Does the Bible defy the natural law of gravity (miracles)? According to the Bible, the orbits of the earth and moon can be stopped (Joshua 10: 12-13). This seems to completely ignore the Copernican Revolution (1543), Kepler’s Laws (1609), the observations that the Earth moves by Galileo (1632), and the Law of Universal Gravitation Newton (1687).
You have asked about a very interesting event in Joshua 10:12-13 when the sun and the moon stopped their orbits. This was a miracle. Please allow me to explain. God is more powerful than the laws of nature. In fact, He created all of the laws of the universe. As the creator, His creation belongs to Him, and he can do with it as He pleases.
On a limited number of occasions, He has chosen to intervene in our world by performing miracles; i.e., overruling the laws of nature. Please consider the following miracles in addition to the one you have already cited:
– 2 Chronicles 20:11 records a miracle where God reversed the orbit of the earth around the sun when he made the sundial back up ten steps.
– In 2 Kings 6:6, Elisha made an iron ax head float on water.
– Jesus performed many miracles, such as restoring sight to the blind and restoring speech to the mute (Matthew 12:22), and calming a raging sea (Matthew 8:26), which had to disrupt the current weather patterns at the time.
We must understand that God performs miracles for a specific purpose that He has in mind–not simply for the amusement of us who cannot similarly deny the laws of nature. When God stopped the orbits of the sun and the moon, this was done in order to prove that God was fighting for Israel (Joshua 10:14). When He made the sundial back up ten steps, this was done in order to prove that Isaiah was a true prophet, speaking with the authority of God.
Similarly, when the ax head floated, this proved that Elisha was a true prophet from God. Obviously, the miracles that Jesus performed proved that He is the Messiah, the very Son of God.
Now, it would be a very weak argument for a skeptic to point to these miracles in trying to prove that the Bible contains errors. On the other hand, for believers, these miracles serve to increase our faith–not to plant doubts in our minds. In fact, miracles could be another answer for some of the other questions that you have asked: i.e., the process of photosynthesis before the sun was created; the violation of the laws of thermodynamics; etc.