Science, the Bible, and Science Fiction

A common attack on Christianity put forth by atheists is that the Bible can't be true because it's scientifically inaccurate.

First note that Scripture actually doesn't talk about science very much because the purpose of the Bible is to teach us about God and morality.

For example Scripture never says that the sun orbits the earth; that's something that people added in.  That God stopped the sun moving in the sky is compatible with Him stopping earths rotation if the earth orbits the sun or stopping the sun if the sun orbits the earth.

Similarly the Bible never says how old the earth is; the infamous 6000 year age is based on the musings of an Anglican Bishop.

In fact back in the 4th century AD St. Augustine put forth the position that the Catholic Church has always held; if science says this or that about some physical phenomena in the Bible then we are to interpret scripture in light of that physical truth not misuse scripture to attack science.

But the real point is that since the purpose of Scripture is to teach us about spiritual realities being scientifically accurate is irrelevant.

Interestingly the exact same thing is true about science fiction.  Isaac Asimov pointed out that science fiction is a great vehicle for discussing the human condition. For example hundreds, if not thousands, of science fiction stories were written in the 1950s and 1960s which condemned racism and segregation without ever mentioning Black people.

The ability of those science fiction stories to preach that all people are of value no matter how they look was in no way harmed by the fact that those same stories had many scientific inaccuracies.

Not only did those stories have the equivalent of talking snakes, something atheists cite to "prove" that Scripture can't be correct, but they had faster than light travel and time travel. Yet despite those inaccuracies they were able to convey their message.

At this point atheists will argue that Scripture claims to be true while science fiction says it's fiction. The argument that I'm making however is that God had no reason to demand that the people He inspired to write Scripture write only scientifically valid things in order for Him to achieve His objective of teaching us how we are to live if we want to be truly happy.

God didn't dictate the Bible; He inspired the writers.  That they used phrasing that could be scientifically inaccurate was irrelevant to His purpose and hence He didn't prevent the authors from writing it.

But what about the "impossible" things that are in Scripture.  Well there are several answers.

First not everything in Scripture is literal; for example the Catholic Church has never stated that the Biblical flood was literally true.

Second nothing is impossible for an all powerful God by definition. For example in a few hundred years we will probably be able to make a talking snake using genetic engineering so to say that an all powerful God couldn't do what we will be likely able to do in the future is kinda silly.

Third if God exists and defined the laws of nature then it's obvious that He could do things that appeared to contradict those laws just like the person who programs a video game can put in cheat codes and enable his character to do things that regular players who didn't write the code can't do.

None of this proves that the Bible is in fact the inerrant word of God but it does show that attempting to "prove" that the Bible isn't inspired by God because it's not a scientific textbook are invalid.

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