that although the Judeo-Christian Bible certainly speaks of the weather, it promotes none of these superstitions, but instead explains, in a matter of fact way, the truth about the weather. In Genesis 8:22, we read:

‘As long as the earth endures, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’

Then in Job (28:26) it is revealed:

“when he made a decree (a rule) for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,” 

Thousands of years later scientists found that there were indeed rules for the rain, and is a part of the water cycle (Sun evaporates water from the oceans which forms the clouds, the water in the clouds falls as rain and drains into the streams and rivers, which flow into the seas) that endlessly repeats itself. It was Galileo who at last discovered the cycle, if only he had bothered to read the Bible, where in Amos wrote in 766BC:

“he builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth;
he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land – the Lord is his name.”

It is only recently that science has understood that it is not the thunder that triggers the rain, as thought since the first century BC, but actually the lightening. However this was known 3000 years ago when Job 28:26 was written:

“when he made a decree for the rain and the way for the lightning of the thunder,” (ESV)

We can indeed see from these examples that true knowledge comes only from the revelation of God, it often takes man much longer to discover these things by his own endeavours.

MEDICINE & HEALTH

Many thousands of years ago the Egyptians had medicine and surgery that was thousands of years ahead of it's time, the performed tracheotomies as standard procedure, knew about relieving cranial pressure by trepanning the skull and performed a number of advanced surgical procedures. Alongside the Egyptians lived the Hebrew slaves, who it would seem, had a also advanced knowledge of how to maintain health, given to them by their One God, which were later written down within the Torah, the books of the law. The Torah, in common with the remainder of the Old Testament was dictated to Moses by God, and in Leviticus 17:11-14 Moses wrote:

11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.’

13‘“Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.

Moses was correct in this, a fact that surely came from the creator, the red blood cells carry oxygen around our body (due to haemoglobin in the cells) and by this process life is possible. In fact the process is crucial and meticulous, red blood cells can carry 270 million molecules of haemoglobin, just the exact amount for our needs. This fact was not known until a recently as the mid sixteenth century, when a standard procedure was 'Blood-letting' and many people were bleed to death during this process.

One Hebrew tradition that is specified in the books of the Torah is that of circumcision of eight day old males (Genesis 17:12) and this procedure survives within the Jewish community today. This was a command that covered all males in the community, not only children born to Hebrew families. We need to ask why? As late as 1935 it was discovered that vitamin 'K' in foods helped to prevent haemorrhaging in baby chicken, this led to the discovery that Vitamin 'K' is responsible for the bodies production of prothrombin by the liver. If there is a deficiency of Vitamin K there will also be a deficiency prothrombin, which leads to a propensity to haemorrhage, as the blood will not clot. The human body does not start to produce Vitamin K until the fifth day of life and is not sufficient until the seventh day of life (above 100%). So to perform a circumcision before the eighth day would cause the infant to haemorrhage and possibly die, so the eighth day is the earliest point at which this operation can be performed. Strangely, the eighth day is the ONLY day in his entire life when the when the percentage of prothrombin climbs above 100%.

Although today there is little advantage for general circumcision, as long as children are taught to cleanse themselves correctly and regularly, in the situation of a iron-age community it was essential. So circumcision was needed in the days of Moses in order to prevent the spread of transmutable diseases, a health precaution that was ahead of its time.

Health was a problem for all iron-age communities and none the less so for the Hebrew nation, the more especially as they were to embark on an epic journey. Three thousand five hundred years ago God told His people a great deal about the link between health and hygiene. Deuteronomy 23:12-13 states:

“Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.”

Before the first decades of the twentieth century thousands of people died simply because they failed to observe simple hygiene precautions, like efficient disposal of bodily waste.

In Genesis 3:15 (Young's Literal Translation) says:

15and enmity I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he doth bruise thee -- the head, and thou dost bruise him -- the heel.'

or NIV (UK) says:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 3:15 Or seed

The literal translation translates the Hebrew word as 'seed' and the NIV also acknowledges that the word can be translated as 'seed'. This is astonishing as at that time it was thought generally that it was the male who possessed the seed, and the female was nothing more than a incubator for his seed. The verse make it quite clear that both the male and the female possess the 'seed'. This is yet another accuracy found in the Bible, the truth of which would not be known for millennia.

Today medical knowledges that there is a definite link between our physical health and out emotional, spiritual and mental health. This was also a known fact 950 years BC when Solomon, inspired by God, wrote the following verses:

Proverbs 12:4

“A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.”

Proverbs 14:30

“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

Proverbs 15:30

“Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.”

Proverbs 16:24

“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

I have found over 150 references, so far, to scientific information in the Bible, giving an insight to facts that only recently been rediscovered, only lack of space prevents be from showing more.  Read it for yourself and make a discovery.