Science and the Bible

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See Scientific foreknowledge in the Bible for alleged biblical anticipation of modern scientific discoveries.

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Science and the Bible are regularly compared to one another, often in order to lend support to biblical authority, or to otherwise criticize the general accuracy of its claims. Others, however, take the position that science and the Bible are two distinct ways of understanding the world.^[1] This view is commonly found in the field of biblical criticism^[2] and among moderate scientists.^[3] According to this view, science is way of understanding how the physical world works, whereas the Bible is a way of understanding moral law and following the instructions from the Abrahamic God.^[3]

Contents 1 Relationship between religion and science 2 Applied sciences 2.1 Health sciences and medicine 2.2 Architecture and engineering 3 Social sciences 3.1 Psychology 4 Formal sciences 4.1 Mathematics 5 Natural sciences 5.1 Physical Sciences 5.1.1 Astronomy 5.1.1.1 Cosmology 5.1.2 Earth sciences 5.1.3 Environmental sciences 5.1.3.1 Ecology 5.2 Life Sciences 5.2.1 Biology and zoology 5.2.1.1 Evolutionary biology 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 References 9 Further reading

[edit] Relationship between religion and science

This section may stray from the topic of the article. Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page.

The relationship between religion and science has been a focus of the demarcation problem, which in philosophy attempts to draw the line between science and nonscience.^[4] Some scholars, like Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, argue that the two are interconnected. Others like Stephen Jay Gould and the National Academy of Sciences take the view that each occupy a separate nonoverlapping magisteria.^[1][5]

According to this view, statements about the physical world made by science and religion rely on different methodologies. Science relies on the scientific method as a body of techniques used for investigating natural phenomena. To be termed scientific, a claim must be based on observable, empirical, and measurable evidence, which is subject to systematic principles of reasoning.^[6][7]

Skeptics argue that the various biblical statements are at odds with scientific knowledge, particularly with regard to its claims regarding the origin of the cosmos, astronomy, and biological evolution. The "Conflict thesis" is the argument that religion and science are at constant warfare with one another. This is exemplified by such examples as the persecution of Galileo Galilei, the public debate between T. H. Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, the John Scopes trial, and the current controversy between the teaching of evolution and creationism.^[8]

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Hebrew Bible.^[9] Christians, including Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, all have the same books in the New Testament and the same books in the Old Testament.^[10] The Bible, as an ancient collection of Jewish and Christian books, originated from the Bronze age Levant, located within the Eastern Mediterranean. It is believed the Old Testament was composed and compiled between the 12th and the 2nd century BC.^[11] The New Testament were written by various authors after c. AD 45, in Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Although the books predate the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, some believe that the Bible foresaw ideas which would later be verified by modern science. The following parts of various biblical texts are notations and records regarding aspects of the science and technology of the respective times of the various texts. The Bible relies on Biblical inspiration, which is a doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches. More scholarly is Biblical criticism, which asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources were used in its composition and the message it was intended to convey. Such criticism addresses meanings of the words and the way in which they are used. Biblical criticism draws upon a wide range of scholarly disciplines, including archaeology, linguistics, and oral tradition studies.

[edit] Applied sciences

Applied science is the application of natural knowledge to solve practical problems.

[edit] Health sciences and medicine

Health science is the applied science dealing with health. The Deuteronomic Code contains several sanitation instructions; in particular, Deuteronomy 23:12-13 contains instructions to dispose of human waste away from the population, in order to keep locations holy.

Medicine is the art and science of healing. Medicine encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. The Old Testament contains a variety of health related instructions, such as isolating infected people (Leviticus 13:45-46), washing after handling a dead body (Numbers 19:11-19), and burying excrement away from a camp (Deuteronomy 23:12-13).

The Old Testament also contains various healing rituals. One ritual, for example, deals with the proper procedure for cleansing a leper (Leviticus 14:1-32). It is a fairly elaborate process involving extensive cleansing and personal hygiene, but also includes killing a bird and lambs with the addition of using their blood to cleanse the afflicted.

