Is God a Programmer?

Jesus the ProgrammerWhen we begin to perceive God as a programmer, scriptures that may have eluded you in the past regain clarity.  What used to be mysteries of the Bible will become answers.  Questions that used to ‘stump’ us as Christians, become opportunities to provide witness and a fresh perspective to skeptics and atheists.

I encountered an article on the internet with this title:

I challenge any Christian to solve these so-called mysteries/miracles of the Bible that we can’t seem to figure out even in modern day!

ANSWER

–Challenge accepted

(This yahoo question is copied directly from yahoo answers.. Grammatical errors and all.  I will refrain from attacking the spelling and grammatical errors, as it is off topic and I don’t want to dilute the challenge by questioning the writers general level of education, intellect or IQ.  His questions are the focus of my rebuttal.)

This first five of your “mysteries/miracles” of the Bible can be grouped as order of creation:

Questions 1-5

1. Astronomy: First we deal with Astronomy., The Bible speaks about the creation of the universe. In the beginning, 1st Book, Book of Genesis, 1st Ch., it is mentioned – It says… ‘Almighty God created the Heavens and the Earth, in six days and talks about a evening and a morning, referring to a 24 – hour day. Today scientists tell us, that the universe cannot be created in a 24 hour period of six days.

2. The Bible says in Genesis Ch. No. 1 Verses No. 3 and 5,…‘Light was created on the first day.’ Genesis, Ch., 1 Verses, 14 to 19… ‘The cause of light – stars and the sun, etc. was created on the fourth day’. How can the cause of light be created on the 4th day – later than the light which came into existence on the first day? – It is unscientific.

3. Further, the, Bible says Genesis, Ch. 1, Verses 9 to 13… ‘Earth was created on the 3rd day. How can you have a night and day without the earth ? The day depends upon the rotation of the Earth Without the earth created, how can you have a night and day?

4. Genesis, Ch. No. 1 Verses 9 to 13 says… ‘Earth was created on the third day.’ Genesis Ch. No. 1 Verses 14 to 19 says…‘The Sun and the Moon were created on the fourth day.’ Today science tells us… ‘Earth is part of the parent body… the sun.’ It cannot come into existence before the sun – It is unscientific.

5. The Bible says in Genesis, Ch. No.1, Verse No. 11 to 13…‘The vegetation, the herbs the shrubs, the trees – they were created on the 3rd day And the Sun, Genesis, Ch. No. 1, Verses. 14 to 19, was created on the 4th day.How can the vegetation come into existence without sunlight, and how can they survive without sunlight ?

Answer

The simple explanation for the order of creation is that God is a programmer, the universe (heavens) is like a computer or a program.  We, and everything we know, are akin to bits of code.  Applications, services, processes, libraries, variables, and functions.  The programmer is not subject to the program.  Time, for example, is an integral function of the computer, but it does not exist outside the computer, and has no bearing on anything outside of the computer.  Inside the computer, however, is a different story.  Time scales down and a universal clock can be used, but lower level clocks can be created and used for particular applications. We see this in our own software today. Video games may have their own timeline, even though they are controlled by the computer and operating system.  So, a program may have it’s own sense of time that is not real-time (as we see it), and may have separate ways of measuring time based on requirements of an application.  So, for example if we were on Mars, we obviously wouldn’t measure a year as 365 days, due to a year being a measurement of how often the earth rotates around the sun.  On Mars, a year would be 687 Earth days (or 669 Martian days).  Timelines are relative to the application.

So, if you were to write a program that contained the entire universe, where would you start?  You might consider starting with the concept of light.

Allow me to paraphrase Genesis 1 to illuminate.

