The Bible Is a Textbook of Science
by
Henry M. Morris
"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye
believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3 :12).
The Christian polemicist frequently is confronted with the problem of
the scientific "errors" in Scripture, especially in its first
eleven chapters. Often he is tempted to resort to the solution of
neo-orthodoxy and to protest that "the Bible is, after all, not a
textbook of science, but rather of religion." "It is meant to tell us
the fact of creation, not the method of creation; it tells us who
is Creator, not when or how He created. It points us to a
confrontation with the Creator, not an understanding of earth
history."
It is obvious, of course, that the Bible is not a scientific textbook
in the sense of giving detailed technical descriptions and
mathematical formulations of natural phenomena. But this is not
adequate reason for questioning the objective accuracy of
those numerous portions of Scripture which do deal with natural
phenomena and historical events.
This type of apologetic device is both logically unsatisfactory and
evangelistically unfruitful. How can an inquirer be led to
saving faith in the divine Word if the context in which that Word is
found is filled with error? How can he trust the Bible to
speak truly when it tells of salvation and heaven and eternity which
he is completely unable to verify empirically he finds that
data which are subject to test are fallacious? Surely if God is really
omnipotent and omniscient, He is as well able to speak
with full truth and perspicuity when He speaks of earthly things as
when He speaks of heavenly things.
IMPORTANCE OF BASIC PRESUPPOSITIONS
It is salutary for anyone dealing with questions of this sort to
recognize the essential nature of faith and presuppositions in his
reasonings. "Science" (the very meaning of which is knowledge)
necessarily can deal only with those things which exist at
present. The scientific method involves reproducibility, the study of
present natural processes. When men attempt to interpret
the events of the prehistoric past or the eschatological future, they
must necessarily leave the domain of true science (whose
measurements can be made only in the present) and enter the realm of
faith.
This faith may be in the doctrine of uniformity, which assumes that
the present processes may be extrapolated indefinitely into
the past or future and that therefore "all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation" (II Peter 3:4). If one,
because of his basic presupposition, wishes to believe in uniformity
in this way, it is logically possible for him to do so and to
explain all the pertinent data in this context. He can determine the
ages of rocks and suns by projecting present rates of change
into the limitless past; he can develop theories about the evolution
of species and life and galaxies and chemical elements and
everything in the universe, if he wishes, and no one can prove him
wrong, for the simple reason that these events are not
reproducible and therefore not subject to scientific checking. The
most that can be done is to argue that his theories are either
probable or improbable on the premise of his own uniformitarian
presupposition, depending upon the logical consistency of the
superstructure he has erected upon this foundation. But this is all
within the context of his pure assumption faith uniformity.
One can equally logically start with some other assumption and then
develop his explanations of the data within that
framework. For example, one may assume, if he wishes, that all things
in the universe were created by divine fiat five minutes
ago. He could say that our apparent memories of earlier events were
also created five minutes ago, and once again, no one
could prove him wrong. He had logically explained all the data that
exist, given his initial premise. As a matter of fact, one
could assume, if he wishes, that all existence is illusory, a disease
of mortal mind.
The important point, here, is that one may pretty well believe what he
wants to believe. He can erect a logical system within
which he can explain all the physical data upon any one of any number
of mutually exclusive and contradictory premises.
But we are concerned here mainly with the Biblical framework, and with
the assumption that the Bible is truly the Word of
God as it claims to be. If one starts with the presupposition that God
has written the Bible as His own perfect revelation of the
origin, purpose, and destiny of the world, then it again is perfectly
possible to correlate all the physical data of science and
history within that framework. The decision as to which presupposition
leads to the most logical and self-consistent system of
interpretation must necessarily be based on statistical arguments, and
these are notoriously subjective in nature. Thus, in the last
analysis, it is a spiritual and moral decision rather than a
scientific decision. One can interpret everything in terms of Biblical
creationism and catastrophism or in terms of evolutionary
uniformitarianism, and all the pertinent data can be understood, at
least in broad outline, within the framework of either system. Our
concern here is simply to show that the Bible does provide a
perfectly sound basis for understanding not only religious truth but
also physical processes. It may very effectively serve as a
"textbook" of scientific principles within which we can satisfactorily
explain all the data of science and history. Whether or not
we choose to accept this framework is basically determined by whether
or not we want to do so. Those who elect the
evolutionary framework do so not because the facts of science require
this, but because this is the philosophic
thought-structure they desire. "They did not like to retain God in
their knowledge" (Romans 1:28).