There is a contention that the degree of effectiveness of the Mosaic dietary restrictions and hygienic strictures indicates and, on the extreme end, "it has taken science thousands of years to discover what the Bible taught all along".^[12][13][14] Though civilizations that had large cities had public sanitation systems, such as Ancient Egypt, the Aegean civilization, the Hittites, and the Elamites.^[15]

According to James 5:14-16, a prayer is offered in faith will help heal illness. Faith healing is a concept that religious belief ("faith") can bring about healing— such as through prayers that, according to adherents, evoke a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability in particular indicated individuals. Prayer is the act of addressing god for the purpose of worship or petition. Scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. The efficacy of petition in prayer for physical healing to a deity has been evaluated in numerous studies, with contradictory results.^{[16][17][18][19]} There has been some criticism of the way the studies were conducted.^[20][21]

[edit] Architecture and engineering

Architecture is science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures.Engineering is a field of applied science which includes electrical engineering, covering electrical systems, and mechanical engineering, covering physical or mechanical systems.

[edit] Social sciences

The social sciences comprise disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups, animals and individuals.

[edit] Psychology

Psychology is a discipline involving the systematic study of human and animal mental functions and behavior. The correlation between mental and physical health has found much examination and discussion in modern psychiatric research.^[22][23][24] Passages within the Book of Proverbs relate the two, such as 12:4, 14:30, 15:30, 16:24, 17:22. Modern science has found that certain proverbs contain advice toward sound mental and physical well-being.^[25]

The New Testament mentions demons as responsible for physical and mental illnesses (Matthew 17:14-20, etc.).^[26] Demonic possession is not a valid psychiatric or medical diagnosis recognized by either the DSM-IV or the ICD-10. Those who profess a belief in demonic possession have sometimes ascribed the symptoms associated with mental illnesses such as hysteria, mania, psychosis, Tourette's syndrome, epilepsy, schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder to possession.^[27][28][29] In cases of dissociative identity disorder in which the alter personality is questioned as to its identity, 29% are reported to identify themselves as demons.^[30] Additionally, there is a form of monomania called demonomania or demonopathy in which the patient believes that he or she is possessed by one or more demons.

[edit] Formal sciences

A formal science is a branch of knowledge that is concerned with formal systems, for instance mathematics and decision theory.

[edit] Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Questions of plausibility formed the subject of Anglican bishop John William Colenso's book, The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined^[31] An example of Colenso's sort of analysis is provided by chapter III, "The Number of the Congregation".^[31] Leviticus 8:1–4 says that "the Assembly was gathered unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation". To Colenso "must surely be understood" that phrases such as "the Assembly" refer to "some reasonable proportion to the whole number" of the people — at all events, the adult males in the prime of life," which would in turn include "the 603,550 warriors" mentioned in Numbers 2:32.^[31] Colenso says there are multiple references to this whole congregation's being assembled within the court of the Tabernacle.^[31] Exodus 27:18 gives the court's dimensions as 100 × 30 cubits, which he calculates as "1824 feet" by "54 feet" (or 98,496 sq ft),^[32] and "allowing 2 feet (0.61 m) in width for each grown man" in ranks of nine, and "allowing 18 inches (460 mm) between each rank of nine men", the required area would be "of more than 100,000 feet".^[31]

[edit] Natural sciences

[edit] Physical Sciences

Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the biological sciences.

[edit] Astronomy

Astronomy is the study of celestial objects nd phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere. There has been comparisions between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation story, with theories based on Astronomy.^[33]

	Bible	Astronomy
Sun	Created after the world	Present before world coalesces

Ports of the Hebrew Bible can be interpertated as to represent the geocentric view of the universe (Hab. 3:11, Josh. 10:12-13, Ps. 93:1, 1 Chron. 16:30) and there are passages that denote the moon as being luminous.(Gen 1:16) As in Babylonian cosmography, the Hebrew Bible imagines Earth covered by a solid sky-dome^[34][35] (the Firmament) to which the stars were attached.

In the Ptolemaic worldview of the universe, the Earth was the center of the universe and other objects go around it. In the reception of Heliocentrism, the Chronicles were cited for biblical support. Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved." Psalm 104:5 says, "[the Lord] Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position on Scripture.

