Mike. S. Adams writes on the newly Evangelical-controlled TownHall.com:
Astrophysicist Hugh Ross helped me—through his brilliant writings—to compile a list that illustrates how authors of the Bible have remained far ahead of the scientists throughout the ages:
Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life that makes purification possible.” For centuries after these words were written by Moses the scientists were bleeding the sick with leeches. How much better would humanity have fared, had these scientists listened to the Word of God?
Job 28: 24, 25 says, “For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.” Long after these words were written, scientists maintained the primitive view that air is weightless. Eventually they caught up to the Bible and realized that air has weight.
Job 38: 19, 20 says, “Where does light come from, and where does darkness go? Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?” When God asked these questions of Job, he was letting him in on the secret that light actually travels. It would take the scientists many years to figure that one out without the guidance of the Holy Scriptures.
Ecclesiastes 1:6 says, “The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.” Long after Solomon shared the truth that the wind blows in cyclones, the backward scientists were still claiming that it blew straight. They should have listened to Solomon. He was a very wise man.
Isaiah 40:22 says, “God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.” Scientists once thought the earth was flat. Had they read the great prophet Isaiah, they would have learned much earlier about the “circle of the earth.” In fact, they could have formed a progressive “Round Earth Society” based on the Bible’s teachings.
Jeremiah 33:22 says, “And as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.” The scientists believed there were only 1100 stars long after Jeremiah knew there were a closer to a billion.
Funny, isn't it. These 'inescapable' conclusions were missed by generation after generation of Christian and Jewish religious leaders, and did not come into vogue until science discovered them.
If man knew what Adams claims, we should have a historical record of it. But we do not have such a record until well into the 20th century. And we do not because, as long as science claimed otherwise, there was no reason to try to make the Bible fit, because there was no conflict. But, when science, through hard work over centuries, showed the world to be far different than man had previously understood, apologists sought to make the science fit to the Bible. When this repeatedly failed, apologists moved to making the Bible fit to current science. (The difference here may be hair-splitting, but it does exist.)
Predicting the results of 10 consecutive coin tosses carries astronomical odds. Writing a list of the results of those coin tosses after they have occurred and getting that list correct is no great feat. Adams and Ross are making (questionable) lists way after the fact, and ignoring history in the process. (Kind of like Aish HaTorah's Discovery seminars.)
What can be said is as follows:
- The Greeks knew far more science earlier and more accurately than anyone else.
- The Roman Catholic Church was much more liberal on issues of science and its conflict with religion than is commonly understood. (Lawrence Principe has done much work on this.)
- Evangelical denominations have been downright illiberal on this issues, from the original push against Darwin to the Scopes Monkey Trial to "Intelligent Design."
- Orthodox Judaism has for the most part mirrored the behavior of the Evangelicals, especially during the last 10 years. But before there was a denomination called OJ, Judaism was more liberal on these issues.
Evangelicals deal with science the way they deal with Israel – with blind faith. That is helpful for Israel but bad for scientific advancement.
I should note that many of TownHall.com's better columnists are also found on JewishWorldReview.com. At least one, Dennis Prager, began writing his column at the request of JWR's publisher, Binyomin Jolkowsky. If you want to read a TownHall.com columnist, try checking JWR first to see if JWR has the column posted.