The Scientific Validity of the Bible

Expansion of the Universe
There are a number of Bible verses that talk about the heavens being stretched out (Is. 40:22; 42:5, 12; 48:13; 51:13; Jer. 10:12; Ps. 104:2; Zech. 12:1). The heavens were the part of the universe that were made first (Gen. 1:1), and would seem to refer to all the space above the earth, including the sky and/or outer space. One verse even says that the heavens were stretched out like a tent for all things to dwell in it (Is. 40:22). Scientists now know that the universe is expanding. No human could have known that thousands of years ago without some special insight.

Spherical Nature of Earth
Though the Catholics in the past thought the earth was flat due to misinterpretation of verses talking about the "four winds" of the earth and such verses, which certainly do not necessarily teach such a thing, there are some verses that clearly teach the spherical nature of the earth (cf. Prov. 8:27; Is. 40:22). The most notable one describes the terminator line around the earth: "He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters [oceans] at the boundary between light [the day side] and darkness [the night side]," (Job 26:10 ESV). This is a good description of the terminator of earth, which is the circular twilight zone that runs around the earth at the very boundary between the day side of earth and the night side of earth. Now, at the time these verses were written, no later than 500 BC by the latest date, the spherical nature of the earth was still not known. The earliest writing of the Bible, the Book of Job, from where this verse is taken, traditionally is believed to have been written somewhere between 2200-1500 BC. Knowledge of the terminator line was definitely not known by science until more recent times.

The Relativity of Time
Really? The idea of the relativity of time was supposedly discovered by Einstein only about 100 years ago. But, actually, the Bible clearly talked about time being a created part of the universe that was viewed relatively by God. God existed before time began (2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2), which means it was created by Him. A long period of time can be viewed as a short period of time for God according to Psalm 90:4 (written by Moses about 1500 BC). The Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:8 says that 1000 years are like a day with God, but also a single day can be like 1000 years with Him. In other words, He exists outside of time and can view time relatively as either longer or shorter. The Bible is filled with references that God had no beginning, which requires that He be somehow unbounded by time. Isaiah 57:15 says that God "inhabits eternity" (NKJV), which seems to indicate His timeless nature and highlight the fact He exists outside of time. So, at least for God, time can be relative according to the Bible. This concept of time being a created part of the universe has only recently been confirmed as a good possibility. Time is, scientifically speaking, not much different from the three dimensions of space. It is very unlikely that any human thousands of years ago could have independently discovered that fact or have understood of their own mind that time can be relative.

The Vastness of Outer Space and the Number of Stars
The Bible treats the number of stars like the number of grains of sand on the seashore: both are uncountable by man according to the Bible (Jer. 33:22; Gen. 15:5; 22:17; Heb. 11:12). The number of stars that can be seen by the naked eye is only in the thousands, by the way. Not a huge number. But, the actual number of stars is literally innumerable even by today's modern standard. Only estimates can be made of the stars or the number of grains of sand. The unbelievable vastness of the "heavens" (the sky above the earth) was also noted in the Bible (Ps. 103:11; Is. 55:9; Heb. 7:26). Job 22:12b: "And see the highest stars, how lofty [or high] they are!" The people of the old days could never have known of themselves that the heavens were exceedingly vast. Even today we have no way of really comprehending the "height" of the heavens. It is too huge to comprehend.

Spread of Germs
The Mosaic Law instituted: 1) washing clothing and bathing in running water (Lev. 15:13, 17, 21, 22; etc.), 2) avoidance of dead things (Num. 19:14-16; Lev. 11:40), 3) avoidance of blood and some other bodily fluids, 4) quarantining (Lev. 13:43-46), 5) sanitary human waste disposal (Deu. 23:12-13), and 6) avoidance of mold-infested buildings and clothing (Lev. 14:36-53). None of these practices was known to be necessary or good by science in Moses time, c. 1500 BC. How did he know to institute these things? It was God, obviously, who created the laws. From these practices we could infer that a knowledge of germs and bacteria was somehow known by Someone during those times.

Two Healings Necessary for Sight of Blind Man
There is a peculiar story of a blind man who was healed by Jesus (Mark 8:22-26). It is strange because the blind man was initially given sight, but he did not understand what he saw or see things clearly. People looked like "trees" or, apparently, fuzzy blobs moving around. Jesus never failed to heal someone immediately in any other account, so what happened here? The best answer is that the man's eyes were initially healed, but that was insufficient for him to see clearly. Why? Modern science now shows us that people born blind need their brains rewired for them to understand what they see with their physical eyes. That is, even after their physical eyes are able to detect levels of light and colors, their brains need some number of days to interpret the data and make sense of the visual images. So, the best answer here is that Jesus healed the man's eyes, but then the man also needed his brain to be healed! This makes perfect sense according to modern neurology, but in those days they would have known nothing about this fact of how the brain works in relation to eyesight.

