40 Scientific Inaccuracies from the Bible

Christian believers the world over claim the Bible to be the inerrant word of an all-wise Creator, even when its pages stray into the realm of science. But how do the Bible's many claims stack up against modern scientific knowledge?

TIMESTAMPS!

A. Cosmology

(1) - 23:54 - The universe was not made in 6 days (Genesis 1:1-31; Exodus 20:8-11)
(2) - 28:54 - Stars do burn out, fail or go “missing” (Isaiah 40:26)
(3) - 30:53 - Stars could never fall to the earth (Daniel 8:10, Matthew 24:29, Revelation 6:13)
(4) - 32:41 - Stars don’t determine the outcome of battles or orbit earth (Judges 5:20)
(5) - 33:52 - Jehovah doesn’t direct the constellations (Job 38:31-33)
(6) - 34:42 - Earth was not made before the sun and stars (Genesis 1:14-19)
(7) - 35:46 - The moon does not emit light (Genesis 1:14-19, Isaiah 13:10; 30:26; 60:19, Jeremiah 31:35, Ezekiel 32:7-8, Matthew 24:29)
(8) - 36:21 - The sun is not a mere light that can be paused or reversed (Joshua 10:13, 14, 2 Kings 20:11, Amos 8:9, Habakkuk 3:11)
(9) - 38:06 - The heavens do not have “foundations” or “pillars” (2 Samuel 22:8, Job 26:11)

B. Geology

(10) - 40:36 - Earth and its geological features are in motion (1 Chronicles 16:30; Psalm 65:6; 93:1; 96:10; 104:8, Proverbs 8:25)
(11) - 43:10 - Earth is not disc shaped (Isaiah 40:22, compare Isaiah 22:18)
(12) - 46:37 - Earth does not have “boundaries” or “ends” (Job 38:13, Psalm 74:17, Isaiah 5:26)
(13) - 47:12 - The earth does not have “four corners” (Isaiah 11:12, Ezekiel 7:2, Revelation 7:1)
(14) - 47:26 - Earth is not “long” or flat “like clay under a seal” (Job 11:9; 38:5, 14)
(15) - 50:16 - There is no hypothetical vantage point for viewing the whole earth (Daniel 4:10, 11; Matthew 4:8)
(16) - 51:39 - The earth has no cornerstone, pillars, supports or foundations (1 Sam 2:8, 2 Sam 22:16, Job 9:6; 38:4-6, Psalm 75:3; 82:5, Isaiah 24:18; 48:13, Jeremiah 31:37, Micah 6:2, Zechariah 12:1)
(17) - 52:05 - The sea has no permanently fixed “boundaries” (Job 38:8-11, Jeremiah 5:22)
(18) - 53:58 - There are no “gates of death” (Job 38:17)
(19) - 54:45 - There’s no scientific evidence to support a global flood (Genesis 6:9-8:19)

C. Meteorology

(20) - 56:44 - There was never any firmament or canopy above the earth (Genesis 1:6-8; 8:2)
(21) - 57:54 - The sky is not solid (Job 37:18)
(22) - 59:08 - God doesn’t draw up water (Job 36:27, 28)
(23) - 1:01:17 - God doesn’t direct the weather (Job 38:25-29, 35-37)
(24) - 1:02:29 - Snow and hail isn’t “stored” (Job 38:22, 23)
(25) - 1:02:51 - Rainbows did not begin in 2369 BCE (Genesis 9:13-17)

D. Biology

(26) - 1:04:14 - The first man wasn’t made 6,000 years ago out of dust (Genesis 1:27: 2:7; 3:19)
(27) - 1:04:41 - The first woman wasn’t made from one of man’s ribs (Genesis 2:18-22)
(28) - 1:06:47 - The origin of humans doesn’t predate rain and vegetation (Genesis 2:5-7)
(29) - 1:09:10 - There were no angel-human hybrid giants (Genesis 6:4)
(30) - 1:10:14 - God didn’t bring all animal life to one man for naming (Genesis 2:18-20)
(31) - 1:10:57 - Flying creatures did not precede land animals (Genesis 1:21-24)
(32) - 1:15:53 - Life evolved through evolution by natural selection (Genesis 1:20-25)
(33) - 1:18:51 - Animals aren’t in “subjection” to humans (Genesis 1:26-27)
(34) - 1:20:54 - Carnivores did not originate as herbivores (Genesis 1:30)
(35) - 1:22:14 - Not all animals are terrified of humans (Genesis 9:2)
(36) - 1:24:26 - Snails don’t melt as they move along (Psalm 58:8)
(37) - 1:25:45 - There’s no such thing as a flying, fiery snake (Isaiah 30:6)
(38) - 1:27:15 - A human can’t survive 3 days in the digestive system of a fish (Jonah 1:17)

E. Linguistics

(39) - 1:31:57 - Human languages didn’t originate at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:5-9)

F. Mathematics

(40) - 1:33:01 - The value of pi is not 3, it’s approx. 3.14 (1 Kings 7:23-26; 2 Chronicles 4:2-5)

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#bible #science

[olivertatlow]

An easy guide on how to interpret the bible, as practised by all christian apologists:-

1. Any verse that says something nice and reasonable is to be taken literally and proves how great the bible is.

2. Any verse that says something outrageous and ridiculous is just a poetic metaphor and needs to be reinterpreted to mean something different.

