DAY 176
CHALLENGE
“The Bible would be more credible if it contained scientific knowledge that wasn’t known when it was written (e.g., if it said, ‘There are no rivers longer than the Amazon,’ ‘The atomic theory of matter is
true,’ or ‘Epidemics are caused by germs’).”
DEFENSE
God could do this if he chose, but it doesn’t appear he has. Scripture is a religious rather than scientific text, and God has given us other evidence for our faith.
Some think Scripture contains scientific foreknowledge. For example, Isaiah 40:22 says God “sits above the circle of the earth,” which some think refers to earth’s spherical shape. This isn’t convincing (the passage is poetry—God doesn’t literally “sit” anywhere—and a circle is not a sphere; “the circle of the earth” might be envisioned as the horizon or as a flat disk).
Putting scientific foreknowledge in Scripture would be of limited use. It wouldn’t help the original audience—only people living after the relevant science was discovered, perhaps thousands of years later. It would even be an apologetic distraction if the science of one age disagreed with it. If Scripture said, “Epidemics are caused by germs,” people living after Galen, who thought epidemics were caused by bad air, would have their confidence in Scripture weakened rather than strengthened. Even once the correct science was discovered, this wouldn’t guarantee people would see it as foreknowledge.
There’s a limit to how advanced the science in Scripture could be since the biblical languages lacked technical scientific terms. Without these, only basic concepts could be described, but basic concepts could be attributed to ancient knowledge rather than foreknowledge.
Suppose the Bible said, “The longest river is in a southern land on the other side of the world” (the Israelites had no knowledge of or name for the Amazon, so a definite description would be needed). After the Amazon’s discovery, would that convince people Scripture contained supernatural information or would they conclude there must have been ancient contact between the Old and New Worlds?
Similarly, if the Bible endorsed the atomic theory of matter, people would simply conclude there were ancient Hebrew atomists, just as there were ancient Greek atomists (e.g., the philosophers Leucippus and Democritus).
Finally, we don’t know that Scripture doesn’t contain such foreknowledge. Maybe the relevant science hasn’t been discovered yet.