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Below is a short list of things you won't see mentioned in the Bible ( to the best of my memory . Maybe I'll stand corrected on one or two)
Pi
Germs
Bacteria
Viruses
Special theory of relativity
General theory of relativity
A listing of the planets in our solar system
Galaxies
Electrons
Protons
Neutrons
Any other particle of physics
Calculus
Distance to the sun
Diameter of the moon
Distance to the moon
North America
South America
Australia
The Pacific Ocean
Frozen polar regions
Mt Everest
Kangaroos
Platypus
Llama
Penguins
Native Americans
Australian aborigines
Vaccinations
Printing press ( would have been helpful for printing these Bibles cheaper and faster )
Steam engine
Heimlich maneuver
Abolition of slavery
Equal rights for women
Child protection rights
Or, to put it another and shorter way, there is nothing in the Bible that wasn't already known to man. No new ideas, no new medical advice, no info on math, astronomy, etc, no lands or people's not already known to Jews, no animals not already know to Jews, no new inventions , nothing . In all of a book dictated by God for the benefit of humans, not one single bit of knowledge or advice that wasn't already known to humans . God dictates 66 books and in not a one of them does He reveal anything new to humans .
Wonder why that is ?
Last edited by wallflash; 05-04-2016 at 08:08 PM..
Printing press ( would have been helpful for printing these Bibles cheaper and faster )
I like to remind folks that most people, for most of human history, didn't have access to Holy Writ, or the basic literacy skills for it to matter. Most people heard teachings allegedly based on scripture, filtered through their family and local priest. So as a mechanism for delivering revelation to humanity, holy books are nowhere near as impressive as they are often made out to be, particularly by Christian fundamentalist / literalist / Bibliolater types.
Only in the past couple hundred years has the intersection of the printing press and widespread literacy rendered the Bible fairly accessible for study by those interested; and even then, the odds that they would independently arrive at the correct interpretive framework out of literally thousands being promulgated, is practically nil.
Only in the past couple of decades, with the addition of the Internet as a research tool, could random persons understand not only the Bible but its sociological and cultural context, and hope to parse it or synthesize the clamber of voices claiming to have parsed it.
And yet Bibliolaters generally extol the virtues of the inerrant scriptures as if this current situation has always been in place.
All this, and if you actually study the scriptures you just find out that it leads from behind, and reflects the ignorance of humanity at the time it was written.
One of the reasons only the very wealthy and churches owned the Sacred Scriptures is that it cost a lot of money to pay the scribes to hand write every word in the Bible, collate it, and bind it into a book. It was not until the printing press that the Bible was more accessible to the common man. But even then, the Catholic Church did forbid common folks from reading it. Even when I was a child I was not allowed to read it but I would sneak it out anyway.
Now then, concerning the OP, why is it a negative for the Bible to not say things concerning modern technology since it is a collection of historic documents concerned with Israel, genealogies leading to the promised Messiah and other historical accounts? It is not meant to be a book on science. But there is no other collection of historic writings like the Sacred Scriptures. It stands on its own.
One of the reasons only the very wealthy and churches owned the Sacred Scriptures is that it cost a lot of money to pay the scribes to hand write every word in the Bible, collate it, and bind it into a book. It was not until the printing press that the Bible was more accessible to the common man. But even then, the Catholic Church did forbid common folks from reading it. Even when I was a child I was not allowed to read it but I would sneak it out anyway.
Now then, concerning the OP, why is it a negative for the Bible to not say things concerning modern technology since it is a collection of historic documents concerned with Israel, genealogies leading to the promised Messiah and other historical accounts? It is not meant to be a book on science. But there is no other collection of historic writings like the Sacred Scriptures. It stands on its own.
Plus any mention of a modern day term like "steam engine" would be meaningless gibberish to the millions of people who lived before steam engines became a reality. It would be like reading a book today that says in the future, everyone will have a tartrasdan for quadudal therapy.
Plus any mention of a modern day term like "steam engine" would be meaningless gibberish to the millions of people who lived before steam engines became a reality. It would be like reading a book today that says in the future, everyone will have a tartrasdan for quadudal therapy.
Plus any mention of a modern day term like "steam engine" would be meaningless gibberish to the millions of people who lived before steam engines became a reality. It would be like reading a book today that says in the future, everyone will have a tartrasdan for quadudal therapy.