Genesis 1

  1. In the beginning the Programmer of programmers created the Universe (the computer hardware and operating system required to run the software), and planet.Earth (the application).
  2. Planet.Earth was only an idea so far, and the Programmer, while developing the universal water library, was thinking deeply about the concept of water, its process and functions and how that library could achieve His goals.
  3. The Programmer then chose to create the universal light library.
  4. The Programmer really liked the idea of Light as he developed how it would function and work in the operating system. He considered things such as light as well as a lack of light.
  5. He named two variables time.Day and time.Night. This became the first universe.Time.Day and universe.Time.Night cycle
  6. As the Programmer began to think about planet.Earth, universe.Water and universe.Light, he decided that he would work on how to implement the Water library on the earth, and decided that water would be found in solid, liquid and gas form and that he would distribute it in such a way that although there would be liquid water, that the gaseous form of water would still be water in the air,
  7. He then developed a service used to distribute water that would later be called universe.Water.Cycle
  8. The Programmer called the air above the water (that also contained the gaseous form of water) planet.Earth.Atmosphere. This occurred in the second universe.Time.Day and universe.Time.Night cycle
  9. The Programmer then decided to write universe.Water.Liquid (the portion of water in its liquid form to be heavier than air), and allow it to collect in the low parts of the earth, but still allow some parts of the planets crust to rise above it.
  10. He called this dry land planet.Earth.Land. The liquid form of water, when collected in the lower parts of the earth, he called this planet.Earth.Seas.  The Programmer was quite happy with all the code related to Water and Earth and the Sky.  It was all fitting together so nicely.
  11. Now that the Programmer had developed most of the systems required to sustain life, he began to work on the code for different forms of life starting with plants and vegetation and how they would live, reproduce, and what they would be used for.
  12. He envisioned the process of how plants would produce more plants, and saw that it was good.
  13. This occurred in the third universe.Time.Day and universe.Time.Night cycle
  14. The Programmer (knowing that he needed light cycles for his Photosynthesis process to work) decided that He would do this by using light from outer space to determine the time of day, seasons, days and years for planet.Earth.
  15. He decided He would use objects outside of planet.Earth to accomplish this
  16. He created both the objects of the Sun and the Moon to provide light for the planet.Earth object
  17. The Programmer then chose where he would place these objects in relation to all the other stars (developing celestial systems including all the galaxies based on His created model of rotation, gravity, dark matter, quantum physics and other things that we currently do not and may never understand that are part of the basic mechanics of how the Universe system works),
  18. He then developed the priorities of the different systems involved, so that the galaxy would have authority over the stars, and the stars (including our sun) would have authority over our solar system. The Programmer looked over the code so far and saw that it was fantastic
  19. This occurred in the fourth universe.Time.Day and universe.Time.Night cycle
  20. The Programmer began working on the delicate infrastructure and systems of animal life starting with the Sea, everything from Plankton, and all sea life, then moving his attention to the creatures that would fly through the air.
  21. He developed the objects for every creatures of the sea, big and small and all kinds of birds, how they would fly into the sky and all the interrelation dependencies.  He looked at his code and saw how beautiful it was becoming.
  22. The Programmer continued to work on the reproduction systems for all the creatures he created thus far. He also chose where they would reside earth or sea.
  23. This occurred in the fifth universe.Time.Day and universe.Time.Night cycle
  24. The Programmer turned his attention to the creatures he would have reside on the earth. He decided that he would “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds”.
  25. So the Programmer designed all the animals that would live on earth, including from bugs to the largest animals that would walk on the earth. He designed how they would reproduce and all of their interrelation dependencies.  The Programmer saw that everything was good
  26. The Programmer decided to make a creature that would be like, or appear like him and give that creature dominion over all life in the Sea, Air and Earth.
  27. So the Programmer wrote the code for man making him like Himself, and developed mankind’s reproduction plan by creating the code for male and female.
  28. The Programmer gave mankind the power to reproduce, take care of, take control of and rule over all the animals.
  29. Then the Programmer decided that mankind would be given all the plants and the fruits of the trees to for food.
  30. He gave every animal on earth and every bird in the air, and even the bugs and green plants for man to eat
  31. The Programmer looked over everything that he had developed so far, and it was amazing. This all occurred on the sixth day cycle of the computer

Genesis 2

  1. So the development of the code for all the Universe and the planet.Earth and all dependent systems were complete
  2. On the seventh day cycle of the computer, the Programmer ran all the code, which was all of the work that He had done, and he rested.
  3. The Programmer decided to mark the seventh day as a special day, because after all that work creating the universe and everything we (as a created thing) can conceive of, the Programmer did no work.

Again, this is an informal paraphrase, and in no way should be considered canon.  It is merely meant to clarify how the pieces would fit together relating to the original scriptures.  I could go on and on with this, from Genesis, to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, through Revelation, and right on through “eternity”.  An interesting part of this metaphor is that if Moses had written in these terms, it would have been impossible for people to understand, prior to the last 40 years of human history.  Mankind is, for the first time able to have some small concept of what it would take to develop such a complex system.

