Oat of the
Lab Donald S. Robertson, PH.D. Chairman, Dept, of Science, Biola Bible College
Excuses
S o often the excuse is offered that “ I could not possibly believe the Bible because it has so many scien tific errors.” This, of course, would be a legitimate excuse for ignoring God’s Word if it had some basis in fact. But fortunately it does not. What the av erage person making such a statement usually means is that he has heard someone s say that the Bible is not scientifically reliable and so without checking further he has made a final judgment on hearsay alone. There is another class of individ uals who have ignored the Bible be cause of its alleged scientific inaccu racies. These are persons who rather than depending on hearsay have read the Bible and have found what they believe to be points of conflict between it and science. Such people usually make two errors in correlating science with the Scriptures. First, they make the mistake of comparing the Scriptures with the theories instead of the facts of science. It must be kept in mind that the scientist takes the factual data that he collects, analyzes it and comes to a conclusion (an interpretation) as to its significance. The facts in most in stances are reliable but frequently he must revise interpretations as addi tional data is collected. These inter pretations are usually called working hypotheses or theories, etc. If one examines the proposed conflicts be tween science and the Scriptures it will be observed that in every case the conflict is not at the factual level but rather it is with the interpreta tions that are placed upon these facts. The theory of evolution is a good example of a scientific theory that conflicts with the Bible. Here we have an explanation of the origin of living things which, if accepted in the form
expounded by the scientists, is in direct contradiction to the Scriptures. Now the question is at what level is the conflict found, the factual or in terpretative? With a little study one will find it is at the interpretative level. For the scientist takes the facts of paleontology, embryology, compar ative anatomy, biochemistry, gene tics, etc., and interprets these in such a way as to support his theory of evolution. However, these facts of science do not conflict with the Scrip tures since they can readily he inter preted within a scriptural framework. The only conflicts arise out of a dif ference in interpretation. In science any interpretation which does not conflict with the facts is acceptable. Thus, since an interpretation of these facts can be made within a Biblical framework, there is no conflict with science. Secondly, a person who has what to him seems to be a real example of conflict between science and the Scriptures could also be having diffi culty because he has a wrong view of the Scriptures. In other words he believes there is a conflict because science does not agree with what he thinks the Bible says instead of what the Bible actually does say. For ex ample, some people think that the Bible teaches that the world began 6,000 years ago and that man first appeared soon after. In reality the Bible does not date either of these events. One must be sure of what the Bible says and aware of the facts of science supporting any particular theory be fore any decision can be reached as to whether there is a conflict or not. When these conditions are met the sincere doubter will be surprised to see how the conflicts melt away. END.
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