Science, the Bible, and God

Science, the Bible, and God

This is a day of science. Man discovers the secrets of nature. He peers beyond the microscope to the very inside of the atom and beyond the telescope to the vast galaxies of the farthest reaches of space. Every day brings reports of new miracles of science.

1. SCIENTIFIC WONDERS OF THE BIBLE

Do the Bible and science agree? Strange as it may seem, both Yes and No may answer this question. If the question means, Does God's Word always agree with the established facts of science? then the answer is Yes. But if the question means, Does God's Word always agree with the theories of science and with the philosophical deductions that are based on these theories? then the answer is No. To say that God's Word always agrees with the theories of science and the philosophical deductions based thereon, would be tantamount to condemning the Bible and admitting that it is inaccurate and imperfect; for the theories and conclusions of men of science are constantly changing.

New discoveries can and do demolish scientific theories overnight. Books of science are often out of date ten years after they are printed. So the Bible is not always in agreement with the changing theories of the scientists, but it is always in accord with the absolute facts of science. In fact, the Bible has often been far ahead of its time.

Many of the fundamental truths of the Bible are fundamental truths of science. The deep student of the Word of God will discover that there is no antagonism between true science and true religion. They seem to clash only when they are falsely interpreted. The Bible is not a textbook on science, but wherever it speaks of scientific things, it is in harmony with the actual facts discovered by science.

Scientific theory is undergoing constant revision as scholars use more efficient methods of investigation with ever-improving instruments of research. Robert Millikan, dean of American scientists, once said:

"Every addition to our knowledge in new fields only reveals an immeasurably greater extent unexplored. And what we do know, or think we know, in science, is constantly having to be revised, if not revolutionized."

Yes, science is subject to change. The Word of God is not.

"Thy word is truth."—John 17:17.

"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOR EVER."—Isaiah 40:8.

The Bible contains eternal truths which never change. Our challenge is to search more deeply into God's Word and uncover the truths that He has revealed to benefit men in a modern world.

2. THE FOUNDATION OF TRUE SCIENCE

The greatest scientific truth of all time is found in the first four words of the Bible:

"In the beginning God . . ."—Genesis 1:1.

Dr. Arthur Compton, Nobel prize winning physicist, commenting on this verse of Scripture, wrote for the Chicago Daily News:

"For myself, faith begins with a realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence—an orderly unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered—'In the beginning God'."

Few great scientific minds will deny God today.

The book Behind the Dim Unknown, edited by John Clover Monsma (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1966) contains twenty-six chapters, each written by a scientific worker who is a specialist in his field and also a Christian. These men all emphasize the fundamental, basic truth—God.

In his earlier work, Evidences of God in an Expanding Universe, Monsma quotes physicist George Earl Davis as saying:

"That atheism exists in scientific circles is undeniable. But the popular belief that atheism is more prevalent among scientists than among the unscientific has never been proved and is, in fact, contrary to the impressions gained at first hand by many of the scientists themselves."—Page 69.

Typical of many great scientists is the testimony of Robert Millikan:

"Job saw thousands of years ago the futility of finite man's attempting to define God when he cried: 'Can man with searching find out God?' and, similarly, wise men ever since have always looked in amazement at the wonderful orderliness of nature and then recognized their own ignorance and finiteness and have been content to stand in silence and in reverence before Him repeating with the psalmist: 'The fool has said in his heart, there is no God'."—The Faith of Great Scientists, edited by Walter Howie (New York: The American Weekly, 1950).

3. THE BIBLE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (Part 1 of 3)

The Bible is in harmony with the primary facts on which scientific research is established.

When Job was confronted by God with a science quiz of some forty questions, he was silenced. Many of those same questions baffle the brightest minds of today. Read them for yourself in Job, chapters 38 to 40. One of these posers reads:

"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?"—Job 38:33.

God asked Job if he knew the numerous laws of nature. Think of it—more than three thousand years ago the inspired Word was telling men that the universe is operated on natural law. And science today is still investigating the "ordinances of heaven," or natural law.

God is the creator of all law, physical and moral. Look where you will, you find design in all nature. Design demands a designer. And the Bible says: "In the beginning God created." Genesis 1:1. There is no such thing as creation without intelligence. Our universe did not just happen. It is no chance affair. God created according to physical laws He established, and natural law continues to govern every created thing.

