Science Verifies Biblical Facts (Part 1)

For centuries science and religion have butted heads when it comes to the authenticity of the Christian Bible and some of the narratives contained within its pages. Yet, in the 20th century many questions were answered in regard to some the Holy Book's stories. The 21st century continues to show mankind that science and religion sometimes goes hand-in-hand.

The following facts proclaim a scientific approach to various verses of biblical literature:

Earth is round

While some conspiracy theories might say otherwise, science has confirmed the shape of our planet as round. This is mentioned in the Bible:

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth." (Isaiah 40:22).

Around 500 B.C., Pythagoras (c/570–c/495 B.C.) reasoned if the Moon was round, so the Earth should also be spherical. This was further expounded upon around 420 B.C. when Anaxagoras (c/500–c/428 B.C.) determined the world was round by the shape of the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse.

Around 350 B.C., Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) declared the Earth was a sphere, based on his astronomical observations. But it would not be until the 20th century that science would finally prove this fact after launching the first man (Yuri Gagarin of USSR/Russia) into space in 1961.

The planet's core is hot

As for the core of the Earth being hot, the Book of Job mentions it:

"The earth, from which food comes, is transformed below as by fire." - Job 28:5

An early female scientist named Inge Lehmann (1888-1993) first discovered in 1936 the Earth's core was divided into two distinct parts: a solid inner core and a molten outer core.  Before that, seismologists believed Earth's core to be a single molten core.

Today, some scientists proclaim that volcanic activity is the planet's main cooling mechanism. Other scientific studies show that volcanoes continue to form - such as the islands of Hawaii and Iceland - and might be linked to the core by mantle plumes that transfer heat from the core to Earth's surface.

Earth floats in space

If you're looking for Biblical confirmation that the Earth floats in space, then look at the Book of Job again, which reads:

"He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing." Job 26:7

Discovered in 1475 by Nicolaus Copernicus, ancient astronomers found that the earth hangs literally on nothing, or "is free floating in space". By the 20th century, the well-known scientist, Albert Einstein, confirmed this with his theory of relativity.

Water changes state

The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, is a well-known phenomenon. It turns out the Bible mentions this mysterious occurrence more than once.

"All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again." ~ Ecclesiastes 1:7

"He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land." ~ Amos 9:6

"He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind." ~ Job 36:27-28

"He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses." ~ Psalm 135:7

The water phenomena have been studied since ancient times, notably by Homer (c/800 B.C.) who believed the land mass floated on a body of water and that most of the water in rivers has its origin under the earth, by 500 B.C., Greek scholars were speculating that much of the water in rivers can be attributed to rain.

The first published thinker to assert that rainfall alone was sufficient for the maintenance of rivers was Bernard Palissy (c/1510-c/1589) in 1580 A.D. Palissy is often credited as the "discoverer" of the modern theory of the water cycle.

The scientific consensus expressed in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policymakers is for the water cycle to continue to intensify throughout the 21st century, though this does not mean that precipitation will increase in all regions.

The great flood likely happened

The Great Flood and Noah's Ark is one of the most popular stories of the Christian Bible. And, according to geological evidence, the Noachian flood might have actually happened.

"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." ~ Genesis 6:17

Psalms 107:25-30 - "For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof." ~ Psalm 107:25

Evidence for a global flood exists all over the world. The first bit of evidence is the fact that science has discovered marine fossils high above sea level on every continent as early as the 19th century. Some of these fossils have been found in the walls of the Grand Canyon and 30,000 feet up in the Himalayas. According to a news statement released by the British Natural History Museum, marine fossils continue to be discovered in unlikely places as recent as July of 2021.

The ark would have worked

According to the Book of Genesis, God's instructions to Noah were as follows:

"The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high." ~ Genesis 6:13-22

A general consensus agrees that a cubit is about 18 inches. With this definition of a cubit, the dimensions of the ark would have been roughly 450 long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 

According to calculations made by physics students at the University of Leicester in 2014, the basic physics suggest than an ark carrying a lot of animal cargo ark would have actually floated and safely carried pairs of each animal species through the Great Flood!

There are countless stars in the sky

Everyone on the planet knows that the universe has a lot of stars. The Bible actually mentions an infinite number of stars in the Book of Jeremiah:

"I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore." ~ Jeremiah 33:22

For many centuries the stars have played an important role in religious ceremonies and used as navigational tools for traveling at night. Early astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), grouped the stars into constellations to track the movement of the Sun and the planets. But it wasn't until the 20th century when Edwin Hubble (1889–1953), an American scientist and astronomer, played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology in the 1930s. He is credited with discovering there are more galaxies beyond the Milky Way, which means more stars.

Not all stars are created equal

The Bible also mentions that stars' brightness or magnitude varies.

"The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor." - Corinthians 15:41

In 1908, American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) discovered a direct relationship between the rate at which a *Cepheid fluctuates in brightness and its luminosity or absolute brightness. By the year 2020, astronomers had identified more than 2 million variable stars, mostly in our galaxy.

*Cepheid is a type of star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature and producing changes in brightness with a well-defined stable period and amplitude.

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