THE BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK
Those who, by faith, accept the Biblical cosmogony, do so for a
perfectly good reason. It is obviously impossible to prove that
God does not exist. There is, at the very least, a good possibility
that He does exist. If so, it follows that all things are His
creatures. The very minds with which we attempt to develop logical
thought-structures are created by Him and must operate
within the limitations which He has set upon them. It is therefore
necessary, if we would understand anything of the true origin,
purpose, and destiny of the world and of ourselves, for us to look to
God for His own revelation of these things. God can only
be known as He wills to be known.
The Bible claims, in numerous ways, to be God's unique revelation. It
was accepted as such by Jesus Christ, who also claimed
to be God incarnate, and who vindicated His claim by His uniquely
perfect life, His atoning death, and especially by His
glorious bodily resurrection from death.
The Bible, with this perfect claim to absolute divine authority does
very clearly establish a framework of interpretation within
which men are expected to formulate their understanding of the data of
science. It is most reasonable and most gracious of
God so to do, since it is quite impossible for man, with his study of
present processes, to know anything for certain about the
prehistoric past or the eschatological future. Only God can know these
things, and we are able to know the truth about these
matters only through faith in God's statements concerning them.
Therefore, the Bible-believing Christian goes to the Bible for
his basic orientation in all departments of truth. The Bible is his
textbook of science as well as his guide to spiritual truth.
In its very structure, in fact, the Scriptures provide fundamental
perspective on the entire Bible-science question. The word
Bible means simply book, and it is significant that the first mention
of book in the Old Testament speaks of the "origins of
Adam" (Genesis 5:1), and the first mention of book in the New
Testament speaks of the "origin of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1)
. The true book, therefore, by implication, is concerned essentially
with the first Adam and the second Adam, and the relation
between the two. It is also meaningful that the final mention of book
in the Bible is in Revelation 22:19, speaking of the "book
of this prophecy" and the "book of life," with a grave warning against
tampering with the words of the Book.
The word science is essentially synonymous with knowledge, and is so
used in Scripture. The first mention of knowledge in
the Bible, in Genesis 2:9, is in connection with the "tree of
knowledge." One might paraphrase by saying that God warned man
against partaking of the "tree of science." There were to be
prescribed limits within which man was to exercise dominion over
the world; for his own good, he was not intended to venture outside
these bounds and know in an experimental fashion the
"science of good and evil." By contrast, the first use of knowledge in
the New Testament, in Luke 1:77, speaks of the
"knowledge (Greek, gnosis) of salvation," and the final mention speaks
of the "knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ" (II Peter 3:18) .
It is instructive also to compare the words knowledge and wisdom. The
former has to do primarily with awareness of facts,
whereas the latter has to do with interpretation and correlation and
explanation of facts. They are in general parallel to what we
mean by our technical words science and philosophy. This also
corresponds with their usage in Scripture. In the New
Testament knowledge is normally the translation of the Greek gnosis or
epignosis. In one passage ( I Timothy 6:20) it is
actually translated, in the KJV, by science, referring to the
opposition of "science falsely so-called." Wisdom, in the New
Testament, is translated from the Greek sophia, which, when compounded
with the Greek for "love of," and transliterated into
English, becomes "philosophy," the "love of wisdom." It is significant
that the only time the actual word philosophy is used in
the Bible is in Colossians 2:8, which warns: "Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ."
True knowledge and true wisdom, which, is to say, science and true
philosophy, must come from God alone, and therefore
must conform to His framework of revealed Truth. The wise man said:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,"
and he also said: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"
(Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). The Apostle Paul, in a tremendous
doxology, shouted: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind
of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? Or who
hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to
whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).
