Scientific Evidence

Famous Scientists Who Believed the Bible is God’s Word

Bible-believing Christians are often portrayed as anti-science. Their views on concepts such as a young earth or miraculous healing or serious prayer put them at odds with those who claim knowledge and facts have enlightened them to ‘reality’.

However, some of the most brilliant minds in history have been scientists who believed that the Bible is God’s Word. These people have had a profound impact and influence in the world. Christians are not anti-science. In fact, as Christians, we see that science has confirmed many things in the Bible.

Who are some of the many famous scientists that believed the Bible is God’s Word?

Blaise Pascal (mathematician, inventor) -planets travel around the sun
Nicholas Copernicus (mathematician, astronomer) – heliocentric universe
Johannes Kepler (German astronomer) – laws of planetary motion
Isaac Newton (mathematician, astronomer, physicist) – formulated laws of motion and gravitation
William Kelvin (physicist, engineer) – formulated the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics
Louis Pasteur (French biologist, chemist) – principles of vaccinations, microbial fermentation, pasteurization – rejected spontaneous generation

Laws of Thermodynamics

The Law of the Conservation of Energy

The total quantity of energy in the universe is constant.
Energy can be transferred to one form or another, but it can neither be created or destroyed.

What does the Bible say?
Genesis 2:1-2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

God was finished creating when He rested on the seventh day. There was nothing left to create. Everything that was needed for His creation was included in the first six days of the creative process. There has never been a time since the events of the first chapter of Genesis where God saw a need to make something in addition to what was already made (see notes on ‘biogenesis’ below).

The Law of Entropy

The unavailability of energy
The universe is constantly getting more disorderly.
If left to themselves, systems deteriorate, going from order to disorder.

Biological systems – illness and disease
Societal systems – breakdown of the family, crime, abortion
Economic systems – greed, poverty
Religious systems – false belief systems, apostasy

What does the Bible say?
Genesis 2:16-17
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

“Dying, you will die” – not sudden, but slow deterioration, the aging process

When the first man and first woman sinned, the process of deterioration began. In fact, God put the whole creation under a curse because He took this act of disobedience very seriously.

Genesis 3:17b-19
17b Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Assumptions/Questions on Scientific Dating Methods

Scientific dating methods (Carbon-14, Radiometric, etc) is not an exact science. There is much complex information regarding the use of these methods which will not be covered in this class. However, we can ask a few questions about these techniques, since the findings often conflict with the evidences for a young earth:

On Dating Methods

Are the initial conditions of the artifacts known?
Is the decay rate constant?
Is there leaching in the surrounding material?
Have there been any dramatic physical changes (flood, fire, earthquake)?

On Apparent Age

Was Adam created as a baby or a man? How old did he appear when he was first created out of dust?
When Eve was made from Adam’s side, how old did she appear?
When the trees were made, did they appear to be mature trees? Did they have rings?

Biogenesis

Organisms don’t spontaneously create themselves.
Life begets life.
Living organisms come from living organisms.

What does the Bible say?

Plants

Genesis 1:11-12
11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

In other words, plants will reproduce plants just like themselves. Pine trees will reproduce pine trees. Corn will reproduce corn. No farmer ever planted corn and received a crop of Christmas trees.

It’s the same principle in the animal kingdom. Birds reproduce birds, mammals reproduce mammals. Robin eggs don’t hatch as chickens, and bunnies don’t turn into leopards. It seems obvious right? This is the kind of ORDER God put into place.

Birds and Sea Creatures

Genesis 1:21-22
21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

The Animal Kingdom

Genesis 1:24-25
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

The Crown of God’s Creation: Man and Woman

Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

In the continuation of human life, a man and a woman reproduce another human life. We are indeed created in the image of God, with a mind to think and be creative. Able to express kindness and love. Able to recognize and appreciate beauty.

The Earth

500 B.C. – Pythagoras first proposed a spherical earth based on aesthetic grounds rather than science.
384-322 B.C. – Aristotle proposed a spherical earth based on scientific evidence.
240 B.C. – Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth, estimated at 24,000 to 29,000 miles.
2nd Century A.D. – Ptolemy, using similar techniques as Eratosthenes, estimated the circumference of the earth at 18,000 miles.
1492 A.D. – Columbus believed Ptolemy’s values rather than Eratosthenes. He was convinced the Earth was small enough to sail around.

What does the Bible say?

Job 26:7
He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.

In perhaps the oldest book of the Bible, Job informs us about how how God suspends the earth in space. It’s amazing to think that something weighing 1000 trillion metric tons can hang in space… with nothing holding it up.

But this shouldn’t be surprising, since Jesus Christ maintains the universe. Colossians 1:17 tells us, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together”.

The Number of Stars

Ptolemy

Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer.
Published Almagest in 1515 A.D., declaring 1028 stars in 48 constellations.

What does the Bible say?

The stars are innumerable!

Genesis 15:5
And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

Genesis 22:17
Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

Isaiah 40:25-26
25 “To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

In imaging experiments with the Hubble Space Telescope at Ithaca College in New York, it was estimated that there are 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that by the Milky Way’s estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number indeed:

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars – That’s, “1” with 24 zeros after it.

Hydrological Cycle

Precipitation
Accumulation
Evaporation
Condensation

The hydrological cycle consists of a repeated pattern of precipitation falling from the clouds, landing on the earth and then accumulating in bodies of water during the runoff. The water then evaporates into the clouds. The clouds will store as much water as they can while the wind blows the clouds to a different area. When the clouds are full, the cycle begins all over again with precipitation.

What does the Bible say?

Job 26:8
He wraps up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst under them.

Job 36:27-28
27 For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist,
28 Which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly.

Ecclesiastes 1:6-7
6 Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns.
7 All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.

God knows where the water needs to be and how to get it there!

Blood Systems

We have a complex network of blood vessels, veins, arteries and capillaries that carry blood to every part of our bodies.
The blood contains special kinds of cells that have different important jobs.
Red cells carry oxygen and remove carbon dioxide.
White cells protect the body from infectious disease and they are very critical for the immune system.
Plasma contains nutrients, salt, enzymes, hormones and proteins.
Platelets are used to form clots and stop bleeding. They clump up and cause the blood to coagulate. Pretty important for injuries!

What does the Bible say?

Genesis 17:12
And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations.

Philippians 3:4-5
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee.

What was up with being circumcised on the EIGHTH DAY?

Vitamin K, coupled with prothrombin, causes blood coagulation.
Vitamin K and prothrombin levels are at their peak on the 8th day after birth.
Day 8 is the best day to circumcise in order to prevent hemorrhaging (a male will never have higher levels the rest of his life under normal circumstances).

How Did George Washington Die?
Bloodletting – surgical removal of a patient’s blood for therapeutic purposes. It was thought to cure illness or disease. To ‘cure’ Washington of a severe cold, the bloodletting process was performed 4 different times. ½ pint of blood removed on the first bleeding; 32 ounces of blood removed on the last bleeding. It’s estimated that 35% of his blood had been removed.

BLOOD IS EXTREMELY VITAL FOR OUR VERY EXISTENCE! WITHOUT IT WE WILL DIE.

Leviticus 17:11

For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.

Given the importance of our own physical blood to keep us alive, it is amazing to think that God saw it necessary to have His own Son’s blood spilled in order to save us from our sin. Only the blood of the spotless Lamb of God would be sufficient to take away our sins.

Hebrews 9:22
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Revelation 1:5
To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.