The Uniqueness of Man
Evolutionists try hard to paint man as nothing more than an animal. They try to obfuscate the uniqueness of mankind. Yet, the Bible indicates some ways in which man is unique among the animals. Scientific discoveries have never been able to invalidate the Bible. The Bible indicates that only man was made "in the image of God," to have a religious nature where he could worship God (read Genesis 1-2). It indicates that man was made to be able to rule over all the animals, which required greater intelligence. There are some pretty intelligent animals, like dolphins and border collies, but there are no animals that can come close to rivaling man. Music is said to be useful in worship of God (Ps. 28:7; 69:30; etc.), which implies only man should possess a developed sense of music. This is true. The Bible also indicates that man was designed to be a social creature living in community with other people (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12; etc.), which means man should be designed for social interaction with languages, families, cities, and a good understanding of emotions. These features are relatively unique to humans. You could argue that some animals have a degree of language or family relationships, but, by comparison, humans are much more designed for language and living in social communities. The Bible also claims that clothing was something man needed because of guilt and shame from sinfulness (Gen. 3:10-11; 3:21). Animals are not sinful, so they should not need clothing. Indeed, no animal appears to wear clothing to cover its body like humans do. So, clothing, language, a spiritual nature, musicality, family, and intelligence were all marked in the Bible as being especially unique to man. A greater understanding of the creatures found throughout nature has only confirmed the Bible's claim of the uniqueness of mankind.

Epigenetics and the Sins of the Fathers
This is certainly a good bit of speculation, since epigenetics is still a very new science and much is not known about how it works, but apparently environmental changes can affect one's children and grandchildren up to four generations (great-great-grandchildren). So, for instance, theoretically a chain smoker could cause their great-great-grandchildren to struggle more with a nicotine addiction. Basically, according to how epigenetics works, any chemical changes in a person's cells could potentially affect their children to three or four generations. In at least four places the Bible mentions visiting the sins of fathers on their children to three or four generations: "The LORD ... by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation," (Num 14:18; cf. Ex 20:5; 34:7; Deu. 5:9). So, it seems that one possible good scientific answer to what the Bible is talking about is that sin problems in a person can cause chemical problems with them that physically get passed on to three or four generations and cause similar chemical problems in them that makes them more susceptible to the same sins.

Miscellaneous
I don't have time to write a full paragraph for everything, so I'll just summarize a few other random (but very interesting) things:

• Water cycle understood [Ecc. 1:7]— not scientifically discovered until about 1700's
• Jet streams and wind cycles [Ecc. 1:6]— not scientifically discovered until about 1900's
• Sea currents understood [?] [Ps. 8:8-9]— not scientifically discovered until more recently
• 8th day of circumcision was best for blood clotting [Gen. 17:12]— not scientifically discovered until more recently
• There is a weight for air [Job 28:24-25]— not scientifically discovered until more recently
• There are springs in the seas (hydrothermal vents) [Job 38:16]— not scientifically discovered until more recently
• Pleiades gravitationally bound to each other (it's a star cluster), whereas belt of Orion stars are not gravitationally bound [Job 38:31]
• Man is essentially composed of the elements of the ground [Ecc. 3:20; Gen. 3:19; Ps. 104:29]
• Use of antiseptic hyssop [Lev. 14:4-7; Num. 19:18; cf. Ps. 51:7]
• Dimensions of Noah's Ark were excellent for preventing capsizing
• Bacteria are like microscopic worms, and secular history states that Herod died rather quickly of a bacterial disease as described in Acts 12:23
• Emotions can affect one's health [Prov. 17:22; Ps. 31:10]; and sorrow causes sleepiness [Luke 22:45]
• The earth has multiple foundational layers [Ps. 104:5]
• Blood is life-giving and life-sustaining [Lev. 17:11, 14]
• Earth is not hung on anything [Job 26:7]
• Time, space, and matter are all seen in the first verse of Genesis [Gen. 1:1]
• There may be a possible reference to the visible matter being made from unseen subatomic particles [?] [Heb. 11:3]
• The dietary laws of Moses were a good rule of thumb for keeping the Israelites healthy
• Serpents (or snakes) once had functional, rear legs as could be alluded to in Genesis 3
• The earth has protective shields (e.g., ozone layer and magnetic field) [Ps 47:9]
• The earth was founded upon underground "seas" (aquifers) and rivers (subterranean rivers) [?] [Ps 24:1-2]
• The earth is governed by the laws of the universe and not the other way around [Job 38:33]; this implies that geocentricity is not true, since that makes the heavens above governed by the earth.

