Earth as seen from space
Critics of the Bible often say that the Bible is unscientific. Now, that could be, in part, because in the past certain persons have tried to make the Bible into a scientific textbook, and, of course, it is not. However, the Bible should stand on its own. That is, it either expresses truths in ways in which mankind can understand, if one is willing and has an open mind. The Bible contains poetry and poetic language in many places, even as normal human beings do today. However, a true interpretation of the Bible does not contradict true science. Neither does true science contradict the Bible.
Even when one says, “The sun is rising,” or, “The sun is setting,” they are using language in an imperfect way, for the sun isn’t the one doing the major portion of movement here. Rather, it is the earth that is spinning that causes the sun to appear to rise and set in the sky. Yet, even the NASA website lists “sunrise” and “sunset” times (caveat: it might not during times of political gimmickry, such as government shutdowns, as though it cost something significant to keep the web servers running vs cutting access to the web pages). Therefore, is NASA being “unscientific” in using this phraseology?
There is a lot that can be gleaned from the very first verse of the Bible. Some of these things I have written about before, but I don’t think I’ve quite dissected it in this manner before. I think it is very important to notice these things, to get a grounding in truth and then to proceed on through the Bible:
1. “In the beginning…”. We are told that there is a beginning. Scientists once believed that the universe had no beginning, but that it had always been, in contradiction to the Bible. Finally, it was realized that with so much movement in space outward from a central core, this was impossible. Now, science agrees with the Bible that there was a beginning. That means that there was a “time”, if it can be called that, in which time did not exist. It couldn’t have, but we will get to that later.
2. “… God created …”. That is, something or someone existed already at the very beginning, and that something or someone created the universe (“heavens and the earth”). God introduces Himself right at the beginning, and He claims to be the source of all that we see and do not see. So far, we see that He created time.
3. “… the heaven …”. Actually, it should be plural here. It basically is referring to anything that is not of the earth, including God’s throne. Specifically at this point, the context means that it primarily is talking about space, as it hasn’t even mentioned the atmosphere (the “first heaven”) yet.
4. “… and the earth.” The physical creation not made up of space is the earth, from mankind’s perspective. It contains the matter in which we can interact directly with.
So, we see a Being that created all time, all space and all matter. What in our universe is not made up of these three elements? It wasn’t until the 20th century, after all, that these three were brought together into a single equation, e = mc2.
Not scientific? Where else in ancient literature do we see the relationship between these three things? After all, space and time are intertwined so much in science fiction that we talk about both of them as though they were a single entity. We talk about black holes, wormholes and other things that bend time throughout space. One NASA project is even looking into how matter can be transported through a field that squeezes space together, much like how Star Trek Voyager created a warp field in the front (rather than push from behind) of it to move forward. “A warp drive enables faster-than-light travel by warping space-time around it.”
Space, time and matter: God created them all, and they are interdependent upon each other in a way in which we are just beginning to comprehend.
In logical debates, there is what is known as a false dichotomy. That occurs when two diametrically opposed views are presented as an either-or sort of argument. However, it is almost always a false argument. It is a lot like the two-party political system, where neither side is correct. There almost always is a third, or perhaps fourth or even fifth possibility that needs to be considered. That is how the science vs the Bible argument is always presented. It is also a lot like politics in that sometimes there are a lot of lies mixed in with it all.
In the end, though, science is manmade. The Bible was inspired by God. Either one can be misunderstood or even have the facts twisted. However, true science and true religion will always agree. The key is to have an open enough mind to realize that what might initially appear as a contradiction may just simply be a misinterpretation of the facts at hand.
Here is a Facebook chart that has been going around. Some items are disputable, because, as I just said, interpretation is often what gets in the way. However, I found it interesting nonetheless. Click on it to enlarge it.
