Well, it's been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I would post some of the Bible's teachings on biology!
Now, I must give credit to google for providing the information on ants and the ostrich, as I didn't know of their reference in the Bible at the time. I did however know about rest.
Now, first off, in Genesis 3:14, God tells snakes that they will crawl on their bellies and eat dirt. Or dust, depending on the translation.
Well, not all snakes eat dirt. As a matter of fact, most of them usually eat live food. And not all snakes crawl. Some are aquatic and swim, ( I would consider this common knowledge, but for the skeptic a google search will bring up both pictures and results from museums (fieldmuseum.org), scuba sites, et.c on the first pages) and do not crawl. Others live in trees and similarly do not crawl. So the Bible fails there.
Now, let's move on to something else. According to Genesis 30:37-42, you can change the color of sheep and goats by putting various types of wood near them when they mate. That is just not true. Animal's traits are determined by their genes.
Leviticus 11:20-23 shows another mistake, saying that winged creeping things which go upon the earth walk on four legs, including grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. But these and the other forbidden winged creeping this have 6 feet. Furthermore, for those of you who are KJV only-ers, there is another problem. You see, the reason those particular insects are not problematic is because their legs are above their feet. Which would mean that other insects are problematic because their legs are below their feet. Which isn't true of most insects, if any. What gives?
In the same chapter, Leviticus also indicates that bats are birds. Which they are not. They are mammals. They lack many obvious bird features, like beaks and feathers. Whoops.
And then there are rabbits/hares and coneys. While it is quite true that they do not have split hooves, they do not chew cud as it is said they do in Leviticus 11:3-6 and Deuteronomy 14:7. They just don't. So, why is it said that they do? Just saying they don't have hooves to split is enough, why add in the false info about them chewing cud?
Now, Leviticus 11 is ripe with biology errors because it is the legal document for the Jews on what exactly they may eat, and if anything in the Bible should be taken word in a word-for-word literal fashion even if you don't believe it is Leviticus. So why does it have so many errors in it?
Next thing on the agenda is the humble ant.
Proverbs 6:6-8 states that ants have no overseers or rulers or guides.
Well, what about the queen ant? What about slave ants (
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent525/close/SlaveAnt.html <- a university site) (
http://biology.about.com/library/bldyknow091799.htm <- about.com) ? They certainly have overseers and rulers.
(a source given on the site that I got this from also adds Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, vol 2, pp 441-443 to the two links I gave, but I have not looked at that source myself.)
And now, the ostrich. In Job 39-14-17, God speaks out of a storm and says that ostriches abandon their eggs, ("and lets them warm in the sand"), treats her young harshly, labor in vain, and that God (referring to Himself in the third Person [no Trinity pun intended]) did not gift it with good sense. Well, first off, they do not labor in vain as they still survive after having been around since Biblical times.
I was unable to find detailed information on ostriches caring for their young from reliable sources on the 'net that don't need membership (i.e. the Encyclopedia Britannica probably has good stuff if you're a member), but I was able to dredge up a few university sites detailing that both parents care for the egg and parents do NOT leave eggs alone, such as
http://gallus.tamu.edu/Extension publications/ostrichproduction.pdf and a few others for farming sites. And apparently Grzimek gives information on it in volume 7, pages 91-95.
So, they are good egg caretakers, their labors are not in vain, they do not let the sand warm their eggs, and God Himself didn't know this and says He didn't give them any sense. And the cruel mother idea is continued in Lamentations 4:3-4.
And the well known saying from Jesus about how corn must fall to the ground and die? Well, the seeds don't actually die. If they did they wouldn't grow.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. For now.
Metherion
