Precise Science Confirms the Bible
An Enduring Controversy
For centuries Bible attackers and Bible defenders have maintained a controversy. Science has been caught in the middle. Bertrand Arthur William Russell (English mathematician and philosopher, 1872–1970) asked if there is any discernable design in the universe, or if everything is merely “a fortuitous concourse of atoms”[i] (though he never explained why that would be fortunate if it were so). Bible attackers have often used very speculative, scientifically flavored ideas to discredit Bible believers and advance an atheistic evolutionist view of humankind and the universe. Some Bible defenders suspect that there is a conspiracy among Bible attackers to suppress the truth and destroy the faith of school children.
Some European intellectuals ask, “How is it possible that in America, where science has notably advanced in recent years, most of the population believes that God created the universe and humankind?” For decades only six to nine Americans in a hundred have agreed with the idea that “God played no part in the random processes that produced the Earth and us.” The resulting lack of public support for research may have reduced government support for research by many millions of dollars per year.
Newly precise science potentially settles this controversy with advantages for the moderates on both sides. New results, expounded in the following chapters, will foster tolerance. If this happens, both science and Bible believers will benefit.
The precise sciences are physics and chemistry. Restricting their field of study to relatively simple phenomena lets these two sciences reconcile their theories precisely with experimental results or observations. The less precise sciences, like biology and geology, deal with very complex phenomena and cannot yet achieve similar precision.
Cosmology, a branch of physics, is the science of the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe. Cosmology advanced and became a precise science on 12 February 2003. On that date NASA project scientists released the first data set from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). They had been observing the first light in the universe with a probe that orbits in the shadow of the Earth. The picture WMAP gives of the early sky establishes the rate of expansion of the universe. The precision achieved, better than 1 percent, is what scientists expect when a science matures and becomes precise.
The new results from cosmology unintentionally confirm the Bible. Some Bible believers are now saying that NASA has photographed the light that shone when God said “Let there be light!” The next chapters describe the evident parallels between the Bible’s creation account and what cosmologists call “the standard model” of the early universe. The clear agreement renders obsolete most of the debate between Bible attackers and Bible defenders. The remaining major controversies are in the realms of biology and geology. We may therefore relax and leave the resolution of those controversies to the future when biology and geology become precise.
[i] Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy, chapter XV.
Some European intellectuals ask, “How is it possible that in America, where science has notably advanced in recent years, most of the population believes that God created the universe and humankind?” For decades only six to nine Americans in a hundred have agreed with the idea that “God played no part in the random processes that produced the Earth and us.” The resulting lack of public support for research may have reduced government support for research by many millions of dollars per year.
Newly precise science potentially settles this controversy with advantages for the moderates on both sides. New results, expounded in the following chapters, will foster tolerance. If this happens, both science and Bible believers will benefit.
The precise sciences are physics and chemistry. Restricting their field of study to relatively simple phenomena lets these two sciences reconcile their theories precisely with experimental results or observations. The less precise sciences, like biology and geology, deal with very complex phenomena and cannot yet achieve similar precision.
Cosmology, a branch of physics, is the science of the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe. Cosmology advanced and became a precise science on 12 February 2003. On that date NASA project scientists released the first data set from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). They had been observing the first light in the universe with a probe that orbits in the shadow of the Earth. The picture WMAP gives of the early sky establishes the rate of expansion of the universe. The precision achieved, better than 1 percent, is what scientists expect when a science matures and becomes precise.
The new results from cosmology unintentionally confirm the Bible. Some Bible believers are now saying that NASA has photographed the light that shone when God said “Let there be light!” The next chapters describe the evident parallels between the Bible’s creation account and what cosmologists call “the standard model” of the early universe. The clear agreement renders obsolete most of the debate between Bible attackers and Bible defenders. The remaining major controversies are in the realms of biology and geology. We may therefore relax and leave the resolution of those controversies to the future when biology and geology become precise.
[i] Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy, chapter XV.
Withdrawing from the Present Stalemate
A kind of siege mentality may have kept many Bible defenders from noticing the new confirmation from cosmology. Most Bible defenders have a very high view of the way God inspired the writing of the Bible. They maintain that God kept the Bible writers from all error, even when the writers referred to ideas they could not have known by natural means. Nevertheless, the defenders divide over Bible references to phenomena that modern science has investigated.
