Tuesday, December 29, 2020

SCIENTIFIC ERROR #3: Birds existed on the Earth before land animals existed on the Earth.

 Scientific Errors in Genesis

3. Birds existed on the Earth before land animals existed on the Earth. 

According to Genesis, God created birds on the fourth day (Genesis 1:20-23):


 According to Genesis, God created land animals on the sixth day (Genesis 1:24-26 & 31):

So, according to the Bible, birds began to exist BEFORE land animals began to exist.

But according to modern science (biology and paleontology), land animals began to exist long before birds began to exist.

According to modern science, land animals began to exist about 400 million years ago ("Timeline: The Evolution of Life", New Scientist, July 14, 2009):


https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17453-timeline-the-evolution-of-life/

According to modern science, birds evolved about 150 million years ago ("Timeline: The Evolution of Life", New Scientist, July 14, 2009):


Many scientists consider Archaeopteryx to be the first birds (they appeared about 150 million years ago), but some scientists believe that birds evolved a bit earlier than that.  In any case, birds first appeared sometime between 165 and 150 million years ago ("The Origin and Diversification of Birds", Current Biology, Volume 25, Issue 19, 5 October 2015, Pages R888-R898):

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215009458

According to modern science, land animals began to exist about 400 million years ago, and birds began to exist about 150 million years ago.  Thus, land animals existed about 250 million years before there were any birds.  Therefore, the Bible's assertion (in Genesis) that birds existed on Earth before land animals existed on Earth is false.  This is another scientific error in the Bible.


SCIENTIFIC ERROR #2: Plants existed on Earth before the Sun existed.

 Scientific Error #2: Plants existed on Earth before the Sun existed. 

According to Genesis, God created land plants on the third day (Genesis 1:9-13):

 

Then God created the Sun, Moon, and the stars on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19):

 

So, according to the Bible, land plants began to exist before the Sun began to exist. But this is false, according to modern science.

According to modern scientific study of the universe and our solar system, the Sun began to exist about 4.6 billion years ago:

 

 According to modern scientific study of paleontology, the first land plants appeared on the planet Earth about 500 million years ago:

 

According to modern science, the Sun began to exist about 4 billion years before land plants began to exist on the planet Earth. Therefore, the Bible (i.e. Genesis) is mistaken in asserting that land plants began to exist BEFORE the Sun began to exist.


SCIENTIFIC ERROR #1: The Earth is older than the stars in the sky.

 Scientific Errors in Genesis

1. The Earth is older than the stars in the sky.  

According the Chapter 1 of Genesis, God made the Earth, the Sun, the moon, the stars in the sky, and all of the plants and animals, including human beings, in just six days.

According to Chapter 1 of Genesis, the planet Earth was initially created on day one, but it was completed on day three, when God formed dry land and created plants (Genesis 1:1-13): 

 


On the fourth day, God created the Sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky (Genesis 1:14-19):


 So, According to the Bible (i.e. Genesis), the planet Earth came into existence BEFORE the stars in the sky came into existence.  

According to modern scientific study of our universe, many stars began to exist long before the Earth began to exist.  The planet Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.  There are many stars that are only millions of years old, and the Earth began to exist before those stars, but there are also many stars that are five to ten billion years old, and those stars are older than the Earth.  There are even some stars that are twelve to thirteen billion years old.

Some of the stars we can see in the sky are older than the planet Earth. The star Aldebaran is the brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus, and that star is about 6.4 billion years old.  The star Arcturus is the brightest star in the Bootes constellation, and that star is about 7.1 billion years old.  Phi Aquarii is a binary star system in the constellation of Aquarius, and it is about 11.0 billion years old. 

Some very old stars are located in the galactic halo of the Milky Way galaxy.  Cayrel's star, for example is about 12.5 billion years old. Caffau's star, seen in the constellation of Leo, is about 13 billion years old. Sneden's star is also about 13 billion years old.

Thus although many stars began to exist after the Earth began to exist, many stars are older than the Earth, including stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and including stars that we can see in the sky above the Earth.  Therefore, the claim in Genesis that the Earth came into existence BEFORE the stars in the sky came into existence is false.  Many stars in the sky are much older than the planet Earth.