And he also emphasized that in Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God,
"are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"
(Colossians 2:3). Not only religious knowledge, but all knowledge; all
the treasures of science and true philosophy are hid in
Jesus Christ, who is the Creator and Sustainer of the physical
universe!
It is not only legitimate then, but absolutely mandatory, for the
Christian to depend implicitly on the scientific and philosophic
framework revealed in Holy Scripture if he is to attain a true
understanding of any of the factual data with which science deals,
and their implications. It is not surprising at all, then, when we
find that the Bible does speak rather explicitly about basic
principles in every area of science.
THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES
We shall consider science under two very broad categories, the
physical sciences and the life sciences, the latter including also
the so-called social sciences. The physical sciences include such
disciplines as chemistry, physics, geology, meteorology,
hydrology, and the like. The life sciences include biology,
psychology, anthropology, sociology and others.
As far as the physical, or inorganic sciences, are concerned, perhaps
the most fundamental fact concerning them, long ago
revealed in Scripture and only recently acknowledged by modern
science, in that the physical world is basically nonphysical in
its ultimate essence. The mechanics of the universe can only be
comprehended, and then only vaguely, in terms of
non-mechanical, mathematical concepts.
The Scriptures have made it quite clear that the physical universe was
created ex nihilo and is fundamentallyspiritual in
essence. For example, Hebrews 11:3 states: "Through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear." Some might object that the Greek word for worlds
really here means ages. It probably can mean both, but in view of the
modern recognition of the universe as a
space-matter-time continuum, it would clearly be correct to speak of
either space or matter or time or all of them as having
been created by the word of God. And the basic "stuff" of this
continuum is most definitely not "apparent" to the physical
senses.
The same truth is revealed in Hebrews 1:2-3: "By his (God's) Son he
made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory,
and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power . . . " Thus, by power, by the Word, all
things were made, and all things are upheld. Jesus Christ, through the
continual outflow of His limitless divine energy is thus
sustaining all the material stuff of the universe which He had once
created. Here is clearly spelled forth the modern scientific
truth of the equivalence of matter and energy. Here also is revealed
the ultimate source of the mysterious nuclear forces, the
binding energy of the atom. One might also refer to Colossians 1:16-17
for the same teaching.
As far as the laws or processes of the physical universe are
concerned, these all devolve upon two extremely broad and
powerful principles, the so-called first and second Laws of
thermodynamics. Let it be emphasized that, if there is really such a
thing as a law of science, these two principles meet that definition.
There is no other scientific law supported more fully and
certainly by more numerous and meaningful lines of evidence than are
these two laws. All physical processes (and all biologic
processes, for that matter) involve the interplay of two basic
entities called energy and entropy. One could say that any event
occurring in space and time is a manifestation of some form of
exchange of energy. The particular event or process basically is
just this transformation of one or more forms of energy (kinetic or
motion energy, electrical, chemical, light, heat, sound,
electromagnetic, nuclear, or other forms of energy) into one or more
other forms.
In this process, the total energy remains unchanged; no energy is
either created or destroyed, although its form may and does
change. This is the first law of thermodynamics, the law of
conservation of energy. This law has been validated on both the
cosmic and sub-nuclear scales and is a truly universal law, if there
is such a thing. And, since energy really includes everything,
even matter, in the physical universe, it is as certain as anything
can possibly be, scientifically, that no creation of anything is
now taking place in the universe, under the normal conditions which
science is able to study.
But in the process, some of the energy is always transformed into
non-usable heat energy, and thus becomes unavailable for
future energy exchanges. The concept of entropy has been developed to
describe this phenomenon, entropy being a measure
of the unavailability of the energy of the system or process. The
second law of thermodynamics describes this by stating that
there is always a tendency for the entropy of any closed system to
increase. Or, in more general terms, the second law states
that there is always a tendency for any system to become less
organized. Its disorder or randomness tends to increase. If
isolated from external sources of order or energy or "information,"
any system will eventually run down and "die."
