Friday, July 19, 2013

The Bible vs. Euclid's Elements

Many apologists claim that the Bible contains many scientific insights that were clearly "divinely inspired", and this clearly shows its divine authorship. Yet when you look at these alleged "scientific" passages, they are always extremely vague and open to interpretation, usually requiring really wild stretching to fit them into some modern scientific fact. Also, none of these alleged "scientific insights" has ever helped science to progress and to make new discoveries and understand how the world really works.

Some apologists might argue that the poetic nature of those passages is simply because of the limited language of those times.

However, it's not like we don't have anything that we could compare to. Take for example Euclid's Elements, which is a series of books written in about 300 BC. Very much unlike these biblical passages, these books are stock full of clear, unambiguous and accurate definitions and mathematically correct postulations and proofs, all of which is written in an amazingly clear and understandable manner. More importantly, it's written in a manner that has actually helped science in its progress and its understanding. Most of what is written in Elements is as factual and accurate today as it was 2300 years ago, and is unambiguously so, with no need for wild interpretation. Quite clearly the author or authors knew exactly what they were writing.

This is a wonderful demonstration that even with the written language of 2300 years ago it was perfectly possible to write in a clear and accurate manner, and to present scientific facts unambiguously and clearly, facts that have actually helped humanity.

The Bible fails miserably in all possible counts.

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