Scientific errors in the Bible

Die-hard YECs claim that the Bible is infallible. Indeed, much of their arguments against Evolution seem to rest on this very position.I have discussed evolution and creationism on Norwegian websites for quite some time, but I have never had the scientific errors in the Bible explained and I hope some christian fundamentalist on this forum can explain the following:1. The Bible clearly states that insects have four legs (believe me, they have six, and spiders have eight!):"Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth. Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. " (Lev. 11.21-22)2. The hare is a ruminant!:"And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you." (Lev. 11.6.)There are many, many more examples of how scientifically wrong the Bible is, but being an biologist, these are my favourites. I just hope some of you fundamentalists can try to explain this away.The Arachnophile

Hi Arachnophile! Welcome to evcforum. From your pseudonym, I'm hoping you're an entomologist.

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Thanks. Well, actually I am an arachnologist (we deal with spiders, daddy longlegs, and other arachnids).

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We have a YEC here who has been arguing that insects could have survived the year-long putative Flood by hanging on to hypothetical vegetation mats . This, of course, to preclude having to have several million additional species on the Ark. It's on one of the Flood threads (sorry, you'll have to dig through them.) Maybe you could show possibly how few species could conceivably have survived in this manner. The argument was getting tiresome.[/QUOTE]Thanks. I'll try to find it.The Arachnophile

Hmm. A bit difficult to find papers for free on the web but here are some links that may help: http://www.brics.dk/~krink/netSpinner/index.htmlhttp://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA/JoA_v27_n1/arac_27_01_0053.pdfhttp://www.unibas.ch/dib/nlu/staff/sz/pdf/nomenorb.pdfhttp://www.gwu.edu/~clade/spiders/jc.htmI would recommend that you try to obtain the following books/articles:Coddington, J. A. 1986. The monophyletic origin of the orb web. In W. A. Shear, ed. Spider Webs and Spider Behavior, pp. 319-363. Stanford Univ. Press.Coddington, J. A. 1989. Spinneret silk spigot morphology. Evidence for the monophyly of orb-weaving spiders, Cyrtophorinae (Araneidae), and the group Theridiidae-Nesticidae. J. Arachnology, 17(1): 71-95.Griswold, C. E., J. A. Coddington, G. Hormiga, and N. Scharff. 1998. Phylogeny of the orb-web building spiders (Araneae, Orbiculariae: Deinopoidea, Araneoidea). Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 123: 1-99.Hope this helps.And yes, spiders are wonderful creatures which are so complex in their contruction and behaviour that it is easy to believe they must be created by a supernatural being!Spiders are also excellent model organisms for the study of evolution and evolutionary mechanisms.The Arachnophile

Just a quick response, JJboy!I cannot imagine that there is a single human being on this planet, past or present, who has not seen an insect! And everyone who has seen an insect must surely know that they do not have the same body plan as more "commonly seen" animals!The hare is a coprophage, not a ruiminant. Big diference, biologically speaking.Layman's terms you say, perhaps so. And if Creationists didn't press so hard on the issue of the scientific significance of the Bible, I wouldn't mind such minor inaccuracies. But it shows that, scientifically, the Bible is wrong on occation and not inerrrant.The Arachnophile

"Don't you think possibly that when it says "Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet", so it's saying four legs, then they have legs above their feet, two more?"It is entriely possible that God meant to say that insects have six legs, but why not spell it out??? I mean, surely he knows what an insect looks like and does not need to be mysterious about it?The most interesting part of your reply is this passage, however:
"...don't stoop so low as to think that you have the right to act like you know what the bible means"Who has the right to act like they know what the Bible means? People who agree with your interpretation??? This is creationist-religious arguing at its best!The Arachnophile