The Bible, Science, and the Hydrologic Cycle

It's not uncommon for an to come along and attack the Bible with prejudicial conjecture such as, "We can't believe the Bible, it was written by a bunch of illiterate Bronze Age goat herders!" If these owlhoots bothered to do their homework, they'd know that the Bible was written by people from a variety of occupations, including kings and highly-educated men as well as peasants. Maybe two or three were sheep and goat herders, but not "a bunch". Also, it's easy to laugh at these proponents of "reason" who add the "illiterate" part. Uh, if they were illiterate, they didn't exactly write anything, did they, pilgrim? Throwing in the words "fairy tales" in their attack probably gets them bonus points with their friends.

More important than the ignorance of arrogant atheopaths is the fact that they are arguing from materialistic and naturalistic presuppositions. Terms like "Bronze Age" and so on are made up to tell the minerals-to-machinist evolution story, and that humans were not created in God's image, and had not evolved a great deal of intelligence back then. A further presupposition is that, since there is no God, then Scripture is not God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NIV), so it's just a human book and little more. Christians should be arguing from the presupposition that the Bible is God's inerrant Word.

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Another, more rational objection, is, "The Bible is not a science textbook". We hear this from atheists as well as liberal professing Christians, especially when they're attacking Creation and the Flood. Actually, we get this when they question the first eleven chapters of Genesis. There is truth in the "not a science textbook" statement because the Bible was not written for that purpose. (Good thing, too, because "facts" of science are constantly changing, as are the scientific philosophies behind them.) However, when the Bible has science-related material, it is accurate. Scientific facts in the Bible are usually used when God is making a point and using them as illustrations.

How did those illiterate Bronze Age goat herders get the facts of the hydrologic cycle right long before anyone else? (Actually, we don't fully understand the thing now.) Because they were not illiterate Bronze Age goat herders, for one thing. Another important fact is that God our Creator was the impetus of Scripture, not man's imaginings. What follows is actually quite fascinating, but it's not a quick read. Worth it, but not quick.

It is often assumed that the Bible’s statements relating to natural phenomena can only reflect the inadequate scientific knowledge of the period when the relevant portion of it was written. This is often used to deflect from and ‘explain away’ the obvious conflict between Genesis and the current ‘scientific’ paradigm of origins and prehistory. However, as this article seeks to show, consideration of the hydrologic cycle indicates the divine inspiration of the text by revealing detailed knowledge of the physical world that was not understood by ‘science’ until many centuries, if not millennia, later.

To read the rest, click on "Do you know the laws of the heavens? — the Bible and the hydrologic cycle".




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