[edit] Cosmology

Cosmology is study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity's place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent, study of the Universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion. Biblical cosmology provide sporadic glimpses that may be stitched together to form a Biblical impression of the physical universe.

Augustus Hopkins Strong presented one explanation of the inaccuracies reflected in the Hebrew Bible in his work, Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God.^[36] Strong pointed out idiomatic usage of moonlight and sunset are still prevalent in current times as in ancient times, and that firmament has been used in literature where no one would suggest the author believed in flat earth or solid firmament theology.^[36] He illustrated the point by asking if Dickens believed the firmament was "a piece of solid masonry" when "in his American Notes, 72, [Dickens] describes a prairie sunset: 'The decline of day here was very gorgeous, tinging the firmament deeply with red and gold, up to the very keystone of the arch above us'."^[36] Modern scholars (other than those ascribing to some form of Biblical inerrancy doctrine) generally accept that such metaphors in the Bible reflect the authors' underlying belief in the literal truth of this cosmological model.^[37]

[edit] Earth sciences

Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. The Hebrew Bible has passage that can be interpreted as connoting a flat Earth^[38] Isaiah refers to "the circle of the earth" (40:22), the "four quarters of the earth" (11:12), and the "spread out earth"(44:24).

Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustes insisted on the flat Earth model on scriptural authority as late as the 5th to 6th century, long after the spherical shape of the Earth had been deduced in Hellenistic astronomy, and had been generally accepted by their fellow Christians.^[39]

[edit] Environmental sciences

Environmental science encompass a range of disciplines brought together to understand and manage earth systems and interactions among environmental components. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:31, Luke 13:18–19), the Kingdom of God is compared to a mustard seed, "smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil" which "grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches". Gleason Archer points out that there are smaller seeds known on the Earth, but that Jesus was speaking within the framework of ancient Palestinian farming.^[40]

While modern agricultural science recognizes intercropping can be beneficial in providing increased resistance against pests and disease, and there is mounting scientific evidence that intercropping increase yields and sustainability,^[41][42] the Jewish religious laws proscribe it (Lev. 19:19, Deut 22:9). Leviticus 25:1-12 speaks of leaving fields fallow for a year every seven years, advice regarded sound by modern science.^[43][44]

[edit] Ecology

Ecology is an interdisciplinary scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions with their environment. Nature conservation is a scientific movement that seeks to protect natural resources including plant and animal species as well as their habitat for the future. The Mosaic code has provisions concerning the conservation of natural resources, such as trees (Deuteronomy 20:19-20) and birds (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).

[edit] Life Sciences

Prior to the nineteenth century, biology came under the general study of all natural objects called natural history. From the 13th century, the work of Aristotle was adapted rather rigidly into Christian philosophy, particularly by Thomas Aquinas, forming the basis for natural theology.

[edit] Biology and zoology

Biology is a science that studies living organisms. Zoology is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. Leviticus 11:20-23 describes locusts, grasshoppers, beetles, and crickets as walking on all fours. Although the specific references in this passage indicate that insects were the creatures under consideration, the Hebrew word `owph here translated "winged" or "flying" is the same word used six times in the creation story (Genesis 1:20-30) and used twelve times in the Genesis account of the flood^[45] to refer to birds. In the KJV and ASV, the word is translated "birds" or "fowls" in all of these places.^[46] The KJV, in fact, uses "fowls" to open the Leviticus passage cited above: "All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you."

Deuteronomy 14:7 also described hares and rock badger as cud-chewers. While they have no compartmentalized stomachs that the modern definition of ruminants includes in order to be determined cud-chewers, the close relation to rumination is apparent in many English translations of the Bible^{[dubious – discuss]}, which use the word cud in an expanded sense to indicate food that is re-chewed through the coprophagy process used by lagomorphs.^{[dubious – discuss][47][unreliable source?][48][unreliable source?]}

