Monday, August 20, 2012

Is the Bible Scientifically Accurate? Part 1

Skeptics constantly claim that the Bible is unreliable and that it is only a book of mythological stories written by men. If this is true, and if ancient man was as stupid in comparison to us today as we are led to believe, were these men just guessing when they wrote things that have been proven to be scientifically accurate? These next set of blog entries are aimed at showing the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible. The Bible is the only book that stakes is credibility on its ability to write history in advance—without any error.

Prior to the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church hid the Word of God from the people and darkened man's knowledge, mankind was likely a lot more knowledgeable and intelligent than we currently are today. Being technological does not imply knowledge or intelligence. Early civilizations did and made certain things (like batteries and aqueducts) long before we ever did, and they did things that we today cannot even figure out (the building of pyramids and temples). This period is called the Dark Ages because the Roman Catholic Church suppressed not only the Word of God, but also knowledge in general. If it did not come from the Catholic Church or have her approval, it was not allowed.

It is interesting to note how many of the great scientists of history were "Bible-believing" Christians. Most areas of mathematics and science were founded by men who believed what their Bibles said. For example: when the Bible spoke of the ocean containing mountains and valleys, Matthew Maury believed it and founded oceanography. Here is just a small sampling of the many areas of mathematics and science that were founded by Christians.
1.Antiseptic SurgeryJoseph Lister
2.BacteriologyLouis Pasteur
3.CalculusIsaac Newton
4.Celestial MechanicsJohannes Kepler
5.ChemistryRobert Boyle
6.Comparative AnatomyGeorges Cuvier
7.Computer ScienceCharles Babbage
8.Dimensional AnalysisLord Rayleigh
9.DynamicsIsaac Newton
10.ElectronicsJohn Ambrose Fleming
11.ElectrodynamicsJames Clerk Maxwell
12.ElectromagneticsMichael Faraday
13.EnergeticsLord Kelvin
14.EntomologyHenri Fabre
15.Field TheoryMichael Faraday
16.Fluid MechanicsGeorge Stokes
17.Galactic AstronomySir William Herschel
18.Gas DynamicsRobert Boyle
19.GeneticsGregor Mendel
20.Glacial GeologyLouis Agassiz
21.GynecologyJames Simpson
22.HydrographyMatthew Maury
23.HydrostaticsBlaise Pascal
24.IchthyologyLouis Agassiz
25.Isotopic ChemistryWilliam Ramsey
26.Model AnalysisLord Rayleigh
27.Natural HistoryJohn Ray
28.Non-Euclidian GeometryBernard Riemann
29.OceanographyMatthew Maury
30.Optical MineralogyDavid Brewster
MEDICINE/BIOLOGY:
Existence of Germs
During the Dark Ages (between 1200 and 1400 A.D.), the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, killed over one third of Europe (or 60 million of its 200 million inhabitants). History informs us that Roman Catholic monks from Vienna stopped the plague's advance on the mainland continent by desperately searching the Bible for answers on how to stop a plague of this magnitude. These passages (among others) are what they came across:
"He too, who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and the one who picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening." Leviticus 11:40

"Then the priest shall look at him; and if the swelling of the infection is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the body, he is a leprous man, he is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean; his infection is on his head. As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!' He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp." Leviticus 13:43-46

"This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. And every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean. Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days." Number 19:14-16
Consequently, these monks instituted the first quarantine system, which formed the basis for what eventually evolved into our modern hospital system. Leviticus 15:13 identifies the importance of bathing in order to prevent disease (and for ceremonial cleanness), and bathing in running water in particular. The importance of proper sanitation is expressed elsewhere in Scripture as well:
"You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, and you shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement." Deuteronomy 23:12-13
Over 150 years ago, French chemist Louis Pasteur discovered the existence of germs. Prior to this, the knowledge of germs was practically non-existent.
"Remember Ignaz Semmelweis? Of course you don't. But you're in his debt nonetheless, because it was Dr. Semmelweis who first demonstrated over a hundred years ago that routine handwashing can prevent the spread of disease. (It was another 50 years before the importance of handwashing was widely accepted!)
"Dr. Semmelweis worked in a hospital in Vienna whose maternity patients were dying at such an alarming rate they begged to be sent home," said Julie Gerberding, M.D., director of The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Hospital Infections Program. "Most of those dying had been treated by student physicians who worked on cadavers during an anatomy class before beginning their rounds in the maternity ward."
 Because handwashing was an unrecognized practice at the time, the students didn't wash their hands between touching the dead and the living. The pathogenic bacteria from the cadavers regularly were transmitted to the mothers via the students' hands.
"The result was a death rate five times higher for mothers who delivered in the hospital than for mothers who delivered at home" said Dr. Gerberding.
In an experiment considered interesting at best by his colleagues, Dr. Semmelweis insisted his students wash their hands before treating the mothers.  Deaths on the maternity ward fell fivefold.
"This was the beginning of infection control," Dr. Gerberding said. "It was really a landmark achievement, not just in healthcare settings, but in public health in general because today the value of handwashing in preventing disease is recognized in the community, in schools, in child care settings, and in eating establishments"
Circulatory System
Up until the early 1800's science believed that blood-letting was the best way to treat many diseases. It was believed that blood could stagnate within the body (and not circulate, as we know it does today), and therefore blood had to be drained from the body. This concept was part of the "humoral system" of medicine. Much of the ancient world, including Islamic nations, ancient Greece, and other regions of the world, held this approach to medicine. Historians believe that blood-letting (through the use of leeches) is what ultimately took George Washington's life in 1799, as his attending physician drained as much as 4 lbs. of blood from his body. In other words, his doctors bled him to death because they did not understand how critical blood is to our body and its health. Yet, they were without excuse because William Harvey (the personal physician of both King James I and King Charles I) discovered the blood circulatory system and its essential nature to the life in our bodies in 1616 A.D. This biblical passage was written 3400 years ago!
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." Leviticus 11:17
Painless Surgery
In the mid-1800's, science began understanding the place that anesthesia could have on performing surgery while a patient was "under". The man most attributed for having discovered the amazing uses of anesthetic gases was a dentist named William Morton. Many consider him to be the father of modern surgery and medicine. William Morton said his inspiration came from this verse:
"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place." Genesis 2:21
Circumcision on the 8th Day
Medical scientists have been examining the biological processes that lead to blood clotting. The medical researches found that two different blood clotting factors—Vitamin K and Prothrombin—are at the highest levels of your life (110% of normal) on the eighth day of life. The Bible informed us how this should be done thousands of years before science discovered the reason why.
"And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants." Genesis 17:12
To be continued...