Article 3 of 14 | Honest Questions
By Dr. Timothy Mann
Science has not disproved the Bible. Science and Scripture are largely not answering the same questions: science explains how the natural world works, while the Bible explains why it exists at all. A discipline built to answer how has not thereby disproved a text answering why.
This second installment of the Honest Questions series addresses what is probably the most common intellectual objection to the Christian faith in the modern Western world. It is often stated with a confidence that suggests the matter is settled, as though this is simply what educated, scientifically literate people understand, and anyone who still believes the Bible is operating with a pre-modern, pre-scientific worldview that has been definitively left behind.
The claim goes something like this: science has disproved the Bible. Evolution has replaced Genesis. The Big Bang has made a Creator unnecessary. Neuroscience has explained away the soul. Modern medicine has made miracles obsolete. Whatever the Bible says about the origin of the universe, the nature of human beings, and the possibility of supernatural intervention, science has given us better answers.
That claim deserves to be engaged seriously, because it rests on several assumptions that do not hold up under scrutiny. The relationship between science and the Christian faith is far more interesting, and far more compatible, than the popular narrative suggests.
The anchor text for this question is Psalm 19:1 and 2:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1-2, NKJV)
The psalmist is saying that the natural world, the very thing science studies, is itself a form of revelation. Looking carefully at the created order leads a person toward, not away from, the God who made it. Here is the first half of why that claim holds up.
Science and the Bible Are Not Asking the Same Questions
The first point to establish is that the supposed conflict between science and the Bible is, in many cases, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what each one is actually doing. Science and the Bible are largely not answering the same questions.
Science is extraordinarily good at answering questions about how the natural world works. How does the universe expand? How do organisms adapt over time? How does the brain process information? These are the questions science is designed to investigate, and it investigates them with remarkable precision and power. The scientific enterprise deserves real respect. It is one of the great achievements of human civilization.
But science cannot answer the questions that matter most to human beings. Science can describe the mechanics of the universe but cannot tell you why there is something rather than nothing. It can describe the development of human consciousness but cannot tell you what a human life is worth. It can chart the evolution of the species but cannot tell you what we are here for. It can analyze the chemistry of love but cannot tell you whether love has any ultimate meaning.
These are the questions the Bible is answering. Not primarily how, but why. Not the mechanics, but the meaning. A discipline that cannot answer the why questions has not disproved the answers given by the discipline that addresses them. It has simply been operating in a different category.
The conflict between science and the Bible is, in many cases, a conflict that has been manufactured by people on both sides who have overreached: scientists who claim that science has answered questions it cannot answer, and religious people who have read the Bible as though it were a science textbook. Neither approach does justice to what either discipline is actually doing.
The Evidence Points Toward, Not Away From, a Creator
The second point is that when we examine modern scientific discoveries carefully, the evidence is far more friendly to theism than the popular narrative suggests.
Consider the fine-tuning of the universe. Physicists have discovered that the fundamental constants of the universe, the strength of gravity, the mass of electrons, the rate of cosmic expansion, are calibrated with astonishing precision. If any of these values were even slightly different, the universe could not support life. Not just human life. Any life. Any complexity. Any structure. The physicist Freeman Dyson said it appeared as though the universe knew we were coming. The philosopher Antony Flew, one of the most prominent atheists of the twentieth century, abandoned atheism late in his life specifically because of the fine-tuning argument. The universe looks, he said, like it was designed.
Consider the origin of life. Science has made enormous progress in understanding how living things work. But the question of how life began, how the first self-replicating, information-bearing molecule came into existence from non-living chemistry, remains genuinely and profoundly unsolved. The information encoded in DNA is of a kind that, in every other context we know of, only comes from intelligence.
Consider the existence of consciousness. Neuroscience has mapped the brain with extraordinary detail. But the hard problem of consciousness, why there is subjective experience at all, remains one of the deepest unsolved problems in all of science. The universe described by materialist science should not produce beings who wonder about the universe. And yet here we are.
None of this is a claim that these observations prove the God of the Bible. But the scientific evidence, honestly examined, does not point comfortably toward a universe without a creator. It points toward a universe that is ordered, fine-tuned, information-rich, and capable of producing conscious beings who ask ultimate questions.
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
Science and Scripture are not competitors answering the same question. One tells you how the universe runs; the other tells you why it, and you, exist at all. This week, notice when a conversation treats scientific explanation as though it has settled a meaning question. Has that happened in your own thinking? What would change if you let science answer how and let Scripture answer why, instead of asking one to do the other's job?
Next time: has the Bible actually been disproved, or has it simply been misread? Part two takes up that direct question.
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If you missed the beginning of our series “Honest Questions” find the article links below:
Article 1: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 1)
Article 2: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 2)
FAQ
Q: Does evolution disprove the Bible?
A: Evolution is a claim about biological mechanism; Genesis is a claim about origin, meaning, and purpose. These are different kinds of claims, so a scientific account of mechanism does not by itself disprove a theological account of why the universe exists.
Q: Is there scientific evidence for God?
A: The fine-tuning of the universe's physical constants, the unexplained origin of information-rich life, and the unsolved mystery of consciousness all point toward, rather than away from, a universe that was designed rather than accidental.
Q: Can a scientist believe in God?
A: Yes. Many leading scientists throughout history and today hold to theistic belief. The philosopher Antony Flew, a prominent atheist for decades, abandoned atheism specifically because of the fine-tuning evidence.