On to Question 6

QUESTION 6

6. The Bible says in Genesis, Ch. 1, Verses No.16, that…‘God created two lights the greater light, the Sun to rule the day, and the lesser light the Moon, to rule the night. The actual translation, if you go to the Hebrew text, it is ‘lamps’…‘Lamps having lights of its own.’ And that you will come to know better, if you read both the Verses – Genesis, Ch. No.1, Verse. 16, as well as 17. Verse No.17 says…‘And Almighty God placed them in the firmament, to give light to the earth… To give light to the earth.’ Indicating, that Sun and the Moon has its own light – which is in contradiction with established scientific knowledge that we have. “

 

ANSWER

Please see the above paraphrase of Genesis 1:14-19 to explain what was meant.  Using translation semantics in this way, has very little to do with science, and is simply a weak argument.

QUESTION 7

 

7.It is mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Hebrews, Ch. No.1 Verses No.10 and 11, and the book of Psalms, Ch. No.102, Verse No.25 and 26, that…‘Almighty God created the Heavens and the Earth, and they will perish.’ Exactly opposite is mentioned in the book of Ecclesiastics, Ch. No.1, Verse No.4, and the book of Psalms, Ch. No.78, Verse No.69, that… ‘The earth will abide forever.’ Which will take place? The Earth will perish or abide forever? The both can’t take place. It’s unscientific!

 

ANSWER

Actually, you can take both.  Considering the Earth is many things.  To us the Earth is where we abide.  To God, it is a part of a program, a thought, an idea, a memory.  God is eternal, if he pulls the plug on earth, that doesn’t mean the code doesn’t exist anymore.  If we screw it up, it doesn’t mean it never was, and if it ever was… then as long as God is around, then it’s around.

QUESTION 8

8. In the field of ‘Diet and Nutrition’ lets analyse, what does the Bible say. The Bible says in the book of Genesis, Ch. No.1, Verse No.29, that… ‘God has given you all the herbs bearing seeds, the trees bearing fruits – those that bear seed, as meat for you.’ New International Version says… ‘The seed bearing plants, and the trees bearing fruits bearing seeds are food for you, all of them.’ Today, even a layman knows that there are several poisonous plants like wild berries, stritchi, datura, plants containing alkaloid, polyander, bacaipoid – that which if you ingest, if you eat there are high possibilities you may die. How come the Creator of the universe and the human beings, does not know, that if you have these plants, you will die.

ANSWER

This scripture is prior to the fall of man into sin, prior to the judgement on the earth.  You would know that if you read the Bible.  You have lost context.

QUESTION 9

9. The Bible has a scientific test how to identify a true believer. It is mentioned in the Gospel of Mark, Ch. No.16, Verse No.17 and 18 – It says that… ‘There will be signs for true believers and among the signs – In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak foreign tongues, new tongues, they shall take up serpents – And if they drink deadly poison, they shall not be harmed – And when they place their hand over the sick, they shall be cured.’ This is a scientific test – In scientific terminology, it is known as the ‘confirmatory test’ for a true Christian believer. There has not been a single true believing Christian that has ever passed this test, because no one’s willing to even try.

ANSWER

If you were to read the book of Acts, you would see that those signs do follow those who believe.  And I do believe that these signs still follow them that believe.  However, if you were to see these signs, would they make a believer out of you?  More likely, your cynicism would force you to believe that it was a trick of some sort.  You would then try and find a “scientific answer” to explain away any doubt that may have developed in your faith in science and reason.

QUESTION 10

10. What does the Bible say regarding ‘Hydrology’? Bible says in Genesis, Ch. No.9, Verse No.13 to 17, that… ‘After God, at the time of Noah submerged the world by flood, and after the flood’ subsided, He said… ‘I put up a rainbow in the sky as a promise to the humankind never to submerge the world again, by water. To the unscientific person it may be quite good… ‘Oh rainbow is a sign of Almighty God, never to submerge the world by flood again.’ But today we know very well, that rainbow is due to the refraction of sunlight, with rain or mist. Surely there must have been thousands of rainbows before the time of Noah, peace be upon him. To say it was not there before Noah’s time you have to assume that the law of refraction did not exist – which is unscientific.