SCIENTIFIC ERRORS IN GENESIS

Scientific Errors in Genesis

1. The Earth is older than the stars in the sky.  Genesis 1:6-10 & 14-19.

2. Plants existed on Earth before the Sun existed. Genesis 1:11-19.

3. Birds existed on the Earth before land animals existed on the Earth. Genesis 1:20-31.

4. All of the different kinds of land animals began existing on the Earth at about the same time, including human beings. Genesis 1:24-31.

5. The first humans were created by God and did NOT evolve from other animals. Genesis 1:24-31.

6. There was no death on the planet Earth until human beings came into existence.  Genesis 3:17-20 (see also: Romans 5:12 & 1 Corinthians 15:21). 

7. Humans have only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years. 2,008 years from Adam's creation to Abraham's birth (Genesis 5:3-32 & Genesis 11:10-26). Abraham's birth was between 2166 BCE and 1755 BCE. 

8. Plants have only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years.

9. Animals living in the oceans have only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years.

10. Land animals have only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years.

11. The planet Earth has only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years.

12. The Sun has only existed for about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years.

13. There was a worldwide flood about 5,000 years ago.  Noah was born about 1,056 years after Adam was created, and the flood happened when Noah was 600 years old. Genesis 5:3-32 & 7:6. Adam was created about 6,500 (5,700 to 7,600) years ago.

14. All human beings now alive descended from one man who lived about 5,000 years ago (Noah). Genesis 6:1 to 9:1.

15. All land animals now alive descended from a very small number of animals (of each kind of land animal) who survived a worldwide flood on Noah's ark about 5,000 years ago. Genesis 6:1 to 9:1.


Thursday, December 10, 2020

TYPES OF OBJECTIONS TO THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

 There are FOUR basic types of objections to the inspiration of the Bible:


Most of the objections I have against the Bible, perhaps all of them, can be categorized into one of the four quadrants in the above diagram. FACTS refers to factual claims and issues, such as scientific or historical claims and issues. VALUES refers to evaluative claims and issues, such as moral claims and issues, and claims and issues concerning non-moral values or non-moral norms. TRUTH refers to evaluation of a claim in terms of whether it is true or false, probable or improbable. LOGIC refers to comparison of two claims to determine whether the claims are logically compatible or logically contradictory.
Type I objections to the Bible assert that some factual claim or assumption or implication of the Bible is false or dubious. Type II objections to the Bible assert that some evaluative claim or assumption or implication of the Bible is false or dubious. Type III objections to the Bible assert that two factual claims or assumptions or implications of the Bible contradict each other. Type IV objections to the Bible assert that two evaluative claims or assumptions or implications of the Bible contradict each other.
I believe that the Bible contains a number of errors of all four types of error. If the Bible contains just one error of one of these four types, then that is a significant reason to doubt the divine inspiration of the Bible, because God, if God exists is perfectly good (and thus perfectly honest and truthful) and omniscient (and thus has no false or mistaken beliefs or values). If the Bible was inspired by God, then it should not contain ANY of the four types of errors that I have outlined above. So, if I am correct that the Bible contains several examples of each of the four types of error, then we have very good reason to reject the view that the Bible was inspired by God.

There are at least 10 different sorts of objections that can be made against the view that the Bible was inspired by God:
I. The Bible asserts factual claim X, but X is false or dubious.
A. The Bible asserts a scientific claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.
B. The Bible asserts an historical claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.
C. The Bible asserts a theological claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.
II. The Bible asserts evaluative claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.
A. The Bible asserts a moral claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.
B. The Bible asserts a non-moral value claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.
III. The Bible asserts factual claim Q and factual claim R, but Q contradicts R.
A. The Bible asserts a scientific claim Q and a scientific claim R, but Q contradicts R.
B. The Bible asserts an historical claim Q and an historical claim R, but Q contradicts R.
C. The Bible asserts a theological claim Q and a theological claim R, but Q contradicts R.
IV. The Bible asserts evaluative claim S and evaluative claim T, but S contradicts T.
A. The Bible asserts a moral claim S and a moral claim T, but S contradicts T.
B. The Bible asserts a non-moral evaluative claim S and a non-moral evaluative claim T, but S contradicts T.


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