In other words..... "God had to dumb it down for the people of the time".
Ok.... I think you missed the point. The point was, there is nothing in the Bible that wasn't known in the area it was written in. You would think God would have been concerned with more than just 1 small area in the Middle East. Other than that, it is pretty convenient that there is nothing there that people of the day didn't already know. Shows that is was simply a book written by men of the time.
Plus any mention of a modern day term like "steam engine" would be meaningless gibberish to the millions of people who lived before steam engines became a reality. It would be like reading a book today that says in the future, everyone will have a tartrasdan for quadudal therapy.
So you're saying that an all-powerful God can't even explain technology. Amazing. Apparently HowStuffWorks.com is superior to your god.
I'm no rocket scientist but I can look at a diagram of a rocket and at least get a very basic understanding of how they work, even if all of the details would be "gibberish" to me.
I'm working on a book called "1001 Rationalizations for Conservative Christian Belief." I thank you for your contribution.
One of the reasons only the very wealthy and churches owned the Sacred Scriptures is that it cost a lot of money to pay the scribes to hand write every word in the Bible, collate it, and bind it into a book. It was not until the printing press that the Bible was more accessible to the common man.
My point exactly. it was nothing more than the practical problem that copies were costly and literacy the exception rather than the rule. Both factors left actual Bible study available only to the wealthy and powerful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eusebius
But even then, the Catholic Church did forbid common folks from reading it. Even when I was a child I was not allowed to read it but I would sneak it out anyway.
And thanks for reminding me of that point. Odd that the church would find it threatening for the dissemination of scripture to be as wide as possible -- until you stop to realize that it weakened their exclusive and powerful role as the sole arbiters of orthodoxy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eusebius
Now then, concerning the OP, why is it a negative for the Bible to not say things concerning modern technology since it is a collection of historic documents concerned with Israel, genealogies leading to the promised Messiah and other historical accounts? It is not meant to be a book on science. But there is no other collection of historic writings like the Sacred Scriptures. It stands on its own.
I agree that it's not a fatal problem for it to not mention technology other than what was known at the time of writing. But you have to admit that some REAL prophecy would be pretty impressive. "Behold, there are 11 planets* and these are the number and characteristics of them ... the fourth planet hath two tiny moons and a ruddy complexion and a thin atmosphere ... the fifth hath been smashed to rubble and spread into a ring round about the sun ... the sixth is more than eleven times the size of earth and hath many moons and a great read spot" etc. Imagine what a testament to divine revelation that would be for humanity to discover that, indeed each planet and its satellites and general characteristics were foretold some 1,500 years before the invention of the telescope.
Of course the bigger problem is the lack of moral leadership -- no clear denunciation of human slavery or indentured servitude, or various forms of bigotry, for instance. Rather, an assumption of these institutions and attitudes as givens.
* After all, who says that even now we have discovered them all!
Plus any mention of a modern day term like "steam engine" would be meaningless gibberish to the millions of people who lived before steam engines became a reality. It would be like reading a book today that says in the future, everyone will have a tartrasdan for quadudal therapy.
Of course; you need the perquisites to comprehend what such a thing would be. So god would have had to provide a description of the fundamentals. Or it could have been as I was taught at Bible Institute: the purpose of prophecy is not for the generation to whom it is given, but to a later generation who would see the fulfillment and glorify god. So a description of the steam engine that would baffle someone in 500 BC who would see it as fantastical, but would be instantly recognizable in 1850 AD, such as:
Quote:
In the latter days shall the sons and daughters of men build an engine of steam which will run on shiny rails and belch smoke like unto a dragon, and go to an fro at the command of its captain. Its power cometh from burning wood, and it roareth forth faster than a horse runneth, and carryeth hundreds of souls at a time. Know that when the sons of men build the steam engine, the end of days is less than two hundred years away.
Your kind seem eager to interpret a toss-off reference in the Bible to "the circle of the earth" as an affirmation that the earth is spherical, despite all the overt references to standard ancient middle Eastern cosmology (firmament, pillars of the earth, etc) but the lack of any unambiguous forward references that would have been beyond the ken of ancient man, you are equally eager to say are impossible for your all powerful deity.
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