The Bible Contains Scientific Errors

As with him, I am probably going to have to concentrate on a few arguments and maybe drop one or two. I. Backward Progression Genesis 1:1-2: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. (God creates the heavens and the earth at the same time, which is a scientific error, and he creates the earth. ) Genesis 1:3: And God said, Let there be light, and there was light (Then God created light. So he created the earth before light, which is an error. ) Genesis 1:14-19: And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. (Then God creates light producing objects, even though light should have been around for three days already. Where did the light come from for those three days? This is a logical and scientific contradiction). God created the heavens and the earth, he didn't prepare it. It says so in the Bible. Even so, we must take the literal approach: Matthew 15:9,13 - We must not teach man-made doctrine. " *True believers must accept Bible records of miracles as literal, historic fact. The power of miracles as evidence rests entirely on their validity as historic fact. Unless they are contrary to natural law but nevertheless occurred as true, historic fact, then they prove nothing about God or His will. So to deny the literal, historic Bible descriptions of miracles - to claim that some supernatural aspects are legendary or symbolic - is to deny the accuracy of the Bible and to belittle the force of the miracle. This encourages rejection of the evidence for God, the Bible, and Jesus. And the more fundamental a miracle is to our faith, the greater are the consequences if we deny its historic validity. "[1] So yes, the literal version is required. Not to mention, even if it isn't literal, it is still an error regardless. II. Light My opponent claims that this isn't literal either, which I have already refuted (it is still an error regardless). The only light around (since humans aren't alive yet) is the natural light of the universe (i. e. stars). Also, you haven't responded to my point that the the heavens came before the sun, which came before the earth, not the other way around. >> Genesis 1:16 "This contradicts what we know from science, though, because the moon is not a light like the sun. The moon only reflects light from the sun. It's an error to claim that the moon is any sort of source of light like the sun and stars are. "[2] But it would be one great light, not two. On top of this, "The second error lies in the fact that even though we normally see the moon at night, it hardly "rules over" the night. On the contrary, the moon is in the daytime sky about half the time " we just don't see it. The moon is only described as ruling over the nighttime sky because of our subjective impression of its importance, not because of any objective or scientific measure of its role. "[2] The moon is not a light and it doesn't rule over the night. Again, the Bible claims the moon as a seperate light, not a reflector, so it is still an error. >> Genesis 1:17 The verse: And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth. .. It talks about the stars. Then, they are not created to give the Earth light is the point. All of the starts are meant to give light to the Earth. This is still an error. III. Noah's Ark >> It's too small a) Not enough to hold two of every species of animal. "The ark is too small because there is not enough room for all the animals. It has been estimated that there are 4,5000 species of mammals; 6,000 species of reptiles; 8,600 species of birds; and 3,000 species of amphibians! In all, scientists have estimated that there are anywhere from 5 to 100 million species yet only 2 million have been identified! "[6] b) Then why is there so much genetic diversity? c) What? d and e) "A Flood to the magnitude of Noah would have destroyed the habitat of fish because some require cool clean water, some need brackish water, some need ocean water, some need fresh or salt water. "[6] f) "Plants would have had a difficult time surviving because many plants and seeds would be killed simply from being submerged for a few months. It would have been even harder to survive had this been in salt water. This is because submergence impedes exchanges of O2 and CO2 between leaves and the environment. And you have to prove miracles exist; you can't just go around flounting them. >> It's too big Yeah, I did - boats can only be of a maximum size; no bigger. Also, where does the Bible say Noah had shipbuilding experience? And, "The longest wooden ship ever built (i. e. historically verified) was the USS Wyoming. This vessel, which was, at 110 meters long, a full 50% shorter than Noah"s ark, was found to be so unstable that it could only be used for short coastal hauls to avoid rough conditions further out in the sea. "[6] >> Size conclusion My opponent has not responded to these arguments: The boat was too small to hold millions of animals. The boat was too big to be seaworthy. What about all that food? >> Water But you have to prove ex nihilo's existance first. There is a huge scientific error here. Then, as for no geological evidence: "How do you explain the relative ages of mountains? For example, why weren't the Sierra Nevadas eroded as much as the Appalachians during the Flood? Why is there no evidence of a flood in ice core series? Ice cores from Greenland have been dated back more than 40,000 years by counting annual layers. [Johnsen et al, 1992,; Alley et al, 1993] A worldwide flood would be expected to leave a layer of sediments, noticeable changes in salinity and oxygen isotope ratios, fractures from buoyancy and thermal stresses, a hiatus in trapped air bubbles, and probably other evidence. Why doesn't such evidence show up? How are the polar ice caps even possible? Such a mass of water as the Flood would have provided sufficient buoyancy to float the polar caps off their beds and break them up. They wouldn't regrow quickly. In fact, the Greenland ice cap would not regrow under modern (last 10 ky) climatic conditions. Why did the Flood not leave traces on the sea floors? A year long flood should be recognizable in sea bottom cores by (1) an uncharacteristic amount of terrestrial detritus, (2) different grain size distributions in the sediment, (3) a shift in oxygen isotope ratios (rain has a different isotopic composition from seawater), (4) a massive extinction, and (n) other characters. Why do none of these show up? Why is there no evidence of a flood in tree ring dating? Tree ring records go back more than 10,000 years, with no evidence of a catastrophe during that time. [Becker & Kromer, 1993; Stuiver et al, 1986]"[3] In addition, "The global flood, had it occurred, would have destroyed many geological formations. If you look at pictures of the ocean floor, you will notice there are very few rocks piled up in columns. A study done by several creation "scientists" puts the ocean speed at varying between 40 and 80 meters a second. Rock pillars are unable to survive currents this fast. Even oceanic currents of normal speeds would have destroyed some of the more fragile specimens that are in existence today. "[4][5] I will drop the other due to space and concentrate on these three. I look forward to my opponent"s arguments. Sources: Bible verses from the same site provided earlier. [1]: . http://www.gospelway.com... [2]: . http://atheism.about.com... [3]: . http://www.talkorigins.org... [4]: . http://rationalwiki.org... [5]: . http://www.icr.org... [6]: . http://talkatheism.wordpress.com...