Errors in the Bible

[seebs]

[The nation of Israel was in a protracted battle, and needed the light of the sun to press on to victory. Joshua besought the Lord God for help, and prayed. The answer to his prayers was that the shadow of the light on the steps stood still for a time. Chronologists have studied the times of the years very minutely, and found that a certain segment of time was missing. That is, it was missing until they went back to the story just mentioned in the Scriptures, and did their calculations to find the missing piece of their time puzzle!

Urban legend.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/507.asp

They reproduce, with permission, a fuller account of where the story comes from:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1117.asp

From time to time stories such as the one described above appear — usually in church bulletins or religious publications— as factual and true. No doubt those who propagate such information mean well, and have as their ultimate goal a defense of the Bible against the slings and arrows of infidelity. However, the story which claims that scientists have discovered the “long day of Joshua” is untrue. An investigation into such a claim reveals the following interesting details.​

 

[ebia]

How do Christians (specifically, Biblical literalists) reconcile their belief in the Bible as absolute truth when many aspects of the Bible have been proven to be wrong?

People who believe in a literal six-day creation occuring 6000 years ago must reconcile that information with the facts of Earth being billions of years old. Some have backed away from a literal six-day creation and suggest that "days" refers to larger periods of time, such as eons or epochs. But for those who still hold the Earth to be young, what makes you deny scientific fact?

People who believe in the worldwide flood story of Noah must reconcile this belief with the discovery of areas that show no evidence of water for the past 2 million years, as well as with the lack of any other evidence of a worldwide flood.

Those are the big ones, the big stories. But there are others. In Genesis 30:37-43, it talks about Jacob affecting the colouration of goat offspring by forcing the parent goats to look at sticks of varying colouration. Again, this process is not supported by any known facts and has been entirely disproved through genetics. So, is this story a factual historical account, or a mere fable?

In short, some portions of the Bible are not supported by the facts. Other portions of the Bible are outright contradicted by the facts. So, how much of the Bible is true? Is there any evidence that the Bible is true? I've heard about prophecies made in the Bible; what are those prophecies, and have they been shown to have come true?

**Just to get this out of the way now, saying that the proof that the Bible is true is "because the Bible says it is true" is not a sustainable answer.

The bible is true; but that doesn't make it a science textbook.

Genesis contains a mix of literary styles, and it's job is to explain the relationship between God, Creation, us and the nation of Israel. It's job is not to give a scientific or historical account of anything.

Many (most?) Christians do not believe Genesis 1 (for instance) to be a literal account - but that doesn't stop it being one of the most true documents ever written.