Supposed Unscientific References
This post wouldn't be complete without offering a little bit of acknowledgement to the supposed scientifically inaccurate statements in the Bible. These are usually unfair and unreasonable accusations. Almost all of these "problems" stem from one of the following fallacies/abuses:

1. a lack of understanding of the concept of relative perspective or language,
2. unbelief of the infinite power of God to work miracles and suspend the laws of nature,
3. translation issues related to KJV or other Bible versions,
4. supposed contradictions between different passages with different meanings,
5. unfairly using quotes from fallible biblical figures to show unscientific statements,
6. presuming something is impossible because we don't know how it could be possible,
7. interpreting clearly poetic literature literally that is not intended to be purely literal,
8. assuming that there are no exceptions to a statement just because exceptions aren't stated,
9. an assumption that symbolic or ceremonial practices were instructing us about medicine or science,
10. not allowing the Bible to use imprecise or unscientific or poetic/non-literal language.

I don't care to address the supposed contradictions in the Bible, since those are not directly related to science. As you can see, many of the reasons for seeing problems with the Bible stem from common fallacies that could create problems understanding any statements from anyone. Bible skeptics often apply unrealistically strict standards that they would not normally use when talking with their friends. For example, if your friend said, "I get up early," you wouldn't call them a liar if one day out of a month they slept in, because you understand that normal speech allows for unstated exceptions. Skeptics sometimes hold the Bible to a different standard—mainly because they are looking for problems in the Bible.

The Bible was written to specific people in their language and with their cultures in mind. Civil laws of Moses were intended to be implemented for a specific people for a specific time. Not all of the civil laws, in my opinion, were intended as the ultimate best option for all times. They were practical civil laws for a technologically simple people with their ecological environment in mind. The Bible is not strictly meant to be a book of science, though obviously it contains some spectacular scientific truths. But, for the most part, the Bible has plenty of language that was intended for simple-minded lay people and that scientists can easily scoff at for not being more precise or absolute. The use of hyssop, for example, was practical for the Israelites to use thousands of years ago, but today we can use much stronger antiseptic/antibacterial chemicals. That doesn't make the Bible wrong or stupid, it just means perhaps that the Bible in some cases of the ceremonial and civil laws had good temporary answers for one particular nation in one particular geographic location and of a particular cultural background. (But, it is still God's Word useful for learning and to teach us various things, and I suspect that there is wisdom in most of the civil laws that is beyond our current knowledge.)

Here are some often ridiculed statements in the Bible related to science, picked mostly at random:

