Science and the Bible

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Some of the books of the Hebrew Bible contain descriptions of the physical world. Some claim that these descriptions can be part of developing a history of science during Levant's Iron Age. Others hold that the descriptions are not themselves scientific, and can as such have no place in the history of science. Panbabylonianists regard the Hebrew Bible as entirely derived from the culture and mythology of Babylonia as it stood during the 6th century BCE, during the Babylonian captivity.

Current mainstream views suggests the possibility that some elements, particularly of the Torah, are independent of Babylonian influence, dating perhaps as early as the 9th or 10th century BCE, but the significant influence of Babylonian mythology and Babylonian cosmology on the worldview presented in the Tanakh is still beyond doubt. The Christian New Testament is a product of the Roman era and reflects the worldview of that epoch in some instances, e.g. in references to astrology or demonic possession.

Cosmology and astronomy

Biblical cosmology provides sporadic glimpses that may be stitched together to form a Biblical impression of the physical universe. There have been comparisons between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation narrative, and the astronomy of classical antiquity more generally.^[1]

The worldview of the Tanakh (or Old Testament) appears to be that of a flat earth (e.g. Isaiah 11:12 , Isaiah 44:24 ) in a geocentric universe (e.g. Joshua 10:12-13, Ps. 93:1, 1 Chron. 16:30), a view in line with Mesopotamian astronomy of the period.^[2] However, Christians claim that the term chuwg 'erets in Isaiah 40:22 translates as 'circle of the Earth', thus referring to a "round earth". Critics, on the other hand, assert that it meant a "flat earth", claiming that if Isaiah wanted to refer to a spherical earth, he would have used the term kadur (sphere) in Hebrew . The spherical shape of the earth was established in the west only in Hellenistic astronomy, in the 3rd century BCE. The first suggestions of heliocentrism in Europe also date to the Hellenistic period but remained speculative until the 16th century CE. Recent measurements from satellites show that the Earth is, in fact, an oblate spheroid flattened at the poles.

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.^[3]

In the reception of Heliocentrism after Copernicus, biblical references 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:5 were cited for biblical support of geocentrism.^[4] Chronicles 16:30 states 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. The most supportive bible passage of their view was Job 26:7, where Job declares that God "hangs the earth on nothing", which for its time was very close to how modern astronomers would describe the Earth's position.

There are passages that denote the Moon as being luminous (Gen 1:16). Some argue that, as in Babylonian cosmography, the Hebrew Bible imagines Earth covered by a solid sky-dome^[5][6] (the Firmament) to which the stars were attached. Nevertheless, others have argued this was before the fall of man (Genesis 3) and flood of Noah's time (Genesis 6), thus the atmosphere may have changed significantly since that time. Still others suggest that the firmament was actually beneath the earth.^[7]

Augustus Hopkins Strong presented another explanation of all the alleged inaccuracies reflected in the Hebrew Bible in his work, Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God.^[8] Strong pointed out idiomatic usage of moonlight and sunset are still prevalent in current times as in ancient times, and that the word firmament has been used in literature where no one would suggest the author believed in flat earth or solid firmament theology.^[8] 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'." However, it is possible that Dickens was writing this passage with a conscious or unconscious reliance on the biblical motif itself.^[8] Many 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.^[9]

Medicine

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.

The Old Testament contains a variety of health related instructions, such as isolating infected people (Leviticus 13:45-46 ) and washing after handling a dead body (Numbers 19:11-19 ). In addition, the Book of Leviticus provides instructions on handling of wet and dry plant seeds that may have come into contact with an animal's corpse. (Leviticus 11:37-38 ).

The Old Testament also contains various cleansing rituals. One suggested ritual, for example, deals with the proper procedure for cleansing a leper (Leviticus 14:1-32 ). It is a fairly elaborate process, which is to be performed after a leper was already healed of leprosy (Leviticus 14:3 ), involving extensive cleansing and personal hygiene, but also includes sacrificing a bird and lambs with the addition of using their blood to symbolize that the afflicted has been cleansed.

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".^[10][11][12] However, many civilizations that had large cities had public sanitation systems, such as Ancient Egypt, the Aegean civilization, the Hittites, and the Elamites.^[13]

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.^[14]

Agriculture and ecology

The Torah proscribes Intercropping (Lev. 19:19, Deut 22:9), a practice often associated with sustainable agriculture and organic farming in modern agricultural science.^[15][16]

Leviticus 25:1-12 speaks of leaving fields fallow for a year every seven years.^[17][18]

The Mosaic code has provisions concerning the conservation of natural resources, such as trees (Deuteronomy 20:19-20 ) and birds (Deuteronomy 22:6-7 ).

Biology

There have been comparisons between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation narrative, with concepts based on evolutionary theory.^[19][20]

Creation of	Literal Bible reading	Biology
Grass, plants, trees	Created after the Sun	Evolved after the Sun
First lifeforms	Plants (land-based)	Prokaryote (bacteria, Archaea)
Birds	Created before land-based animals	Are a subset of dinosaurs [21]
Fruit trees	Created before fish	Evolved after fish
First human	Created after animals	Evolved from a common ancestor shared with other hominids and, ultimately, all other life forms [22]

Relationship between religion and science

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.^[23] 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 magisterium.^[24][25]

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.^[26][27] In contrast, much of Christianity relies on Biblical inspiration, a doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches.

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.^[28]

Religious text themselves can be the subject of scholarly inquiry via Biblical criticism.

See also

• Criticism of the Bible
• The Bible and history
• Biblical archaeology
• History of science in early cultures
• Babylonian mathematics
• Biblical value of π

Further reading

• Dawson, John William (1888). Modern Science in Bible Lands. London: Hodder. 
• Crosby, Howard. The Bible on the Side of Science: A Lecture : Delivered in New York, December 14, 1874, Before the Society for the Advancement of Science and Art. New York: J.F. Trow & Son, printers, 1875.
• Dawson, John William. Nature and the Bible. A Course of Lectures Delivered in New York, in December, 1874, on the Morse Foundation of the Union Theological Seminary. New York: R. Carter and brothers, 1875.
• Rigg, Arthur. The harmony of the Bible with experimental physical science, 4 lects. Oxford University, 1869.
• Colenso, John William. The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1863.
• Lewis, Tayler. The Bible and Science, or, The World-Problem. Schenectady: G.Y. Van Debogert, 1856.
• Dawson, J. W. Achaia Or Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures.
• Ross, Hugh (2010). Beyond the Cosmos (3rd ed.). Orlando, Fla.: Signalman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9840614-8-8. 
• Gerald L. Schroeder: The Science of God: Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1994, ISBN 978-0684837369.

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

External links

• Biblical Conception of the Universe, uop.edu.