[katrinabergmanmccolloch]

It blows my mind that a book that starts with a talking snake could be taken as anything but fiction. I have not been able to swallow biblical fairytales even from childhood. I am bewildered how people believe the bible to be a serious book.

[skepticspropaganda]

The idea of a human being swallowed up by a large marine animal for three days and coming out of it having not suffered any effects of asphyxiation (which will kill you in minutes) having not sustained damage from stomach acids (which may dissolve a body within a few days) is, I would admit, difficult to swallow.

[ilonahaun]

Imagine you are a scientist and have spent your whole life trying to understand and explain the world with millions of other scientists and their scientific pioneers for centuries.
Always in competition with each other but at the same time in fruitful cooperation.
Sometimes on the wrong track, but more often with logical findings that are also confirmed by other scientists and also confirmed from not subject specific scientist who are not familiar with the subject.
...and over time, a coherent and well-rounded picture of the world emerges and how everything works.

...and then someone comes and says: All nonsense! I have here an old book...

[opietwoep]

Saying the Bible is a book of science is like saying Moby Dick is a marine biology textbook

[matthewgriffiths]

My sister is a Christian and no matter what I say her response is always “God made it possible” very frustrating

[Captain-lnvh]

I’m Atheist because I’ve read the whole Bible. I wasn’t born again, I set myself free.

[MarkJones-fwmo]

Believer's aren't interested in facts. There afraid of going to hell for believing in facts.

[scottbeesley]

I was raised as a JW and left when I was around 17. As I started to fade out my mother pleaded with me to have a weekly bible study with an elder, to ease her mind I agreed. He was not an idiot and could tell that I was becoming sceptical of the whole thing. His big ace up his sleeve that proved the bible was the real deal was the verse you spoke about at 43:10 where Isiah spoke about the 'circle' of the Earth. He told me that back then everyone thought the Earth was flat, but here was Isiah, using the information he received from big J, talking about how it was round. For him, this proved that the bible was all factual truth. I looked straight up after reading this verse and said, 'but the Earth isn't a circle, it's a sphere.' 'Oh, same thing.' He says while brushing it aside.

What a joke.

[BigDrill]

As an engineering student, I am so glad you made this. I am so sick of the inaccuracies being brushed off and thrown aside by religions.

[Phoenix-King-ozai]

Only 40 ?

A better approach might be to actually list the accuracies

[sheldy]

We live in SC, when my daughter was in 7th grade, in a public school, a student asked "why do fish have scales" her answer "Because god gave them scales"

[canipoo]

TIP: watch this video on 1.5x speed, it's 200% better. He talks really slow, still a good video though.

[Ottonio]

"It is not the aim of science to open a door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error."
- Bertold Brecht

[bubbythebrow]

Honestly for my whole life I have wanted to trust the bible implicitly. But for me I just have noticed so many things for my self that didn't add up. But I genuinely wanted to believe it all to be true. Its been an internal struggle most of my life. I am a JW but have been inactive for several years. I don't blame anyone for wanting to believe in a creator or in the bible and if they live as better people for it good on them. I have also taken issue with many thing especially the cherry picking of carbon dating. It just always felt disingenuous to me. But ultimately there are parts of me that wish I could be simple minded and not question things. It seems like such a simple life.


I used to be envious of people who could just read something and believe. Meanwhile I stay up for days at a time researching little details, I hate it. One thing that has always bothered me about religion in general is when you would pose a logical question that was very sound and had no biblical reason, you are met one of two ways. Your an apostate or you just lack faith. Now I am not here to side with one or the other. Just to give an account of someone stuck in a sort of limbo for most of my life. Its a strange place to be when you question both sides of the argument. I have watched many debates and read many articles and haven't found my self satisfied by either side. One thing I did years ago I decided to not question or care anymore just live my life the way I wanted. I have no remorse or guilt I am actually much happier living in the now. Not that I'm trying to dissuade anyone from finding a god or religion. I just remember the countless nights of not feeling good enough for my inquisitiveness. I just accepted ill never be satisfied with any answer and quit caring from both perspectives.

