The Bible’s Accuracy Vindicated … Again
Category: Religion & Ethics
Via: xxjefferson51 • 2 years ago • 57 commentsBy: John Stonestreet and Kasey Leander
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,” writes the author of Proverbs , “but the glory of kings is to search things out.” The Biblical account of reality—that God created a world that was knowable and His image-beares to be knowers—powerfully explains the human drive to learn and investigate the world around us. It also justifies the utilization of general revelation as we pursue knowledge of the created order through various branches of science.
To put it bluntly, the Bible is not anti-science. Rather, the Bible explains why science works.
And, every once in a while, the Bible offers an insight that sheds further light on an unsolved question of science. That seems to be the case with the Assyrian destruction of Lachish , an event recorded in the book of Kings. The accurate Biblical accounting of this event has provided scientists with a reliable anchor from which to better answer two tricky dilemmas: one having to do with geophysics and the other with archeology.
A recurring question of geophysics is how to measure changes in the Earth’s magnetic field over time. The Earth’s magnetic field acts like a massive cosmic shield , protecting us from solar winds that could disrupt navigational equipment, introduce harmful radiation into the atmosphere, or perhaps even blow our atmosphere away completely.
The earth’s magnetosphere is not a perfect shield, however. For years, scientists have known of gaps in the magnetosphere over certain regions, which drift over time. However, since measurements have only been collected since the 1850s, there is also a significant gap in our knowledge of how the magnetosphere has changed in the distant past. Though it’s possible to take sizeable measurements from the magnetic record in rocks, localized measurements are much harder to obtain. Or, at least, they were harder to obtain until research found a way to use burned-out ruins from ancient archeology.
Tel Aviv University’s Yoav Vaknin recently led a team to Tel Lachish to measure magnetism. When the Assyrian King Sennacherib burned Lachish in 701 BC, he unknowingly reset the magnetic charges in the minerals found in floors, tools, and pottery pieces. As they cooled, these artifacts re-attuned to the Earth’s magnetic field, forming a snapshot of the Earth’s magnetic field in that particular location at that specific moment.
With enough snapshots like this one, scientists could much better piece together how the magnetic field has changed over time. If, of course, the Biblical dating of this event is accurate.
The consensus from historians is that it is . “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign,” 2 Kings 18:13 tells us, “Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah.” By providing accurate dating of Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian conquests of the region, the Bible gives scientists the kind of helpful “data footholds” they can reliably use.
And this is connected to a second advance enabled by the Bible in archeology . For reasons not fully understood, radiocarbon dating isn’t accurate around the years 800-400 BC, an historical period known as the “ The Hallstatt Plateau .” The curve of carbon-generated dates around this time is distorted, flattening out where it seemingly shouldn’t. As a result, scientists cannot reliably carbon-date objects within a sizeable and important stretch of history.
Breakthroughs like the one at Lachish give us a new way to find those dates through archaeomagnetism , a process that uses the magnetic readings from archeological sites to help determine their age. As with the advance in geophysics, archaeomagnetism is dependent on reliable, independently established dates from ancient history. That’s the kind of thing Scripture offers over and over again.
This isn’t the first time the Bible’s accuracy has been vindicated , of course. The Old Testament predicted the existence of ancient groups like the Hittites long before anyone discovered evidence of their culture. Its description of the assassination of the same Assyrian king Sennacherib matches the one his son, Esarhaddon , provides in his records. At the ruins of Jericho , many archeologists believe there is evidence of a sudden structural collapse, which would align with how the book of Joshua describes the city’s destruction.
Of course, many mysteries remain about how the many pieces of the archeological record fit with the Biblical one. But in the words of archeologist and Jewish scholar Nelson Gluek , “[It] may be clearly stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a single Biblical reference.” Yet, “scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.”
This is what we should expect from a religion grounded in history. The Bible describes real things that happened to real people. We should expect it to provide accurate data about the events it reports, even events from the ancient past. And if true, the data it presents could help us solve puzzles about the world around us.
Science and God
Science Points to God
Our universe emerged from (best we can tell) a singularity. Whatever stable form it took would be based on myriad factors within specific tolerances. The myriad factors within specific tolerances (aka 'fine-tuning') are simply an expression of complexity. The tie to God is nothing more than confirmation bias.
Follow the facts. They do not lead to a sentient creator but rather a complex universe that, as best we can tell, emerged from a highly uniform singularity. Going beyond this is pure speculation. One can invent a 'why' behind these 'whats' and one can invent the 'whats' prior to what we currently know, but imagination is no substitute for truth.
