Science and the Bible
Today in this modern world some believe that the Bible is full of scientific inaccuracies and misconceptions. People are often given the impression that numerous scientific fallacies, including a flat earth and a geocentric universe, are contained within the Bible. However, when the biblical text is carefully examined the reader will quickly discover an uncanny scientific accuracy unparalleled by any document of antiquity. Within the text of the Bible are an extraordinary number of unambiguous statements regarding the creation and design of the universe, planet earth and its life forms. Without using todays modern scientific words, as we will see, the Bible does describe scientific phenomena in common terminology with unmistakable clarity. While it is true that statements about the physical universe are common in ancient religious documents, those found in the Bible are ‘unique’. In virtually all ancient religious documents it is common to find scientifically inaccurate myths about the nature of the universe and the life forms on planet earth. Any cursory review of ancient mythology will readily confirm this statement.
Take for an example the Hindus ancient writings purporting that ‘the earth is balanced on the back of an elephant’. However, the Bible is unique because of the conspicuous absence of such myths. In fact, throughout the Bible we find scientifically accurate concepts about the physical universe that were not "discovered" by modern scientists until very recent times. This scientific foreknowledge, written thousands of years before its modern discovery, is evidence that the men who penned the Bible had "inside information."
I would like to show you that the author of life and the physical universe is, in fact, the author of the Bible and the source of that "inside information." In the end, when its text is carefully examined, you will discover that where the Bible speaks on scientific issues it is one-hundred percent accurate. Throughout the Bible we find statements about the origin, design and destiny of the universe. We see the concepts of an expanding, finite, decaying universe clearly discribed by the biblical authors thousands of years before these facts were discovered by twentieth-century astrophysicists. The fact that matter can neither be created nor destroyed (the First Law of Thermodynamics) and the universal law of decay (the Second Law of Thermodynamics) are also clearly taught in the Bible. Beyond this, in the biblical text we find a number of incredibly accurate scientific statements about the nature of the physical universe.
Time, Space and Matter
In the very first verse of the Bible we find remarkable evidence of supernatural authorship. "In the beginning (time), God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)." Genesis 1:1 For thousands of years scientists and philosophers have speculated about the basic components or makeup of the universe. In the twentieth century, physicists have confirmed that the universe, at its foundation, consists of time, space and matter. In fact, space and time are so tightly linked that astrophysicists now speak of space-time. While scientific and philosophical speculations about the basic structure of the universe has varied widely, the fact that the universe consists basically of space, time and matter was clearly foreseen in the very first verse of the Bible.
The Hosts of Heaven
At the time the Bible was written (1,500 B.C.-100 A.D.) there were no telescopes to aid in the study of the cosmos. On a clear night, unencumbered by the light of the moon, only about 3,000-4,000 stars could be seen with the unaided eye. Yet in the eighth century B.C. God told the prophet Jeremiah that the number of stars could not be numbered:
"As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me." Jeremiah 33:22
When Jeremiah wrote this verse there was no way he could have known that the stars were innumerable. In fact, in the eighth-century B.C., astronomers believed that ‘it was’ possible to number the stars. As evidence are the many star charts that were done prior to the advent of the telescope. Astronomers now estimate that there are at least 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the universe. For anyone to number the "hosts of heaven" (the total number of stars) would be a truly impossible task. Counting at a rate of ten stars per second it would take over 100 trillion years. Surely the host of heaven cannot be numbered!
The Rising of the Sun?
Some of the most accurate scientific statements in the Bible concern the nature of our solar system. Nearly 3000 years ago the psalmist wrote that the sun follows a circuit or circular path through the universe:
"Its [the sun’s] rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat." Psalm 19:6
For centuries critics argued that the psalmist was here proclaiming that the sun rotated around the earth. However, the term "sunrise" is a common phrase used by all, even astrophysicists, and is not intended to be a scientific declaration. Secondly, since the advent of powerful telescopes astronomers have determined that the sun is part of an enormous spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. We now know that the sun moves in a "circuit" or circular course, at speeds approaching 600,000 miles per hour, within one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. In turn, the Milky Way is hurtling through space at an estimated speed of 2,000,000 miles per hour! These facts are remarkably compatible with the psalmist’s understanding of our sun’s path through the cosmos! Without "inside information" from an extraterrestrial source, there is no way that the writer could have possessed such incredible knowledge.
"It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in." Isaiah 40:22
When Isaiah wrote this verse he used the Hebrew word khug to describe the shape of the earth. Although this word is commonly translated into the English word "circle," the literal meaning of this word is "a sphere!"
Atlas, Elephants, Turtles or Job?
Throughout the centuries philosophers, theologians and scientists have speculated about the resting place of planet earth. Upon what or whom the earth is resting became an important part of mythology in many ancient cultures. To the ancient Greeks the candidates were Atlas or Hercules. The Hindus believed that elephants or turtles were the pillars upon which the earth rested. The fact of a free floating earth was apparently foreign to most ancient cultures. In a world where all objects fall rapidly to their destruction, such a suggestion must have been terrifying. However, in the book of Job, commonly believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, we find an astonishing piece of scientific foreknowledge. While speaking of the incredible power of God, Job states of the earth:
"He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing." Job 26:7
When we consider that twenty-eight centuries ago the prevailing view of the earth was that it was flat and resting on the back of an animal or Greek god, the biblical view of a spherical earth suspended on nothing is astonishing. A good guess? No way. In the book of Job alone there are a mere two dozen disclosures of such scientific foreknowledge. Far from being a scientifically inaccurate book, the Bible exhibits knowledge about the earth and the universe that appears to have come from a being with an extraterrestrial perspective.
One of the greatest discoveries of the last one hundred years is the elucidation of the structure of the atom. All matter in the universe consists of atoms, or their components parts, protons, neutrons or electrons. These are in turn composed of smaller sub-atomic particles such as quarks, pions, gluons etc… There is a fascinating verse in the New Testament that seems to anticipate atomic structure: At a time when the basic structure of matter was unknown, nearly two thousand years ago, the author of the book of Hebrews accurately described the fact that the matter we can see is made of particles which are not visible in natural light. It is a fundamental fact of physics that any particle that is smaller than the wavelength of light will in fact be invisible to the naked eye or light microscopes. The atom and its sub-atomic particles, are smaller than the wavelength of visible light and therefore, are invisible! When the New Testament was written (circa. A.D. 50-100) the beliefs regarding the nature of matter were very crude. The Greeks, for example, believed that the basic elements of the universe were fire, water and earth. In the face of this view, so dominant during biblical times, it is truly remarkable to find the biblical authors accurately describing aspects of subatomic structure as well as the results of nuclear fission! Could it be that the author the Bible was also the author and designer of protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks etc..? We can look at Oceanography too.
"…The fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas." Psalm 8:8
The paths of the sea is a reference to ocean currents as is the writings of the eighth century B.C. the prophet Isaiah when he wrote:
"Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters," Isaiah 43:16
King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes:
"The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again." Ecclesiastes 1:6-7
King Solomon lived around three-thousand years ago and yet he had an astonishing understanding of global wind currents and the earth’s water cycle. The phrase, "The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit," is an accurate and amazing description of the circular flow of air around the earth, called the "jet stream," well known to anyone who watches the evening news and weather reports. This verse also reveals that Solomon understood that the source of river water is the oceans. He states that the "sea" is " the place from which the rivers come, there they return again."
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:3
There are many other scientific references but I think you get the point.