The Bible and Science
March 14, 2004
Dear Friends,
You will often hear that the Bible and science are at odds. Sometimes this is true, but many times it is not true. The Bible contained many scientific truths long before the scientific world caught on. This is well illustrated in two Bible-believing scientists, Sir Isaac Newton and Matthew Maury.
Psalm 33:7 states “He (God) collects the sea waters together in a heap.”(Complete Jewish Bible). Understanding of tidal activity was not understood until a noted Bible student, Sir Isaac Newton, wrote his treatise — The Equilibrium Theory of Tides — nearly 300 years ago. In this work, Newton suggested that the gravitational pull from the moon actually caused the oceans to rise up in a heap on the side nearest the moon as well as on the exact opposite side. This is high tide.
Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics is contained in Psalm 102:25,26. The Psalm reads “Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed.” The Second Law of Thermodynamics states essentially that things naturally go from a state of order to disorder. The Bible proclaimed these discoveries nearly two thousand years in advance.
On the most prominent road in my hometown is a statue to Matthew Maury (1806-1873). He was an oceanographer who is known as the “pathfinder of the seas.” From the words of Psalm 8 — “whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” — Maury decided he was going to find these paths. He studied ships’ logs and began charting sea currents. He began setting bottles afloat with instructions that anyone finding them should return them to him. From these scientific observations, Maury became the first person to chart the ocean currents and save countless hours on ocean crossings for mariners. In a speech in 1860, Maury proclaimed “I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon! The Bible is authority for everything it touches. What would you think of an historian who should refuse to consult historical records of the Bible, because the Bible was not written for the purposes of history? The Bible is true and science is true.”
Maury also wrote in his work The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology concerning Job 28:25 which refers to “the weight of the winds” the following: “…though the fact that the air has weight is here so distantly announced, philosophers never recognized the fact until within comparatively a recent period, and then it was proclaimed by them as a great discovery. Nevertheless, the fact was set forth as distinctly in the book of nature as it is in the book of revelation; for the infant, in availing itself of atmospherical pressure to draw milk from its mother’s breast, unconsciously proclaimed it.”
The Bible is not a scientific textbook. Although its pages contain many scientific truths, it was not written to explain the physical universe. The Bible was written to explain to us the spiritual universe and our place in it. It is evident, however, that the same Mind that created the ocean currents and the Laws of Thermodynamics was the same as the Mind that created the Bible and spiritual truths that it contains.
Have a great week!
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