In the Reader's Digest of March, 1970, David Raphael Klein, reflecting on the design in the universe, writes:

"Anyone who can contemplate the eye of a housefly, the mechanics of human finger movement, the camouflage of a moth, or the building of every kind of matter from variations in arrangement of proton and electron, and then maintain that all this design happened without a designer, happened by sheer, blind accident—such a person believes in a miracle far more astounding than any in the Bible. To regard man with his arts and aspirations, his awareness of himself and of his universe, his emotions and his morals, his very ability to conceive an idea so grand as that of God, to regard this creature as merely a form of life somewhat higher on the evolutionary ladder than the others, is to create questions more profound than those answered."

Because of the orderly arrangement in nature, many scientists echo the conclusions of the British astronomer and physicist, Sir James Jeans, who said:

3. THE BIBLE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (Part 2 of 3)

"Everything points with overwhelming force to a definite event, or series of events, of creation at some time or times, not infinitely remote. The universe cannot have originated by chance out of its present ingredients, and neither can it have been always the same as now."

Thinking in the same vein, the philosopher A. N. Whitehead states:

"The faith in the order of nature which has made possible the growth of science is a particular example of a deeper faith."—Science and the Modern World, page 24.

The folly of belief in chance is illustrated by the famed Kessler, who wrote:

"Yesterday, when weary with writing, and my mind was quite dusky with considering these atoms, I was called to supper, and a salad I had asked for was set before me. 'It seems then,' I said aloud, 'that if pewter dishes, leaves of lettuce, grains of salt, drops of vinegar and oil, and slices of eggs had been floating about in the air from all eternity, it might at last have happened by chance that there would come a salad'."

None of us would accept such an absurdity, much less eat it.

Prime origins demand an originator, a mind to set things in origin. The Bible says:

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen WERE NOT MADE OF THINGS WHICH DO APPEAR."—Hebrews 11:3.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."—Psalm 33:6, 9.

We know that the atom is the cornerstone of matter, yet it is so small that no human eye can detect it without the aid of powerful magnifying instruments. Even the casual observer of nature knows that our universe operates by invisible forces, such as are evident in the structure of the minute atom. Only a master mind, a super-intelligence, could possibly have constructed an organization so perfect. Even the invisible things about us are controlled by natural laws which Divinity created. Dr. Charles E. de M. Sajous says:

3. THE BIBLE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (Part 3 of 3)

"The creation of matter, of the universe, of the solar system, of the earth and all living things, including ourselves, imposes the need of God in the whole physical domain."

Small wonder that few of today's great scientists will admit atheism. All about us in creation, visible and invisible are THE FINGERPRINTS OF GOD.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."—Psalm 19:1.

More and more, it becomes evident to the searcher for truth that God is a person from whom issues energy which, at His command, turns into matter. What is creation? It is energy translated by the will of God into tangible, visible substance.

Nuclear fission and the splitting of the atom are but the returning of matter into forms of invisible energy. We do not know whether the energy which we buy and sell, in the form of fuel energy and electrical energy, is the same as the divine energy manifested in creation. IF it is, then the splitting of the atom is the reverse process of creation! Creation, on a very small scale, is actually possible for us, since, with large accelerators, we can turn energy into matter. Involuntarily, modern science is coming nearer to God as it struggles to unravel the secrets of natural law. But how little we really know about it!

Science is still grappling with the question, What is light? God's first creative act still poses a conundrum for searching science.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."—Genesis 1:3.

"For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."—Psalm 33:9.

Who knows what light is? Science has its theories about light. It has had theories about light for millenniums. Once it taught the "corpuscular theory," but it rejected that idea for the "wave theory." Now the "wave theory" is in discard, and a newer idea called the "quantum theory" is in fashion. Science still cannot explain God's first demonstration of the power of His word in creation. What is light?

4. ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE

It was an astronomer, filled with awe as he studied the magnitude and order of the heavenly bodies, who exclaimed, "Truly, the undevout astronomer is mad!"

As you look through the telescope into the starry sky, you will agree with the Bible that the "heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." Psalm 19:1.

Bible statements that are now fully admitted by science:

BIBLE TRUTH: "His [the sun's] going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his CIRCUIT unto the ends of it."—Psalm 19:6.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Science teaches today that the sun has its own circuit with a circumference of about 338,000 light-years.

BIBLE TRUTH: "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and HANGETH THE EARTH UPON NOTHING."—Job 26:7.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: The earth is a huge sphere traveling through space at 18.5 miles a second without any visible support.

BIBLE TRUTH: "It [the earth] is TURNED as clay to the seal."—Job 38:14.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: We know that the earth rotates or turns on its axis during its circuit around the sun.