ANSWER

God updated the program.  Next

QUESTION 11

11. In the field of medicine, the Bible says in the book of Leveticus, Ch. No.14, Verse No.49 to 53 – it gives a novel way for disinfecting a house from plague of leprosy… disinfecting a house from plague of leprosy. It says that… ‘Take two birds, kill one bird, take wood, scale it – and the other living bird, dip it in water… and under running water – later on sprinkle the house 7 times with it. Sprinkle the house with blood to disinfect against plague of leprosy? You know blood is a good media of germs, bacteria, as well as toxins! Unscientific!

ANSWER

Although I thank God that this isn’t an issue that I have to worry about, and knowing next to nothing about the condition of leprosy, I think it is worth mentioning a couple of things.  The first is that the verse referred to describes what to do for a house that has already been shown to be free of leprosy, and how to disinfect it.  The process then involves taking a bird and slaying it into a clay vessel over running water (a river or creek), then placing cedar, hyssop and scarlet and mixing it with the blood of the slain bird in the clay vessel.  The mixture is spread using, presumably, the flapping of the wings of the live bird around the house seven times (really coat the walls with the stuff).  After the mixture has been spread throughout the house, using the cedar, hyssop and scarlet with river water wipe down the house until it’s clean.  Then releasing the live bird outside the fields into the open fields to make atonement for the house.

I wanted to be more specific about the ingredients in the mixture and the process, because there are some important things to point out.  First is that cedar is now a well-known natural anti-microbial.  Hyssop is a medicine that is currently used to treat digestive and breathing problems and nowadays is used by many for treatment of urinary tract infections, poor circulation and even to relieve menstrual cramps.  And scarlet oil is a commonly used antiseptic for simple wounds and cuts for horses and mules.  Now, I don’t know when or how these properties were discovered from these ingredients, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if some “scientist” out there began looking into the properties of these medical treatments due to having read scriptures such as these in the Bible.  It took me five minutes to discover the properties of the ingredients, I didn’t have to even look at what someone else said about the scripture.. just googled each ingredient.  The reality is that you haven’t really even looked at this scripture with any of the “scientific” mindset you say you hold things to.  You obviously haven’t really tested any part of it.  You assumed, and honestly know nothing about any part of this and are really simply trying to say something along the lines of “hey everyone look, they thought they say they could cure leprosy by covering the walls with birds blood, that’s not scientific”.  Of course this is really a misrepresentation of the scripture and a perfect example of the bias that “science” has against religion.  This is the most common way of practicing science:  Look at it briefly and half-heartedly, followed by assumptions, then (whilst looking down your nose) condemn, rebuke or chastise.  Of course, this doesn’t involve you testing anything yourself.   Then have faith that some other people checked it out, and that they didn’t just do the same thing you did.

Finally, I want to say that’s just the natural rational.  That’s not even considering that the entire ritual is spiritual and supernatural, and doesn’t need to have a physical “scientific” explanation, as God could simply see the ritual executed correctly and simply banish the disease by, metaphorically speaking, right-clicking the house on his screen and choosing “mark as clean”.

QUESTION 12

12. It is mentioned in the book of Leveticus, Ch. No.12, Verse No.1 to 5, and we know medically, that after a mother gives birth to a child, the post-partal period, it is unhygienic. To say it is ‘unclean’, Religiously – I have got no objection. But Leviticus, Ch. No.12 Verse No.1 to 5, says that… ‘After a woman gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean for 7 days, and the period of uncleanliness will continue for 33 days more. It she give birth to a female child, she will be unclean for two weeks, and the period of uncleanliness will continue for 66 days. In short, if a woman gives birth to a male child… ‘a son’, she is unclean for 40 days. If she gives birth to a female child… ‘a daughter’, she is unclean for 80 days. I would like any Christian to explain to me scientifically, how come a woman remains unclean for double the period, if she gives birth to a female child, as compared to a male child.

ANSWER

Your concept of unclean is coming from the corrupt “scientific” view, which is not what the Bible is referring to here.  This is a spiritual uncleanliness, and is different altogether from your concept of physical uncleanliness.

