XVDHMAK@VCUVM1 (Michael Kline) (01/17/90)
From my daughters 4th grade science book. Thought some of you might
find it interesting. I've read and shred a TON of posts stating that the
Bible has NOTHING to offer, and should be totally banned from schools. Not
from our list mind you, but BELIEF-L.
What would have been your thoughts upon reading Psalms 8:7,8 - "All
sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field, (8)The birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
For those that have said, "All religion should be banned from
school..", how would you go about teaching this, or would you simply "leave
the religion part out" and teach a "partial truth"?
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From "Understanding God's World - Science in Your Life"
We can learn thousands of things by gathering information and thinking
clearly about it. Most of what we know about mathematics has been learned
through careful thinking. Almost any invention you can think of was made by
someone who thought carefully about how to use what he already knew. Many
things that people use every day depend on examples of thinking carefully.
One man who thought clearly was Matthew Maury. Maury was an officer in
the United States Navy in the early 1800's. He was in charge of charts and
records used by navy ships.
One day while Matthew Maury was sick at home, his wife read to him from
Psalm 8. Some words in that Psalm made him start thinking. The words were:
"whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea."
"How could the sea have paths?" he wondered. He decided, "If God says
'the paths of the sea,' they are there, and if ever I get out of this bed,
I will find them."
As soon as Maury was well, he went to work. He studied the records that
navy captains had sent me. He especially studied ships' logs. A ship's log
is a carefully kept record of where a ship was each day of a voyage, and
what the weather was like.
This helped him, but he wanted more information. He wanted to know
about the trips of the many sailing vessels that were not owned by the
navy.
He thought of a plan. He designed blank forms for captains to use in
keeping daily records of such things as location, date, and wind speed.
He gave these forms to ship captains and offered them free charts and
booklets if they would complete the records and send them to the U.S. Navy.
Thousands of captains were glad to help. During the next twenty years,
the U.S. Navy received millions of reports from sea captains responding to
Maury's request.
Maury also thought of another plan for getting still more information.
He asked sailors to drop tightly corked bottles into the sea, after putting
inside each bottle the date and position where the bottle was dropped. He
asked them to pick up other bottles in the sea and to record where each
bottle was found.
Maury used this information to draw lines on large maps (charts) of the
ocean showing the route followed by each sailing vessel that had made a
quick voyage. He used his findings to make a chart of the North Atlantic
Ocean. The chart showed the sea lanes that ships could follow with a great
saving in time and with less danger from storms.
Matthew Maury really did find paths or currents in the sea, and sailors
are still following them today. Do you think Maury would have found the
paths if he had not gathered reports and observed them carefully? Do you
think he would have found them if he had not thought clearly about his
observations?
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Consider:
Some people do not think that the Bible is always true when it talks
about scientific things. Did Maury have this attitude? How did believing
the Bible help him to make his discovery?
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In His Love,
Michael A. Kline, Sr. SSE
VDH, Technical Support
(804)786-1559
XVDHMAK at VCUVM1