Furthermore, the bible is a book teaching us who God is, what he's done, and what he wants us to do (in a nutshell). It's not a scientific book.
I too believe in Old Earth Creationism. I also believe in a type of evolution which makes survival possible
ie longer - shorter beaks; thicker - thinner fur; faster - slower metabolism; white fur in winter; brown fur in forests; etc
However, I just want to touch on the subject of whether or not the Bible is a scientific book. I agree with you that the Bible
teaches us Who God is, what He's done, [what He wants for us], what He wants us to do (in a nutshell).
I find the Bible is ALSO perfectly SCIENTIFIC. Here are a few examples of the incredible accuracy of scientific statements made in the Bible:
(
apologies for the length of this post)
copied from:
Scientific Facts in The Bible
1. The Shape of the Earth
"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in,"
(Isaiah 40:22, NIV).
This may or may not be construed to support the spherical shape of the earth. The horizon is a circle and a circle is flat.
Christopher Columbus wrote in his diary:
It was the Lord who put it into my mind I could feel his hand upon me the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies
All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me
There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures
For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics, or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.
Also take a moment to really consider the next verse:
"He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness."
(Job 26:10)
Job 26:10 clearly refers to the line of demarcation between day and night. No other interpretation is possible. Such a view of the curved horizon at sunrise or sunset can only be seen from extremely high altitudes reached only by military jets and spacecraft.
2. The Earth is Suspended in Nothing
"He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing,"
(Job. 26:7, NIV).
This is particularly interesting, considering that the cosmology of other cultures at that time did not have the earth suspended in nothing, but rather upon pillars, or people, or animals.
3. Earths Rotation on its Axis is Responsible for the Suns Rising and Setting.
Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place? It is changed (turned) like clay under the seal
(Job 38:12, 14).
Written 4,000 years ago, the picture here is of a vessel of clay being turned or rotated upon the potters wheel an accurate analogy of the earths rotation.
4. The Water Cycle
"For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?"
(Job 36:27-29).
Science later documented the direction of wind currents and wind paths. This was unknown in previous centuries, but Solomon wrote in
Ecclesiastes 1:6, The wind blows to the south and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits with wind returns.
5. Streams in the Ocean
Ecclesiastes 1:7: All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
Matthew Maury (1806-1873), who is known as the Pathfinder of the Seas, was the founder of modern oceanography and hydrography. Maury firmly believed in and was inspired by
Psalm 8:8, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. Maury believed that if the Bible wrote about paths in the seas then there must truly be paths in the sea. He dedicated his life to find and document these paths God had mentioned. Maury spent part of his career with the U.S. Navy charting the winds and currents of the Atlantic which were not known before his documentation.
6. Space and Time
"In the beginning (time) God created (power) the Heaven (space) and the Earth (matter)... And the Spirit of God moved (motion) upon the face of the waters." (
Genesis 1:1,3
written some 3450 years ago).
7. Universe Expanding
"It is He that . . . stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in."
(Isaiah 40:22)
8. Empty Space
"He stretches out the north over empty space; he hangs the earth on nothing."
(Job 26:7)
9. Air has Weight
"To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure."
(Job 28:25)
10. Galaxy Radio Waves
"When the morning stars sang together..."
(Job 38:7)
11. Atoms
"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. "
(Hebrews 11:3)
"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
(Colossians 1:16-17).
12. Gravitational Properties
Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?
(Job 38:31).
13. First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics:
a. The 1st Law of Thermodynamics states that matter can be neither created nor destroyed, and that the amount of matter in the universe remains constant. If the First Law is correct, which every scientific measurement ever made has confirmed, then the universe could not have created itself, it must have been created in the past, no further creating must be going on, and no loss of creation is occurring. The Bible is the only religious book that correctly portrays the First Law by 1) its description in Genesis of a Creator who is no longer creating, and 2) a Creator who is"upholding all things by the word of his power
(Hebrews 1:3)".
Genesis 2:1 says (after creation):
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."
The Hebrew word used here is the past definite tense for the verb "finished," indicating an action completed in the past, never again to occur. The creation was "finished" -- once and for all. That is what the First Law of Thermodynamics says. It states that neither matter nor energy can be either created or destroyed. There is no "creation" ongoing today. It is "finished" exactly as the Bible states.
b. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which states that all systems degenerate from order to disorder, was regarded by Albert Einstein to be the premier Law in science. Again the Bible is the only religious book to accurately describe this Law:
"For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment..."
(Isaiah 51:6),
and also a New Testament rendering:
"You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment;
(Hebrews 1:10-11)
__________________
SingPeace
Malachi 3:10 - . . . Test Me, and see if I won't return to you a blessing too vast for you to receive.