When Chemists Attack

There are people out there who want to use the Christian Bible as a science textbook. I am not exactly sure why they do this, but it forces them to use all sorts of weird mental gymnastics to make right that which modern science has shown to be wrong. It’s tough to be a Biblical literalist. Mike Adams (link above) illustrates why:

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?

Adams is apparently suggesting here that we start to perform ritual animal sacrifices – which is what Leviticus 17 is clearly about if you read the whole chapter. Adams claims to be on his eigth reading of the Bible and should know what the context of his quote is, right?

This particular chapter is also one of those that inspire Jehovah’s Witnesses to refuse blood transfusions, and we all know how well that goes.

Back to Adams

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.”

Circles are flat. Perhaps it would mesh better with modern science if the verse had said “sphere”. But as long as we’re in Isaiah, let’s visit Isaiah 24:1 – Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. How’s that supposed to happen? (This verse makes perfect sense if the Earth is flat, but not so much sense if it’s spherical.)

I should add that Adams would have to look really hard to find “scientists” who thought the Earth was flat throughout much of recorded human history. Heck, the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was spherical and even estimated its size!

Can’t we all just stop trying to turn religious books into science books? It’s bad for science teaching, and it’s bad for religion.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 10:01 pm and is filed under The culture wars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.