These laws are basic in every scientific system or process. As far as
science has been able to show, they are universal in
scope, with no exceptions known. They were only discovered and
validated by science, however, about a hundred years ago,
after much uncertainty and controversy.
If men had been willing to develop their scientific systems on the
basis of Biblical presuppositions, however, it should have
been quite obvious all along that the basic physical processes were
those of conservation and decay, as now formalized in the
statements of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The Bible
does not, of course, state these principles in the
mathematical symbols or technical jargon of modern physics but the
basic truths are quite clearly enunciated.
The conservation principle is strongly emphasized in the summary
statement at the end of the period of creation, when the Bible
says: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host
of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his works
which he had made. And God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his
work which God created and made" (Genesis 2:13; italics
added).
This statement is as clear as it could possibly be in teaching that
God's creative acts were terminated at the end of the six days.
Whatever processes He may have used in creating and making, all His
work ceased when God rested on the seventh day.
Nothing is now being created and this is what was finally formalized
by science in the first law of thermodynamics.
The most significant implication of this fact, for modern
philosophers, is that it is therefore quite impossible to determine
anything about certain creation through a study of present processes,
because present processes are not creative in character.
If man wishes to know anything at all about creation time of creation,
the duration of creation, the order of creation, the
methods of creation, or anything else his sole source of true
information is that of divine revelation. God was there when it
happened. We were not there, and there is nothing in present physical
processes which can tell us about it. Therefore, we are
completely limited to what God has seen fit to tell us, and this
information is in His written Word. This is our textbook on the
science of creation!
Present processes are those of maintenance or providence. Not only is
nothing being created but also nothing is being
destroyed. He is "upholding all things by the Word of his power." By
the same omnipotent Word who created all things, "the
heaven and the earth which are now, are kept in store" (II Peter 3:7).
But we have already noted another very significant characteristic of
all such present processes. It is true that nothing is being
destroyed, but it is also strangely true that everything tends to
become less useful. This is the second law of thermodynamics,
the law of entropy increase, which states that the natural tendency is
toward increasing disorder and randomization. Energy
tends to become less available for useful work, and the process can
only be maintained by a continual influx of fresh energy
from outside the system itself. Everything tends to grow old, to wear
out, or to run down. There is a universal tendency toward
decay and death. And who cannot help but sense that this state of
affairs, universal and inexorable though it seems to be, is
somehow undesirable and abnormal in a universe created by a Holy and
Omnipotent Creator?
But this is all explained and long anticipated in Scripture, which
attributes it to the entrance of sin into the world. At the end of
the creation and making of all things, the Bible says that "God saw
everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very
good" (Genesis 1:31; italics added). There was no disorder, no lack of
harmony, no decay and, above all, no death in the
world as originally made by God. For the Bible believing scientist,
this can only mean that any evidence he finds in the present
order of things, or in the records of the past, that indicates
disorder and struggle, suffering, decay, and death, must necessarily
be understood as entering the world after (not before or during) the
six days of creation.
Specifically the Bible tells us that this happened as a result of the
sin of the first man, Adam, who had been designated by God
as master of the earth and everything in it. When he sinned, God
pronounced a curse on both Adam and his dominion. "Cursed
is the earth for thy sake" (Genesis 3:17). And from that day on, as
the Scripture says: "The whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22). The whole world,
both the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is,
are "waxing old, as a garment" (Hebrews 1:11).
THE AUTHOR
Henry M. Morris has been professor of Hydraulic Engineering and
chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, since 1957. The
Ph.D. degree was awarded him by the University of
Minnesota. While holding membership in several scientific societies,
Dr. Morris is also engaged in numerous Christian activities
and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Appalachian Bible
Institute.
-- ## Thore Bjerklund Karlsen #--/\--# Buttons.. Lots of buttons... ## ## tbk@sn.no, home.sn.no/~tbk/ #-//\\-# I like buttons. ## ##-----------------------------------------------------------------------## ## "Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and ## ## advantage. He lives by makebelieve. (W. Somerset Maugham) ##