Augustine (354–430, bishop of Hippo 396–430) thought that the first creation day in Genesis was a 24-hour day.[i] A few centuries ago geology began to accumulate evidence that the formation of the Earth took billions of years. Therefore some Bible defenders stopped thinking so literally of the first days in Genesis. Some took the days as symbolic of geological eons. Others, to avoid controversy about the age of the Earth, said that the Bible does not teach science but rather theology. While holding to what the Bible teaches about God, some Bible defenders said that the creation accounts should be taken poetically, as myths that teach important truths, while ignoring differences between modern science and the pre-scientific perceptions of the ancient writers. Unhappily there was no way to decide between these differing opinions. It came down to seeking what seemed to be the best interpretation and persuading others to accept that view. Many well-educated, serious Bible believers have felt strong pressure to choose between accepting scientific evidence and maintaining their belief in the literal truth of the Bible.
Now at last there is good news. Making telescopes able to peer farther and farther into the universe eventually culminated in satellites that have photographed the first light in the universe, light that began its long journey to the Earth before the galaxies formed. Observing this light has led to a precise determination of the durations of the first three days, from the first day when the first light shone to the third day when the Earth was sufficiently well formed to support vegetation. This enables us to explain the Bible’s creation accounts to children and to combine all the findings of precision science harmoniously into a story that stand up to the most rigorous scientific examination.
We explain here the Bible texts that refer to the creation of the universe and the formation of the Earth. Taking the Bible’s words in the uncomplicated way that children understand them, we find complete agreement between the Bible and precise science. Controversy with precise science disappears; in fact, precise science confirms the Bible.
This unexpected, happy resolution has great benefits. Physicists and chemists can go quietly about their research, enjoying a new appreciation from Bible believers. Believing parents can teach their children at home that precise science confirms the Bible. If evolutionary biologists, geologists, and teachers continue to press their controversies with the Bible, parents and schoolchildren can reply that it is too soon to tell if evolutionistic ideas are sound. Since precise science has unintentionally confirmed the Bible, Bible believers may reasonably expect similar, additional confirmation in the future when biology and geology become more precise. Meanwhile, mere speculation need no longer cause dismay.
[i] Augustine, Commentary on the Biblical Book of Genesis, Book One, “The Work of the First Day,” Chapter 10, Paragraph 21.
Augustine (354–430, bishop of Hippo 396–430) thought that the first creation day in Genesis was a 24-hour day.[i] A few centuries ago geology began to accumulate evidence that the formation of the Earth took billions of years. Therefore some Bible defenders stopped thinking so literally of the first days in Genesis. Some took the days as symbolic of geological eons. Others, to avoid controversy about the age of the Earth, said that the Bible does not teach science but rather theology. While holding to what the Bible teaches about God, some Bible defenders said that the creation accounts should be taken poetically, as myths that teach important truths, while ignoring differences between modern science and the pre-scientific perceptions of the ancient writers. Unhappily there was no way to decide between these differing opinions. It came down to seeking what seemed to be the best interpretation and persuading others to accept that view. Many well-educated, serious Bible believers have felt strong pressure to choose between accepting scientific evidence and maintaining their belief in the literal truth of the Bible.
Now at last there is good news. Making telescopes able to peer farther and farther into the universe eventually culminated in satellites that have photographed the first light in the universe, light that began its long journey to the Earth before the galaxies formed. Observing this light has led to a precise determination of the durations of the first three days, from the first day when the first light shone to the third day when the Earth was sufficiently well formed to support vegetation. This enables us to explain the Bible’s creation accounts to children and to combine all the findings of precision science harmoniously into a story that stand up to the most rigorous scientific examination.
We explain here the Bible texts that refer to the creation of the universe and the formation of the Earth. Taking the Bible’s words in the uncomplicated way that children understand them, we find complete agreement between the Bible and precise science. Controversy with precise science disappears; in fact, precise science confirms the Bible.
This unexpected, happy resolution has great benefits. Physicists and chemists can go quietly about their research, enjoying a new appreciation from Bible believers. Believing parents can teach their children at home that precise science confirms the Bible. If evolutionary biologists, geologists, and teachers continue to press their controversies with the Bible, parents and schoolchildren can reply that it is too soon to tell if evolutionistic ideas are sound. Since precise science has unintentionally confirmed the Bible, Bible believers may reasonably expect similar, additional confirmation in the future when biology and geology become more precise. Meanwhile, mere speculation need no longer cause dismay.
[i] Augustine, Commentary on the Biblical Book of Genesis, Book One, “The Work of the First Day,” Chapter 10, Paragraph 21.