The Paths Of The Seas:"Psalm 8:8 speaks of the "the paths of the seas"
A path is, literally or figuratively, a well trodden road. But since there are no roads in the seas, it is more than likely that it is referring to ocean currents, which was discovered only in the 1850's. The following history of the discovery of these "paths" has been excerpted from Answers in Genesis....
Matthew Maury, (1806 -1873) was U.S. naval officer, pioneer hydrographer, and one of the
founders of oceanography. What is rarely mentioned about Maury is that he was a strong belief in God as the Sovereign Creator. And if the Bible spoke of 'paths' in the sea, there had to be 'paths' in the sea that could be found. So he set out to find them - and find them he did!
founders of oceanography. What is rarely mentioned about Maury is that he was a strong belief in God as the Sovereign Creator. And if the Bible spoke of 'paths' in the sea, there had to be 'paths' in the sea that could be found. So he set out to find them - and find them he did!
......sea captains had recorded their daily locations, and the speed and directions of winds and currents. When Maury compiled these records he saw a pattern that he added to by asking merchant captains to make and send him more observations. Additionally, Maury set adrift weighted bottles known as drift bottles that were not affected by wind because they floated slightly below the surface of the water. Instructions sealed in each bottle directed anyone who found one washed ashore to return it with details of where and when the bottles was found. This information enabled Maury to develop charts of the ocean currents - the 'paths' of the seas, which helped captains plot the best sea lanes for their voyages.
His charts became so indispensable that at an 1853 conference in Brussels, the representatives of a dozen nations unanimously adopted them as definitive guides for international shipping.
He eventually produced charts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans and published the first modern oceanographic text, The Physical Geography of the Sea. On page 403, he wrote
In observing the working and studying - the offices of the various parts of the physical machinery which keeps the world in order, we should ever remember that it is all made for its purposes, and that it was planned according to design, and arranged so as to make the world as we behold it, a place for the habitation of man. Upon no other hypothesis can the student expect to gain profitable knowledge concerning the physics of the sea, earth, or air.” SFB