Everything you said above is nothing more than speculation…
What a pathetic ‘rebuttal’. I state well-founded scientific findings and you offer a Pee Wee Herman declaration.
Your graphic illustrates that you have no clue of the science explaining the evolution of our universe. Science does NOT speak of nothing ‘exploding’. That is so off-base it is clear that anyone who thinks that cannot or will not understand even the basics of cosmology.
The basics of cosmology begins with an Intelligent Designer.
Do you not understand the difference between well-founded findings and religious beliefs?
Did you read the seeded science article?
One need not have religious beliefs to be leave everything was intelligently designed rather than we are all an accident of random chance.
Non sequitur.
You are denying the findings of science based on your religious beliefs. At least recognize what you are doing.
That's nice. Prove it!
No, one just needs to be willfully ignorant.
What science article? It's just religious BS. Religion is not science. Quite the opposite really.
The burden of proof is not to prove that our reality is controlled by little green aliens running a simulation but rather to disprove it.
Buy a vowel. Seriously, how can one post such obviously wrong nonsense and not be embarrassed?
The same people that do not follow the tenants of their own religion...
You mean nonsense like some random singularity out there just exploded the universe into being out there and it all just happened to come to be by random chance ?
Clearly you have no clue of cosmological science.
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I am putting your utter nonsense up against science, not up against me. Buy a vowel.
Your comments about science are absurdly wrong.
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And you get this wrong just like you get Fauci wrong.
Anyone who describes the findings of science is a "I am the science person"??
Pathetic, low-grade trolling.
It's just a sand castle. Real atheist logic.
No whining either. Unless it's coming from christians.
It's really simple to me. If an all powerful god wanted me to believe in him I would.
that sums it up
There’s a difference between wanting it and compelling it.
Perhaps your god is a not so powerful lesser god.
The article implies nothing of the sort. An all powerful God who gave His creation free will to make our own decisions would not then take that back when we freely choose to not believe.
Free will is logically impossible with an all powerful (and supposedly all knowing) god.
So... Your all powerful god gave his creation free will and his creation immediately began to run amok to a point where the all powerful god lost complete control of the situation and had to drown everybody on the planet?
Talk about bad parenting or leading or whatever. Either way, it's total incompetence.
He didn’t loose control. The plan of salvation had already been implemented and this was part of it. It was as Jesus said 2000 years later when He was here that it was a type of hell. The world at the end will be very much like it was then as will the result. Just fire instead of water and the new Jerusalem instead of an ark.
To quote Tony Stark, "Not a great plan."
God could have saved himself a lot of time and trouble had he gotten things right the first time.
Were Adam and Eve cavemen?
No, they were not. They were created perfect in the image of their creator. They were the ones first given the inalienable Human rights and were created as equals as mentioned by Jefferson in our DOI. After the fall they began to age and eventually died. There were no “cave men” before the global flood.
Uhhh … ok. So all those funky skulls were placed out there by your god just to throw us off his trail then. Got it.
No, they were placed there by Satan. C'mon Hal, can you not get religious BS straight? Lol
Well God made everything, therefore he must have made Satan, so God is an accessory to all of Satan’s evil doings.
I thought Satan was an angel that was cast down...
With God's full beforehand knowledge too. The buck stops with God. But don't expect any theists to acknowledge God's fault or place even the slightest blame on God. Its the epitome of theistic bias. Or delusion.
According to myth, yes.
No, he created Lucifer. Lucifer by his own free will choices, thoughts, and actions made himself into Satan. God didn’t make or want Satan to sin/rebel against Him.
He is exactly that. Cast down by his own rebellion.
You post these religious seeds and then meme-whine when your allegations are challenged.
If you cannot handle challenges, don't stir the pot with these stupid seeds.
When all else fails, make excuses for the universes' most powerful being.
/s
God knew in advance what would happen. So God is ultimately to blame, plain and simple.
Exactly. No accountability.
I didn’t bash anything, I just want to hear your reasoning for all the archeological skeletal remains that clearly do not resemble Adam and Eve. I’ll wait.
All you're likely to hear is either the sound of silence, or the sound of BS.
Jewish religion?
Jewish history, both oral and written?
Known as the Old Testament it has
nothing to do with the New Testament or your Christianity.
The Old Testament is a part of the Christian Bible. The history is shared. We are both of Abraham and Isaac.
No there is no agreement in the afterlife like limbo purgatory or hell
therefore
not in agreement at all.
Shared facts and some history or not.
Completely different.
Muslims, Russians, Chinese and atheists can agree
100% that the Old Testament is reliably accurate and historic
and lends
ZERO CREDIBILITY to Christianity.
Sorry....