Proverbs 6:6-8 described the ant as an industrious creature, "which having no chief, overseer, or ruler provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in harvest." Although ants are labeled as queens, workers, soldiers, and drones, biologist Deborah Gordon points out there is no authority in the queen as she does not oversee the workers.^[49] She also states that "no ant is able to assess the global needs of the colony, or to count how many workers are engaged in each task and decide how many should be allocated differently".^{[49][original research?]}

[edit] Evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biology is a biology sub-field concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication and diversity over time. The creation–evolution controversy is a recurring theological and cultural-political dispute particularly centering on the field of evolutionary biology. There has been comparisons between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation story, with concepts based on evolutionary theory.^[50][51]

	Bible	Evolutionary biology
Grass, land plants, trees	Created before the sun	Evolved after the sun
First forms of life	Land plants	Marine organisms
Birds	Created before land animals	Evolved from land animals
Fruit Trees	Created before fish	Evolved after fish
First Human	Created from dirt	Evolved; higher apes and Homo sapiens share a common ancestor

According to the Jewish calendar, man was created in year 1, with the year 2009 AD corresponding to year 5,769/70 on the Jewish calendar (because the new year does not begin simultaneously, there is an overlap of two Jewish years for every single Gregorian year). If Homo sapiens has been in existence for over 100,000 years according to modern science, some form of reconciliation, it is believed by some Jewish scholars, is appropriate.^[52]

One approach of reconciliation is that God implanted a soul into a hominid approximately 6,000 years ago.^[53][54] Although humans in the biological sense of the term have existed for over 100,000 years, humans according to the Jewish definition only began when one, Adam, received a soul.^[55] In fact, the Talmud records that there were 974 generations before the appearance by man as described by Genesis.^[56]

This explanation, however, serves to create a somewhat greater inconsistency. If only one individual was given a soul a mere 6,000 years ago, it would indicate that many of the people in the world today are not human according to the Torah definition, because it could not be that all of the people in the world today are descended from a single ancestor who lived less than 6,000 years ago.^[57] (The biblical flood in Noah's day may have killed all but the descendents of Adam, as Noah was, though the biblical flood itself is inconsistent with modern science). To settle this inconsistency, Rabbi Gedalyah Nadel proposes that references to "Adam" in Genesis do not always refer to the same person. Sometimes, a reference "Adam" is really to all of mankind.^[58] Maimonidies similarly understood the Six Days of Creation as describing "a conceptual hierarchy of the world, rather than a historical account of creation."^[59][60]

[edit] See also

Main

Worldview, American Scientific Affiliation, Criticism of the Bible, The Bible and history, Biblical archaeology

General

Fields of science, History of science in early cultures, Copernican system, Flood geology, Noah's flood

People

Malebranche, Lamarck, John Wilkins, Francis Bacon, Isaac Beeckman, Robert Boyle, Alfred Russel Wallace, Thomas Digges, Descartes, Plato, Francis Bacon, Timaios, Galileo, Martin J. S. Rudwick, C. S. Lewis, Paracelsus, T. H. Huxley, Leibniz, William Whewell, Joseph Priestley

Philosophy and theology

Empiricism, nominalists, Mechanical philosophy, Demiurge, Natural philosophy, Deists, Deism, Atheist

[edit] Further reading

20th and 21st century sources

19th century sources

[edit] References

General information

• Orr, James. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Chicago: The Howard-Severance Co, 1915.
• Smith, William. A Dictionary of the Bible, Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography, and Natural History. With Numerous Illustrations and Maps, Engraved Expressly for This Work. Hartford, Conn: S.S. Scranton & co, 1898.
• Hull, Moses. Encyclopedia of Biblical Spiritualism; Or, A Concordance to the Principal Passages of the Old and New Testament Scriptures Which Prove or Imply Spiritualism; Together with a Brief History of the Origin of Many of the Important Books of the Bible. Chicago: M. Hull, 1895.
• Tuck, Robert. A Handbook of Scientific and Literary Bible Difficulties : or, Facts and Suggestions Helpful Toward the Solution of Perplexing Things in Sacred Scripture: Being a Second Series of the 'handbook' of Biblical Difficulties. London: E. Stock, 1890.

Footnotes

[edit] Further reading

• Biblical Conception of the Universe, uop.edu.