BIBLE TRUTH: "Canst thou bind the SWEET INFLUENCES of Pleiades?"—Job 38:31.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Astronomy teaches the laws of planetary attraction ("sweet influences") that hold the heavenly bodies in a balanced relation to one aonther.

BIBLE TRUTH: ". . . Or LOOSE THE BANDS OF ORION?"—Job 38:31.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Astronomy recognizes the orderly progression of the stars of Orion which makes them seem banded together. The stars of most constellations and other star groups are moving apart, but the Pleiades and Orion are true star groups; all of the stars in each group are moving together through space.

BIBLE TRUTH: ". . . Canst thou GUIDE ARCTURUS with his sons?"—Job 38:32.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Science has discovered that Arcturus is a "runaway sun" traveling at the rate of 84 miles a second. (Our sun travels at 12½ miles a second.)

BIBLE TRUTH: "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered."—Jeremiah 33:22.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Early astronomers counted the stars as 5,119, and mapped them all. Our modern telescopes have increased the count beyond human comprehension.

"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that BRINGETH OUT THEIR HOST BY NUMBER: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; NOT ONE FAILETH. . . . Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? THERE IS NO SEARCHING OF HIS UNDERSTANDING."—Isaiah 40:26, 28.

5. PHYSICS AND THE BIBLE

BIBLE TRUTH: "To make the WEIGHT for the WINDS."—Job 28:25.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Air has weight. We know something of its lifting power as we build airplanes of great size. We know something of air pressure, and forecast weather by barometric readings.

BIBLE TRUTH: "Dost thou know the BALANCINGS of the clouds?"—Job 37:16.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: We know that water is 800 times heavier than air and that it vaporizes to 1,600 times its liquid volume, making it much lighter than air. Thus water floats on air, ascends and forms clouds carrying amazing tons of moisture.

BIBLE TRUTH: "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the WIND RETURNETH again ACCORDING TO HIS CIRCUITS."—Ecclesiastes 1:6.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: We recognize trade winds today. We know that cold from the north and heat from the south create winds, and winds have directional patterns, or circuits, that affect our weather.

BIBLE TRUTH: "It is he [God] that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that CALLETH FOR THE WATERS OF THE SEA, and POURETH THEM OUT UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH."—Amos 9:6.

SCIENTIFIC FACT: Science agrees that evaporation is nature's greatest means of irrigating the land. By evaporation and precipitation, many thousands of cubic miles of water are annually poured on land and sea.

6. THE BIBLE AND BIOLOGY

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit AFTER HIS KIND . . . Let the earth bring forth the living creature AFTER HIS KIND, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."—Genesis 1:11, 24.

Science has never succeeded in disproving this account of the origin of life, nor has it ever succeeded in making one "kind" produce another. For example, potatoes have never been grown from an apple tree; dogs have never come from cats, horses from cows, etc. When one examines the fossils found in the earth, he discovers that they also fall into basic kinds similar to those which exist today and that there has been no gradual transition from one basic kind to another basic kind which would be necessary if the theory of evolution were correct.

"And the LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."—Genesis 2:7.

The chemical analysis of man's body proves that it is constituted of elements found in the earth.

"ALL FLESH IS NOT THE SAME FLESH: but there is one kind of flesh of MEN, another flesh of BEASTS, another of FISHES, and another of BIRDS."—1 Corinthians 15:39.

Where is the man who, even blindfolded, cannot tell whether he is eating beefsteak, chicken, or fish?

"[God] hath made of ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS OF MEN for to dwell on all the face of the earth."—Acts 17:26.

Give the scientist one drop of blood from each of seven different kinds of animals, birds, etc., and he can quickly tell from which each came. But give him one drop of blood from each of the races of men, and it will be almost impossible for him, even by chemical analysis, to separate the ethnic groups from which the blood was taken.

"For it is the life of ALL FLESH; the BLOOD OF IT is for the life thereof."—Leviticus 17:14.

The circulation of the blood was not understood by science until our day. But Moses knew that the blood carries food to every body cell—to "all flesh."

How wonderful it is that each new discovery of science only adds to the surety of the words of God in the Holy Bible!

7. SANITATION AND ECOLOGY

The principles of sanitation outlined in the Bible are truly remarkable in the light of modern-day research and knowledge.

In Leviticus 11:29-36 the need for pure water is stressed. This was long before the days when science discovered that cholera, typhoid, and other diseases were spread chiefly by polluted water.

God instructed the nation of Israel to cover bodily waste with soil. (Deuteronomy 23:12.) Today science recognizes that disease spreads through germs from bodily waste being carried by insects.