[patchnpaw]

As absolutely devoted as I was to our weird cult growing up, there were a few things I just found weird and no adult was willing or able to answer. One of them was the claim that heaven exists in another "dimension" while the hell is literally in the center of the Earth. Like why... I expected the hell to just be the polar opposite of heaven. And there was no indication that in general, the Earth itself is the opposite of heaven. If both god and satan are spiritual beings and perfectly capable of inhabiting another plane, why is god in another dimension and hell just under our toilet

[catmeow]

I’ll be calling my insurance company to inform them that their “acts of god” excuse is unscientific.

[thegreaterlight]

To reply to a hour and 38 minutes of trying to find errors in the Bible will take a long long time, so i picked 1 verse out of many mentioned here.

1 Chronicles 16:30: Does the Bible Say the Earth Doesn't Move?

A frequent visitor to my blog left a comment where he alluded to biblical passages that speak of the earth not moving (geocentricism). He did not cite a specific verse but this is not the first time I heard that criticism so I'm aware of certain passages which are frequently cited in support of that claim. Perhaps the most frequently cited is 1 Chronicles 16:30 :

Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. (1 Chronicles 16:30)

At first hearing, this criticism seems to have legs (for any Bible critic reading this, I'm using an expression. The criticism does not "literally" have legs). The genre of 1 Chronicles is historical narrative - unlike Psalms which is Hebrew poetry. So when we read a passage like 1 Chron 16:30 in the midst of historical narrative, it seems as though the Bible might literally be saying the earth does not move. A quick look at the context, however, quickly dispels that notion.

First off, the passage is clearly introduced as a psalm (ie “song” or “prayer”) of David. 1 Chronicles 16: 7 says, " Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren." Like the book of Psalms, the passage uses poetic descriptions to convey spiritual truth - not necessarily literal truth. In the same passage (v. 32-33) David says that the sea “roars, ” the fields “rejoice, ” and the trees “sing.”

Why not the same critics who allege this passage endorses geocentricism, also assert the Bible teaches that trees sing? It's because they know that people will immediately recognize trees singing as an obvious use of metaphor. Yet they still quote v. 30 as though it's meant to be a statement of fact. This is a clear case of quote mining where critics cite a passage out of context in order to make it sound like the Bible says something that it clearly does not intend.

Another thing we must be careful to consider is what is meant by the use of words like "world" and "earth." Often, when these words are used, they are not referring to the physical earth but the people of the earth. This is demonstrated in the same verse in question. 1 Chron 16:30 says, "Fear before Him all the earth." Do you think this means the literal “earth” should fear Him or does it not more likely mean the people of the earth? It could mean the literal earth in the same sense that the “fields” rejoice. On the other hand, it could also mean the people of the earth. The Bible does use the words “earth” and “world” in that sense; H ere are some indisputable examples where this is so:

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. ( Isaiah 13: 11a )

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. ( Luke 2: 1 )

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ( John 3:16 )

In these passages, and others, the word “world” clearly means the people who live in the world. No one, for example, could rationally argue that Luke 2: 1 means that the literal earth (that is, dirt and rock) is going to be taxed.

We also have to ask what is meant by "not moved." The most ordinary meaning, of course, is that it means “stationary” and that is what the critics who cite this passage claim it means. However, "not moved" can also mean "not moved from its course" or "unpersuaded." Psalm 21: 7 says, "For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved." I'll ask you: does this passage mean the king is stationary or does it mean that he should not be moved from his trust in the Lord?

In conclusion, remember that this is a psalm. In a poetic passage that says the Lord established the earth that it should not be moved, it would be entirely unreasonable to interpret that to mean the Lord established the ways of the earth (or its people) and it / they will not be moved from the way He established? What is unreasonable is that critics (whether intentionally or by ignorance) ignore the clear context of a passage and assert the correct interpretation of an obvious use of poetry is that it is meant to be literal fact. It's no wonder that critics see the Bible as rife with errors. They obviously have trouble reading.

Plus a quick note also on on Psalm 104:8

Please read in context instead of trying to mislead people.

You said and displayed it in writing at minute 42:08

8 -Mountains ascended + and valleys descended -
To the place you established for them.

But if we read it in context

1 verse before and 1 verse after

7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.

Obviously it is talking about the waters not the mountains and the valleys. Please do not mislead people.

P.S. this is a Psalm, the book of Psalms is poetry

Please do read the Bible in context and do a little bit more research on the type of literature of the text is written in, before trying to say that it is in error.

Thank you and be blessed in Jesus' mighty name.

[EmersumBiggins]

After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, god says, “now they have become like us, in that they know right from wrong”. A couple of points: 1) Who is “us”? How many times are we told there is only ONE GOD?
2) Obviously, before they ate from the tree, they did not know right from wrong. How can a just being punish those who do not know what wrong is? Further, how can the being punish all descendants of those who didn’t know right from wrong?

[JohnPatrickCarroll]

Thanks so much for the chapters & timestamps in the description!