A common response
by believers to scientific reporting that they disagree with is to write it off
by declaring “Fake Science!” In some cases, this may be true, but
unfortunately, in others it may be more a case of bad Bible interpretation.
Let’s start by
looking at a case out of history…
Galileo Galilei was
a mathematician who lived from 1564 to 1642. As part of his work, he propounded
that Copernicus was right in theorizing that the earth was not the center of
the universe. This assertion contradicted formal church opinion at the time,
and Galileo was convicted of heresy, which in a deeply religious community was
not inconsequential.
The church’s
position was based on scriptures like:
Eccles 1:5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the
place where it rises.
All of these verses
seem to state that the world is immovable – and therefore the rest of the stars
and planets must be moving around us. The problem for the mathematicians was
that the calculations to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies,
especially the planets, were convoluted and unlikely, while predictions based
on a sun-centered solar system were elegant. However, the church clung on to
these passages, and was itself immovable.
It is intriguing
that we all now depend on GPS data rooted in those elegant calculations.
Acknowledging that
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in righteousness…” (2 Tim 3:16), let’s have a
look at the verses being quoted here.
First – the Bible
is God’s guidance for training in righteousness – it is not a science text. Being
God-breathed, not God dictated, the words and observations are those of the
authors based on their own knowledge of the universe. It is not surprising that
the earth was considered immovable based on the information available to them. The
authors often used poetic imagery in a (somewhat vain) attempt to describe a
gloriously indescribable God.
On occasion, God
did indeed help authors to write prophecy, but this was not the norm. The aim
of the writing was always to ensure that “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,”
(2 Tim 3:17). It is not intended that they are equipped to bicker over the
unknown.
While all of
scripture is beneficial for teaching, not all of it is mandatory language. Some
of it is indeed instruction, but some of it is history, some of it is love
song, and some of it is poetry. For instance.
Isaiah 55: 12 “For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in
peace; the mountains and the hills before you, shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
A glorious song of
celebration and worship. Is it an instruction to buy gloves for all the trees? Obviously
not.
And so we return to
Galileo. In the same way, the three poetic passages listed above were taken out
of context and used to develop a doctrine far beyond their intent. Bad bible
interpretation resulted in severe consequences for many, not the least of whom
was Galileo.
So what is my
point? I am questioning whether other passages are currently being misinterpreted
to support political bias.
Take for instance:
Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
This passage is the
key foundation for an “evangelical” stance denying climate change. A promise is
extracted that the seasons will not change. Regardless of what we do to the
planet, God will fix it. There are not many other passages like this and so it
stands alone. This is unusual for key points in scripture.
Look at the context.
It is set immediately after the flood when the seasons were first initiated. God
is promising that the earth will never be flooded; as a whole. It does not mean
that floods will never happen. Floods do happen, such as the Missouri river in
eastern Nebraska that has been out of its banks for six months this year,
devastating thousands of acres of farms and inundating whole towns. The passage
promises that the seasons will never cease, but it does not say that they will
never change. Consider the City of Cape Town that came within days of running
out of water, mostly because the normally wet city did not have appreciable
rain for 7 years. The seasons still rolled around as promised, but the rain did
not.
Now go back a few
chapters to Genesis 2:15, “The LORD
God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it,”
followed by Genesis 3:23, “therefore the LORD
God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was
taken.”
Note the instructions to keep and work the earth – i.e. be
responsible for it, to take good care of it. It can be expected that pillaging our
planet will have consequences. While Christ’s blood leads to forgiveness, God normally
allows us to enjoy the consequences of our sin. We break the national law – we
go to jail. We stick our fingers in the electrical socket - we get shocked. We
overrun our bank balance - we have to pay it back. We consume more resources
than the planet has - we run out. Assuming that God will cover for our greed is
not wise. We could drop in Isaiah 24: 5-6 here as a proof text for this thought...
Next:
Jeremiah 5:22 I placed the
sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass
over it.
A passage that is used to
claim that sea levels will never rise.
Again, look at the
context. This verse is in the midst of God ranting about the iniquities of the
nation of Judah, including (ironically) in verse 31, “listening to false prophets.”
It is a poem. God is using hyperbole to discuss his authority. Is it a promise
to stop flooding by the sea? The sand clearly failed New York during hurricane
Sandy. Did God fail to keep a promise? May it never be. Was it ever such a
promise?
While seasonal and
periodic fluctuations in sea level may be in the historical record, the data
reported by august institutions such as EPA are indicating that trends are upward
and accelerating (links below). Fake science, or just facts?
As an engineering
professor, who studies the science of materials in order to deliver the
infrastructure needed for civilization to thrive, I am convinced that God has
created an orderly universe, meaning that good science will always reveal His
glory. As believers we should not be afraid of science – it is a tool that
helps us improve our lives (like GPS), while revealing more about God’s amazing
creation.
Where science and
scripture seem to diverge, it is because we do not have enough data – and that
is OK. That means there is still more to learn! We need to be comfortable with accepting
the dissonance that results from reaching the limits of what we know.
How do we respond
when science seems to diverge from political expedience? By invoking scripture
inappropriately? I hope not. In so doing we make the gospel look foolish.
