This may come as a shocker to some but the Bible is not incompatible with science. While it is true that God's word is not specifically about science, every time it does speak on issues related to biology, astrology, or geology its claims are 100% accurate.
As a Christian, I believe that the Bible is as an unparalleled source of truth that was revealed to man by virtue of divine inspiration. Granted, my reasoning for arriving at this conclusion is not to be equated with fideism (blind faith). I base much of this conviction off of... get ready for it... evidence.
I am currently walking through such evidence with a group of college students that I teach on a weekly basis. In our most recent gathering, I challenged the group to think about why they believe what they do. Literally. The discipline of critical thinking and active-decision making is a lost art in American culture. We tend to accept information as truth before processing whether or not it can be verified by evidence. Hear me on this; the Christian faith can be validated with reasonable evidence and can be defended in an intellectual manner.
Below are 3 evidences that uphold the relationship between science and scripture as well as the validity of the Christian worldview:
1. The Bible and earth's free suspension in space
Job 26:7 - "He spreads out the northern skies, over empty space, he suspends the earth over nothing."
The book of Job was composed during the patriarchal period around 1500 B.C. Some would argue that it was the first book of the Bible ever written. Either way, this marks a point in history when earth was believed to have been upheld by a large animal or giant. It's interesting to note that scientists didn't come to acknowledge the truth found in Job 26:7 until 1650 A.D. That's over 3000 years after the author of Job had penned this reality. Lucky guess, right?
2. The Bible speaks of an invisible structure
Hebrews 11:3 - "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
Scientists didn't discover invisible atoms until recent years. After which they concluded that what is seen is made from what is unseen. This phenomenon of the creation was spoken of in the Bible 2000 years earlier. Had the Bible not been compartmentalized as a fictitious literary work by many, maybe this would’ve dawned on the academy much sooner.
3. The Bible reveals that the earth is round
Isaiah 40:22a - "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth."
Here's a Bible trivia question for you: When was the book of Isaiah written?
Here's a scientific trivia question for you: When did mankind discover and fully acknowledge the shape of the earth to be spherical rather than flat?
Answers: Isaiah was written between 760-680 B.C. - Aristotle suggested that the earth was round about 1000 years later and his claim was not fully verified until well over 2000 years later in 1492 (when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue).
I'll have more reasons on why the Bible is neither pre-scientific nor intellectually primitive in my next post. God bless!
