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Are science and the Bible incompatible? Or do they stand together on common ground? We consider some examples.
What is science? I've asked myself that question again and again. In high school, I took science classes like biology and chemistry, but the real meaning of "science" still wasn't clear to me.
Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize twice-once for Chemistry and once for Peace. He said, "Science is the search for truth, the effort to understand the world."
When we think of it that way, we can see that the Bible has a lot to say about science. After all, it's a book about truth. In different places, it tells the truth through history and science.
I remember how learning to think about the Bible like that changed my life. At age 17, I didn't take the Bible seriously. I thought it was just some old book that didn't mean anything to the modern world. Was I ever wrong! My father was a medical doctor, and I was excited to follow in his footsteps. I got accepted to a leading university to study premed.
My life changed when a schoolmate showed me a magazine-a predecessor to Vertical Thought. It explained how the Bible applied to science. I was blown away! Instead of becoming a doctor, I eventually became a church pastor.
Over the years I've been struck by many examples of the Bible applying to science. I'll share a few of these here. Then you can decide if the relationship between the Bible and science makes sense to you as well.
In the mid-20th century, there were several theories about how the universe started. But scientists couldn't make up their minds because of insufficient evidence.
One model was that of the "Steady State Theory," which maintained that the universe had no beginning or end. It imagined an ongoing stable expansion with matter spontaneously forming to fill the void of space. This theory is no longer accepted because of several discoveries. The cosmic background radiation detected in the 1960s, the existence of quasars and the better-supported theory of general relativity all showed that the universe is expanding from a fixed point in time. In other words, it had a beginning.
This fits the biblical testimony of Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
The famous astrophysicist Robert Jastrow noted: "A sound explanation may exist for the explosive birth of our universe; but if it does, science cannot find out what the explanation is. The scientist's pursuit of the past ends in the moment of creation. This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: 'In the beginning God created heaven and earth.' It is unexpected because science has had such extraordinary success in tracing the chain of cause and effect backward in time.
"Now we would like to pursue that inquiry farther back in time, but the barrier to further progress seems insurmountable. It is not a matter of another year, another decade of work, another measurement, or another theory; at this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation.
"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries" (God and the Astronomers, 1992, p. 116).
Arno Penzias was one of the two scientists who put the final nail in the coffin of the Steady State Theory by discovering cosmic background radiation. He admitted, "The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the first five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole" (interview by Malcolm Browne, "Clues to the Universe's Origin Expected," The New York Times, March 12, 1978).
Scientists have now determined that the universe consists of only about four percent visible matter. The rest is made up of mysterious, invisible dark energy and dark matter. These are hard to study because they can't be directly detected. Only their impact on the visible universe can be measured.
As one astronomer put it, "This is not the case of the dog wagging the tail, but of the tail wagging the dog." We can see the tail (visible matter), but we can't find the rest of the dog. Scientists have no idea why they can't detect the energy and mass that make up nearly the whole universe-responsible for its arrangement and motion.
The Bible says that God through His Son Jesus Christ sustains the universe by an invisible spiritual power-"upholding all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:1-3, emphasis added).
Author George Sim Johnston pointed out the irony: "The book of Genesis has held up well under the scrutiny of modern geology and archaeology. Twentieth-century physics, moreover, describes the beginning of the universe in virtually the same cosmological terms as Genesis. Space, time and matter came out of nothing in a single burst of light entirely hospitable to carbon-based life. A growing number of chemists and biologists agree that life had its origin from clay templates . . . I would say all this is a curious development for Darwinists" (Reader's Digest, May 1991, p. 31).
In the Middle Ages, two of the most terrible plagues to hit Europe were the Black Death and leprosy. It's estimated that one third of all Europeans died in the 14th century as a result of the Black Death. Yet these diseases wouldn't have spread if biblical health laws had been followed.
Dr. George Rosen, a professor of public health at Columbia University, wrote about how horrible these plagues were: "Leprosy cast the greatest blight that threw its shadow over the daily life of medieval humanity. Fear of all other diseases taken together can hardly be compared to the terror spread by leprosy. Not even the Black Death in the 14th century or the appearance of syphilis toward the end of the 15th century produced a similar state of fright" (History of Public Health, 1958, p. 62).
Physicians tried everything, but they couldn't control these plagues. Some medical doctors thought they were a result of eating hot food, garlic or sick pigs. Others believed they were a result of an evil conjunction of the planets.
How were these plagues halted? "Leadership was taken by the church," Dr. Rosen stated, "as the physicians had nothing to offer. The church took as its guiding principle the concept of contagion as embodied in the Old Testament. This idea and its practical consequences are defined with great clarity in the book of Leviticus. Once the condition of leprosy had been established, the patient was to be segregated and excluded from the community . . . It accomplished the first great feat in methodical eradication of the disease" (p. 63).
Seeing the positive results on leprosy, European countries used the same procedures to combat the Black Death, known today as the bubonic plague. Finally they were able to stem the disease. Millions of lives were saved by applying the biblical injunction: "Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp" (Leviticus 13:45-46, New Living Translation).
As far as a happier life with good health goes, Harold Koenig, director of Duke University's Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, has some interesting things to say about the Bible. He and his team of scientists have conducted numerous studies that indicate religious involvement is associated with better health.
A review of his book The Healing Power of Faith in Christianity Today magazine titled "Take Ten Commandments and Call Me in the Morning" mentioned the results of these studies: "Using both anecdotal and research data, he [Koenig] demonstrates that there is ample evidence to show that people who regularly attend church, pray, read, and put into practice what the Bible or their faith teaches are overall healthier.
"Just for starters, they have significantly lower blood pressure, are hospitalized less, recover from surgery faster, have stronger immune systems, and are likely to live longer. Emotional health also benefits: family life is better and depression is lower in those with faith" (Archibald Hart, Nov. 15, 1999).
The Bible applies to science in so many more ways. Just to name a few fields of study-ecology, astronomy and archaeology are addressed in the Bible. In each case, science and the Bible don't contradict but rather complement each other. While the Bible focuses on spiritual knowledge, it does so while presenting historical and scientific realities.
But even far more important than what science can reveal to religion, the Bible shows us how a loving Creator wants us to have faith in Him and His Word so things will turn out for our good.
As the Bible says, "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 . . . Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is [that He, the God of the Bible, exists], and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:3,6).
It was easy for me to finally see what a strong relationship science and the Bible have when viewed together. I was especially impressed by how Albert Einstein expressed the connection between science and religion:
"Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up.
"But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" (The World as I See It, 1949, pp. 27-28).
Don't be lame or blind. Understand science in the light of the Bible and you too will find true purpose and faith.
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