What Is The Relationship Between Science And The Bible?

5. Practical application. Biblical teaching can help one practically apply principles discovered in science and vice versa. For example, theology teaches that fathers should not provoke their children to anger; psychology can add important details about what this means by offering information about family systems, the nature and causes of anger, etc. Psychology can devise various tests for assessing whether one is or is not a mature person, given a normative definition (a definition of what ought to be the case and not just a description of what actually is the case) from the Bible as to what a mature person ought to be like.

It is the direct interaction approach that opens up the possibility that scientific and biblical claims may provide mutual intellectual support or be in conflict with one another.

Three things should be kept in mind in approaching areas of apparent conflict.

First, the vast majority of biblical teachings and scientific claims have little to do with each other directly, and it is wrong to give the impression that most of the issues from these two sources support or conflict with each other. Areas of potential conflict are quite small compared to the vastness of ideas from the Bible and science.

Second, there are several areas where scientific discoveries have lent support to biblical assertions:

•evidence that the universe had a beginning

•evidence that the universe is fine-tuned and delicately designed so that life could appear

•evidence strongly suggesting that there is no naturalistic explanation for the origin of life and moreover that life is characterized by information that always comes from a mind

•evidence that living things are irreducibly complex such that all their parts need each other to function and thus could not have evolved gradually

•numerous archaeological confirmations of biblical claims

•psychological discoveries of the importance of a unified spiritual, moral free agent to explain human functioning and maturity.

Third, we should face areas of conflict honestly but confidently in light of points one and two. Christians ought to make sure we have understood scriptural and scientific data correctly, and we should seek solutions that are both biblically and scientifically adequate. Given that Christianity provides a reasonable worldview for justifying science, that most areas of science and the Bible do not directly interact, and that many scientific discoveries have added confirmation to biblical teaching, there is no reason why Christians cannot be rational in admitting that there are currently areas of apparent conflict for which we do not have adequate solutions. No worldview is without some problems and unresolved questions. Still, contrary to popular opinion, the difficulties that scientific claims raise for biblical teaching are far from overwhelming, and they are fewer in number than one would expect by listening to propagandists from secular culture.