• The moon is considered a distinct light for the earth [Is. 30:26; 60:19; Jer. 31:35; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24; Gen. 1:16]. This falls under the type (1) fallacy above. This is cited as a problem since the moon doesn't generate its own light. Yet, the moonlight (who has a problem saying that?), from the perspective of earth, is coming straight from the moon and can be appropriately called "the light of the moon." We know that the light from the moon actually originates with the sun, but it is not necessary to specify that when we are considering a relative perspective from earth. Practically speaking, the moon often functions as a light during the night time, even if the light doesn't originate with the moon, and the Bible is indicating that was part of its intended functional purpose. (Jeremiah 31:35 shows that the concept of the moon giving light is only a relative, practical statement, since the moon is said to stop giving light when it is blocked by clouds.) When you get right down to it, there would be no moonlight without the moon. The sun, by itself, is entirely insufficient to produce the moonlight during the night. So, the moon is a distinct source (albeit indirect source) of light for the earth. When it is visible at night, it functionally acts like any other kind of light, regardless of the original source of the light waves.
• The sun is said to rise and set. This is clearly an example of the type (1) fallacy above. I doubt I need to explain this one.
• According to the Bible, PI can be calculated to be 3 [1 Kings 7:23]. This falls under the type (10) fallacy above. The Bible often uses approximations, like we all do, and so it should not be a surprise if the Bible doesn't give us a 100% precise measurement for PI. The value of PI always has to be approximated, anyway. In mathematics, it is well known that there is a difference between accuracy and precision. 3 is an accurate approximation for PI, though it is not very precise. 3.1 is also an accurate approximation of PI, though it too is not very precise. If we prefer to use whole numbers, and say that the circumference of something perfectly circular is 30 and its diameter is 10, we could be entirely accurate. How? The diameter could be 9.677... (rounding to 10) and the circumference would be precisely 9.677...x PI = 30.40... (which rounds to 30). So, 1 Kings 7:23 is just using whole number values for the circumference and diameter.
• The sun and moon "stood still" in the sky during Joshua's days [Josh. 10:13]. This falls under the type (1) and type (2) fallacies above. This obviously would have needed to have been a huge miracle. But, all miracles are huge. The statement about the sun not moving in the sky is obviously a purely relative statement and should not be criticized. Some frame of reference always has to be used. The Bible generally, for obvious practical reasons, uses the surface of the earth as a point of reference.
• The "heavens" are said to have pillars [Job 26:11]. This falls under the type (5) and (10) fallacies above. This is an example of using a quote from a human as proof of the Bible's unscientific nature. Job wasn't necessarily accurate in saying the heavens have pillars, but there is another better answer. In Ex. 13:22 (also Ps. 99:7), it talks about a "pillar of the cloud" and uses the same Hebrew word for "pillar". So, Job was probably speaking about pillar-like clouds in the sky.
• The Bible talks about using birds, cedar wood, and water to cleanse moldy houses [Lev. 14:49-53]. This falls under the type (9) and (6) fallacies above. The Law of Moses contained many types and symbolic practices that may have had little or nothing to do with actual remedies or medicine or physical benefits. The New Testament clearly indicates this fact [Heb. 10:1-2]. This same passage, however, talks about using hyssop and water and cedar wood. Hyssop is known to be antibacterial and may have helped kill off the mold. Cedar oil in cedar wood also is known to have anti-fungal and antibacterial properties and would have helped kill the mold when used with water and hyssop. Who knows if the birds were just intended to be sacrificial—v.53 makes it clear that it was partly meant to be used for ceremonial purposes—or if they had some kind of benefit that we don't know about yet.
• A woman who was accused of adultery was subjected to "bitter water" to see if she was guilty or not [Num. 5:11-31]. This could fall under (9) and (6) and (2) above. Who knows what this bitter water was that they used. It is likely that the bitter water had no effect by itself, and God would miraculously produce the correct result. Alternatively, it is possible the bitter water "worked" in connection to emotional guilt and caused the woman to feel sick, as a sort of "anti-placebo" effect or nocebo, as it is called. If the woman was truly guilty, and she believed the water would make her sick, it is quite possible that she would feel sick from it because of this nocebo effect. Basically, it would have been a simple lie-detector test.
• There are said to be four corners of the earth [Rev. 7:1; 20:8]. This could be an example of (1), (2), (7), and (10). The Greek word for "earth" could be translated as "land," such that these two passages could be only referring to the north, south, east, and west edges of the continent or the surrounding area. Alternatively, the language could be partly poetic and be just speaking about the four compass directions. These two passages are in a highly symbolic, prophetic book of the Bible, after all.
• Diseases are sometimes attributed to demons in the New Testament. This falls under the type (6) and maybe (8) fallacies above. Today, this is seen as superstitious and unscientific. However, there are many diseases that are not well understood. It is often not understood how a disease got started in a person. The science community at large does not recognize the existence of demons, but there is nothing in established science that invalidates their existence. If demons exist, then it is certainly possible that they could trigger some types of disease or worsen the physical condition of a person.
• Creeping things (including insects like locusts) are said to go about on four feet [Lev. 11:20-23]. This is a type (3) fallacy, perhaps. First, "creeping thing" could refer to more than just insects. The insect classification is a more modern definition. The actual verses (viz. Lev. 11:21) clearly indicate that locusts and grasshoppers were considered to have four feet used for walking and two legs (as opposed to feet) above the feet used for jumping. Obviously, it would be unbelievable that people who ate locusts would not know that they had six legs. Apparently, they simply saw that these types of insects had four feet for walking and two legs for leaping, and so they said they moved on all four (not six).
• The "stars" are said to fall from heaven in Revelation 6:13 (also Rev. 8:10). This is a type (10) fallacy. In ancient times, meteors and the visible planets were called "stars," since they looked like them in some ways. There is no reason to believe that John in Revelation was not referring to meteors rather than actual stars. Even today we speak of "shooting stars," though we are not being scientifically precise in using such language. Again, the Bible is not primarily a scientific book.
• The mustard seed is called the "least" of all seeds by Jesus [Matt. 13:31-32]. This is a (1) and maybe (7) fallacy. The mustard seed is not the ultimate smallest seed in the world. However, it is a very small seed (1 mm for the black mustard variety) as far as seeds go. Jesus' point was not to answer what the absolute smallest seed was, but to make a comparison between the seed and the kingdom of heaven. There is no reason why Jesus could not have been using relative language to make a point. Note, it appears He was specifically talking about seeds of a particular type from v. 32, namely, cultivated herbs. He probably used the mustard seed and called it the "least" of all seeds because it was locally grown and known to be the smallest seed of the herbs grown in gardens, at least in terms of the ratio between seed size and final plant size. The 1 mm seed could grow into a 8 to 9 foot-tall plant and allow for small birds to perch on it (or even make nests), as the Lord Jesus said.