Blog

by Katie Erickson

In order to answer this week’s question of whether science and the Bible are in conflict, I think it’s first important to define what those things are. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, recorded in the books, chapters, and verses we know today as the Old Testament and New Testaments. Science is defined by Merriam-Webster as “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.”

What does the Bible tell us? Considering the Bible has over 31,000 verses, it tells us quite a lot! We learn about the stories of many historical figures, and how God has worked in the lives of those people over thousands of years. We also see God’s plan for our world: He created it, humankind messed it up, God provided a plan to save it (Jesus), and God will come again to fully redeem His creation.

What does science tell us? Considering science has so many branches of study today, it tells us quite a lot! There’s biology that tells us about how life works; chemistry that tells us about all the substances we find in nature and how they react; physics that tells us about how physical objects react with each other; etc. Each of these branches of science goes way more in depth than my brief summary here in this blog, of course. I myself am an electrical engineer, so I’ve been exposed to a fair amount of science throughout my academic career. My job exists simply because humankind figured out electricity and how it works, through the study of physics.

So, the Bible tells us how life works, and science tells us how life works. I don’t see any conflict there, do you?

Most often, this question (of whether science and the Bible are in conflict) is raised in the context of how the earth was created. Worldview Warriors blog writer Steve Risner has addressed this topic in his posts “Creation Scientist” is Not an Oxymoron, Let’s Be Honest About What Science Is, and others. I encourage you to read more of his writing for more on this specific topic.

Evangelist Billy Graham once said the following: “There is never any conflict between true science and our Christian faith. It is my own feeling that when all of the truth is known, it will be found that the Genesis story is a wonderfully accurate record of what took place when the world was created. This may be a telescoped record, giving only major points, but I believe it is scientifically accurate. To discard the Bible because we do not understand everything in it, or in the world, would be a foolish thing to do.”

How do you think the Bible and science interact?