QUESTION 13

13. The Bible also has a very good test for adultery – How to come to know a woman has committed adultery, in the book of Numbers, Ch. no.5 Verse No..11 to 31. I’ll just say in brief. It says that… ‘The priest should take holy water in a vessel, take dust from the floor, and put it into the vessel – And that is the bitter water ‘And after cursing it, give it to the woman And if the woman has committed adultery, after she drinks it, the curse will enter her body, the stomach will swell, the thigh will rot, and she shall be cursed by the people. If the woman has not committed adultery, she will remain clean and she will bear the seed. A novel method of identifying whether a woman has committed adultery or not. How unscientific!

ANSWER

Re-read everything I already wrote about every other item on your list.  If you can’t see where I’d go with this one by now, it would just be a waste of time.

These are 13 out of the thousands of impossible irreconcilable scientific blunders that are found throughout the Bible!

ANSWER

I’m sure that these 13 were just poor examples and the other “thousands” are much, much better.

Summary

There was a time when I read these “mysteries” and was confounded.  Clearly (I thought), the writer of Genesis was unaware of the intricately interdependent systems that are required to sustain life on earth.  I toiled over these points for quite some time.  In-fact, had I not had an experience with the Holy Spirit in my life that I could not deny (others may question it, even mock me, but they couldn’t take away my experience), this may have destroyed my faith in the Bible, and eventually, my Creator.  Instead however, I chose to doubt my understanding and ask God about it in prayer.  I didn’t have an answer for about two weeks and was bothered by it, but I persisted in my faith, and held fast to the substance of my experience in the Holy Ghost.  Then one day, I was given a clean, simple, elegant, and most importantly (to some), scientifically sound explanation.  The answer really is not an answer that could have been explained in any way through any material example until roughly the last 30-40 years since our universe was created approximately 6,000 years ago.  Some might have explained this as God being an author, and we are simply characters in his novel, or series of novels, but the reality is that the book would be too complex, and thus being similar, not really an apples to apples sort of analogy and leaving a lot of room to doubt such a concept.  More importantly, it would appear to be dismissing the entire creation account, and continue to ignore its “scientific inaccuracies”.

Faith in God, or Faith in Science

There is an extremely important fact that all these “scientists” out there have been HEAVILY leaning on (and will surely continue to lean on in posts like like this one, as well as the articles from which they stem). This fact, which is so convenient to use when attempting to discredit the Bible (and even the existence of God), is the extreme interdependence of systems that are required to sustain any form of life.  This fact is used by too many “truth seeking scientists” to discredit the Bible, while at the same time is completely ignored when attempting to explain the origins of life.

I recently watched an excellent article documentary about bees.  Our entire ecosystem is reliant on bees to sustain any life whatsoever on this planet.  Plants and trees rely on bees to reproduce, animals rely on bees for plants and trees to eat from, and bees rely on plants and trees to eat from and reproduce.  Which one came first?  Bees, trees or animals?  This is an irreducibly complex circle, one could not have been created before the other.  I sadly watched as the documentary explained how mankind is inadvertently killing off the bees, and eventually all life on earth, by simply existing.  But the subtext was that mankind, being a terrible steward of the planet, has allowed technology, pride, greed and money to create the very real possibility of ending all life on this planet. It seems that nowadays, people (and science) can see the writing on the wall (MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.), the end is near, and we may have very well caused it ourselves.

I ask you this question.  What has caused all this destruction?  Was it God? Was it something in the Bible?  Did Genesis say “Go ye therefore, be irresponsible, do NOT be good stewards of the world, but instead destroy it”?  I think not.  Yet, the popular consensus seems to be that religion and, in particular, Christianity has killed more people than anything else combined in all of history.  I have heard this many times said to me, but my answer is that the number of dead in the name of religion cannot hold a candle to the number of dead due to science, and not just people, mind you, but possibly the entirety of all life anywhere period (and that could be from Fukishima alone).  But, I won’t put it entirely on sciences back.  Although it is an excellent tool for destruction, so can be religions other than Science, even Christianity.

So, what is truly the most destructive, deadly force that can use both Science, and Christianity to destroy?  Actually it’s sin.  SIN is the base foundation of all death.  This is the disease.  The Bible teaches against it, does science?  Jesus the Programmer

 

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