The Bible was never intended to be a science textbook. Its purpose was to reveal God's plan for the human race to that very same human race. And for reasons that theologians can only speculate about, He chose to use humans as the instrument for creating this written revelation. Compiled over a period of many centuries—even millennia—by many human authors, it contains a large variety of modes and styles of writing, including history, prophecy, poetry, wisdom, and more. Another difficulty is attempting to treat the Bible as a book on science is that we are trying to interpret writings of a more Eastern cultural flavor in light of our modern Western way of thinking.

Nevertheless, we must avoid the opposite extreme. In today's society, there is a tendency to place "religion"—e.g. the Bible—in one category, and science in another. "For the East is East, and the West is West, and never the twain shall meet." This has also led to a tremendous amount of error on the part of many. Remember: The same Author of the Bible is the Author of the entire universe. He would not contradict Himself.

There is a very simple, humbling statement that I'm afraid too many people these days are unwilling to make. That statement is, "I don't know."

With so many advances in modern science and technology, many people have gotten the idea that there is nothing that we cannot learn, nothing that is beyond the reach of our instruments. We have sent space probes out to the furthest planets in the solar system. We have probed to the depths of the deepest ocean. We have peered into the very atoms themselves. Yet any scientist who is honest will readily admit that there is still much that is undiscovered. And there is much that will always remain undiscoverable, if scientists are honest with themselves. For example, all theories of origins are unprovable. Whatever happened was a historical event and cannot be reproduced in a laboratory or anywhere else.

The same is true with the Bible. Like scientists, theologians hate to admit that they don't know something. I've lost count of the number of times I've sat and listened to some pastor or other Bible teacher start off with a perfectly good, clearly-stated point from Scripture… and then go off on a tangent. It's amazing, the number of doctrines that are believed by huge numbers of Christians, yet are completely unsupportable from the Word of God. And when you dare to question these beliefs, many people look at you as if you were some sort of heretic.

I'm not going to use this page to give you my "take" on issues of science and the Bible. Rather, I encourage you, whenever you encounter an apparent contradiction, to take a good, close look at both sides of the issue. First, does the Bible clearly and explicitly contradict the conclusions drawn by scientists? Unless you can come up with a definite yes, then maybe the better response is to say, "I don't know." Be willing to trust God, that He really knew what He was doing when He inspired that passage, but admit that you just haven't figured out the details yet.

Second, take a good, hard look at what the scientists are saying. Are their conclusions supportable by hard evidence? Or are they merely interpretations and theories? Our culture tends to elevate The Scientist almost to the level of Pope-hood, taking every word that falls from his mouth as if it were gospel truth. Remember, scientists are human beings. They are fallible. And they are not impartial, no matter how much they might think that they are. I spent years around scientists in universities, and every one of them had some kind of agenda. "Scientific proof" is often not as solid as they would like you to believe. Grant money is only given to researchers with a record of producing results.

The Influence of the Bible on Science

Sir Isaac Newton

As I stated above, there is a tendency today to place science and religion at odds with one another. Something might be classified as "scientific" but not "religious", and vice versa. But historically, this has not always been the case.

Although according to Scripture, man started out with the knowledge of the one true God, that knowledge was quickly lost. Only a few generations after Noah, people were already building astrological towers (Babel) and worshipping a pantheon of false deities. After people were scattered across the Earth, what little knowledge of God that had remained was lost.

One thing about a belief in multiple deities is a tendency to create a "division of labor" as far as running the world is concerned. One god is in charge of the seas. Another is in charge of the weather. And so on. And among animistic cultures such as are found in most tribal peoples, the fragmentation continues until the people essentially associate a given spirit with a given tree, or a given rock, and so on. This may sound scientifically innocuous, but it isn't. If you believe in a separate entity controlling distinct parts of nature, you will not look for any kind of unifying principle behind them.

When Christianity spread across Europe and early investigators began looking into the way the world worked, they had a different view of things. The Bible teaches that the entire universe was created by a single Deity. Furthermore, God is not "part" of individual aspects of His creation (pantheism). Instead, He set it up as a unified—but separate—whole. Therefore, there should be an underlying order to everything. It was this concept that led to the beginning of true scientific research and the scientific method.

Most of the early scientists were believers. Whether or not they were true born-again Christians varies, but they believed in God the Creator and in the underlying order that He had built into everything. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church at times persecuted some of them, such as Galileo, for proclaiming discoveries that differed with accepted theology. The saddest thing about that particular incident—the discovery that the solar system revolved around the sun, not the Earth—is that there is actually no Biblical basis for believing that the Earth is at the center of the universe. This is an example of what can happen when people with power and influence decide on some particular philosophy or belief and refuse to tolerate dissent. At times, it is crucial to be able to utter that simple, humble statement listed above: "I don't know."

Some Interesting Scientific Tidbits

As I said, the Bible is not a book of science. It is God's revelation of Himself to mankind. Nevertheless, there are some interesting parallels…

• According to modern particle physics and quantum mechanics, as well as general relativity, the universe essentially consists of energy (matter is merely a form of energy) and laws to govern it. According to Scripture, God "upholds all things by His powerful word".
• In Genesis 1, before God began creating the world, it was described as being dark and completely covered with water, with "waters above the firmament and waters below". Recent models of planetary formation predict that Earth should have a dense atmosphere of mostly water vapor, with a thick, world-girdling cloud layer.
• Just about every culture in the world has a legend that is recognizably related to the Flood account in Genesis.
• In addition to this, geologists have discovered that every part of the surface of the Earth was at one time under water.
• The Bible declares that God exists from eternity past and that He knows the end from the beginning, i.e. He exists independent of time. Modern physics has demonstrated that space and time exist only as relationships between matter and energy; if matter and energy are created quantities, then so are space and time.
• A number of natural processes—the hydrological cycle, different types of stars, atmospheric circulation, the importance of blood to the body, and more—are recognizably described in layman's terms in various Biblical passages.
• The writer of Proverbs knew, thousands of years ago, that physical health is directly related to mental and spiritual health.

Worship the Creator, not the Creation

In today's materialistic world, we have the tendency to "blow off" God, to decide that we don't need Him, that science can explain everything without Him. As I stated earlier, we can't really prove anything that took place in the distant past, when there were no eyewitnesses to leave a written or oral record. Scientists have discovered many marvelous things, but they are not infallible gods. Many even go so far as to claim that God does not even exist, which is an utterly unprovable statement. As noted astronomer Carl Sagan once said, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Although he remained an unbeliever himself, the quote is still valid.

There remains a vast amount of mystery and unknown, both on Earth and beyond. Personally, I think it is fascinating. I suspect that when we get to Heaven (and if you aren't sure that you are on track to go there, I suggest you look at The Bible and Salvation), we will all be surprised at both the things we thought we knew and got wrong—as well as all the things we never even imagined.

Understanding the creation helps us to understand the Creator.