Israel was also instructed on the principles of quarantining those with contagious diseases such as leprosy and those with "a running issue." See Leviticus 13:45 and Leviticus 15.

Ecology has become a burning issue today. More than three thousand years ago conservation of wild life and productive land was an issue with God. He told Moses to protect wild life by instructing the nation of Israel not to take mother birds from a nest containing eggs or young birds. (Deuteronomy 22:6.) Israel was directed to conserve the land by allowing it to lie uncultivated for one year at the end of every seven years. (Exodus 23:10, 11.) In his book, Modern Discovery and the Bible, A. Rendle Short says:

"If in wheat-growing country crops are raised year after year and forests and grasslands turned into cornfields over a very wide area, the region becomes desiccated, rain ceases, or only falls in great storms that wash away the soil, and the area is blown over with dust and sand. Reclamation is difficult. It was therefore a very wise provision of the divine law that the land should keep her Sabbaths."—(London: The Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943), page 85.

8. CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE (Part 1 of 3)

Some time ago, the Reader's Digest contained an article by Orrin Keating, M.D., telling how the study of the human body turned him from an avowed atheist into a firm believer in Jesus Christ. He says that up to the time he was in medical college he considered himself to be an unshakable, incontrovertible atheist. He regarded any form of religious belief as childish superstition and an obstacle to intellectual progress. He says that he was "atheistic with a conviction," and never hesitated to advertise his views when an audience could be had.

Then one day something happened that changed his whole life. David Grant, a noted anatomist, was dissecting a body and lecturing to his class. Suddenly he paused, turned to his students and said: "Gentlemen, here in this human organism is a complete refutation of what is called atheism." He then went on to state that no reasonable person could look on the miraculous construction and arrangement of the organs of the body without acknowledging that some creative power above and beyond human comprehension must have been responsible for them. He asserted that it is futile to deny that every creation must have a creator, that there must be some power, some first cause, for the origin of so wonderful a creation as the human body. The famous anatomist then told his class that doctors, of all people, should be religious—meaning that they should be humble, prayerful men who recognize a supreme power operating in human affairs.

Dr. Grant's words disturbed young Keating, and he was unable to sleep that night. He says that when the sun had risen the next morning his atheistic opinions had vanished and he had become a firm believer in the Word of God.

Under inspiration the ancient psalmist wrote about the marvels of the human body. He said:

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."—Psalm 139:14.

Here are the confessions of another avowed atheist who found God by honestly examining the evidences of science in the simple things of nature at his feet:

8. CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE (Part 2 of 3)

"I am going to say something so simple that many people may not think it worth saying at all: I do not see how a man can be at once a good gardener and a good atheist.

"To look into the heart of a rose, to praise its beauty, and in the next breath proclaim that the universe is a senseless chaos is surely the most naked example of a contradiction in terms. The gradual discovery, in flower upon lovely flower, of the most exquisite and intricate patterns, had for me the quality of a religious revelation.

"I bought a magnifying glass, and late at night, in the lamplight, I would hold it over the daisy, with its thousands of close-packed stars, each crowned by a master craftsman with a tip of gold. I reveled in the rich fabrics of the iris, each petal a tapestry in miniature. The commonest objects were among the most exciting—the exquisite disposition of seed-pods on the underside of a fern, like little buttons sewn on some miraculous jerkin.

"And while the sense of sight was persuading me of the possibility of a divine pattern, so the sense of sound was suggesting to me the possibility of a universal rhythm. The very air was vibrant with music—the lovely legato phrases of the wind in the wheat, the brilliant pianistic arpeggios of a rainstorm, the rise and fall of the fluting birds. How was it possible, with all this music poured out so ceaselessly, that there should not be a major melody and a master musician? These questions I would ask myself on my lonely walks over the hills."—Beverly Nichols, "All I Could Never Be," Reader's Digest, April, 1951.

Our God is the great eternal Scientist, and all about us are the trademarks of His creative power. In leaf, flower, and tree, we see His fingerprints. The sky is the glorious display window of His creative might. On land and sea His footprints are clearly evident.

8. CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE (Part 3 of 3)

"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?"—Job 12:7-9.

For multitudes, sin has blurred God's fingerprints, marred His footprints, and dimmed our vision. But the same God who created our world gave Himself on Calvary's cross that you and I might be recreated in harmony with the great moral and natural laws of eternity. (See John 1:1-3, 10, 14.)

Believe your Bible. It is true, as all true discoveries of science testify. Won't you let God's Word dissolve the blur with which sin has clouded your vision? There is happiness and peace of mind for those who believe.