21 Myths Series: Myth 20 — Is the Bible Anti-Science?
Spiritual & Eschatological Myths (Myths 17–21)
Heaven, Hell, and Spiritual Realities — Clearing the Fog
Myth 20: “The Bible teaches the Earth is flat or is anti-science.” → Phenomenological language; affirms order and discoverable creation.
One of the most damaging modern myths about Christianity is that the Bible is inherently anti-science or promotes a primitive flat-Earth cosmology. Skeptics portray Scripture as belonging to a superstitious pre-scientific era, while “real” knowledge comes from laboratories and peer-reviewed journals. This narrative has discouraged countless people — especially students — from taking Christianity seriously.
This myth is not only false — it is the opposite of reality. The Bible does not teach a flat Earth, and it is not anti-science. Instead, it supplies the philosophical and theological foundation that made modern science possible and continues to make it meaningful. Where the Bible touches on the natural world, it is remarkably accurate — often centuries or millennia ahead of human discovery.
Let me take you on a deep dive.
First, the Flat Earth Claim
The Bible never asserts a flat Earth.
“The four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12; Revelation 7:1) is a common idiom for the whole inhabited world, just as we say “the four corners of the globe” today.
Isaiah 40:22 speaks of God sitting “above the circle of the earth” (Hebrew chug). In poetic context, this is consistent with a spherical view from God’s perspective.
Job 26:7 declares God “hangs the earth on nothing”—a profound statement that sharply contrasts with pagan myths of the Earth resting on turtles, elephants, or cosmic pillars.
The Bible avoids the clear scientific errors found in other ancient writings. It uses phenomenological and poetic language (describing things as they appear) to convey theological truth, not to deliver technical cosmology.
Why the Bible Is Not Anti-Science: A Deep Dive
1. The Bible Presupposes an Orderly, Intelligible, Law-Governed Universe
Science requires the assumption that nature is consistent, rational, and discoverable. Genesis 1 portrays God bringing structured order out of chaos through purposeful commands. Jeremiah 33:25 refers to God’s “fixed laws of heaven and earth.” This rational framework — rooted in a single, trustworthy Creator — removed the fear of capricious gods or chaotic fate that hindered systematic investigation in other cultures.
2. Christianity Provided the Historical Soil for Modern Science
Modern science did not emerge by accident in Christian Europe. Historian Peter Harrison, in his landmark book The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science, shows that the Protestant Reformation’s emphasis on a plain, literal reading of Scripture had a profound side effect: it encouraged people to approach nature in the same straightforward, empirical way.
Instead of viewing the natural world as a complex web of spiritual symbols (a common medieval approach), Protestants saw it as God’s ordered creation — not divine in itself, but the genuine work of a rational Creator. This perspective freed scholars to study nature directly through careful observation and experiment, without fear of disrupting sacred meanings. The result was the birth of modern science as we know it.
As Oxford mathematician John Lennox summarizes: “Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a Lawgiver.”
Key Christian presuppositions fueled this rise:
A rational God created a rational, law-governed universe.
Humans, made in God’s image, possess the ability and calling to understand it.
The Fall explains why nature is not perfect, which justifies rigorous experimental methods to overcome human limitations.
3. The Bible Displays Remarkable Consistency with Scientific Discovery
While not a science textbook, Scripture’s statements about the natural world are strikingly accurate for their time:
Earth suspended in space (Job 26:7)
The hydrological cycle (Job 36:27-28; Ecclesiastes 1:7)
Ocean paths/currents (Psalm 8:8) — inspired Matthew Fontaine Maury, founder of modern oceanography
Innumerable stars (Jeremiah 33:22)
Principles of hygiene and quarantine in Leviticus that align with germ theory
4. Contemporary Science Increasingly Points Toward Design
Francis Collins, renowned geneticist and former Director of the National Institutes of Health, describes DNA as the “language of God” and that sequencing the human genome felt like “an occasion of worship.” He argues that the fine-tuning of the universe’s physical constants strongly points to a Designer, and that evolutionary science is fully compatible with Christian faith.
Lennox and others emphasize that science answers “how” questions while the Bible addresses “why” and ultimate meaning. There is no necessary conflict between the two.
Modern Testimony: Dr. Ming Wang — From Atheism to Faith Through the Human Eye
One of the most powerful modern examples of science leading someone toward God comes from Dr. Ming Wang, a world-renowned Harvard- and MIT-trained eye surgeon (MD magna cum laude) and laser physicist with a PhD in laser physics.
Raised in Communist China as a committed atheist who “believed nothing but science,” Dr. Wang expected his medical training to reinforce his materialism. Instead, the opposite happened.
While studying the intricate structure and development of the human eye, he was struck by its overwhelming complexity and precision. Trillions of cells must align perfectly — from light-capturing photoreceptors to the optic nerve and visual cortex — for sight to occur. A single misalignment results in blindness. The eye is not just extraordinarily complex; it is purposefully engineered for vision.
Dr. Wang realized this level of ordered complexity could not plausibly arise from blind, unguided chance. As he has testified:“The human eye is so complicated… trillions of cells have to line up perfectly… I said, ‘No way.’ There is a designer behind it.”
This realization planted the first “seed” that shattered his atheism. It launched a journey from recognizing a Creator to eventually placing his faith in Jesus Christ.
Today, Dr. Wang has performed tens of thousands of sight-restoring surgeries, founded the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration (which provides free surgeries to the blind), and openly shares how the wonders of God’s creation — especially the eye — point unmistakably to intelligent design.
His story powerfully illustrates that rigorous scientific study does not lead away from God — it often leads to Him.
The Biblical Worldview Actually Gave Birth to Modern Science
Far from opposing science, the Bible supplied the essential philosophical foundations that made the Scientific Revolution possible.
The biblical conviction of a rational, personal Creator who imposed order and consistent laws on the universe created the expectation that nature would behave predictably and intelligibly. As Oxford mathematician John Lennox explains, people became scientific because they expected law in nature — because they believed in a Lawgiver.
The dominion mandate (Genesis 1:28) calls humans — made in God’s image — to subdue and exercise responsible dominion over creation. This necessarily involves understanding the created order through careful observation and study, so that we can responsibly steward and develop its potential for God’s glory.
Pioneers such as Johannes Kepler (“thinking God’s thoughts after Him”), Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk Maxwell were explicitly motivated by their Christian faith.
Historians of science widely recognize that Christianity provided key tenets, methods, and institutions (including universities) that enabled modern science. Many of the greatest scientists in history were devout believers.
Why This Matters Deeply
This myth erects a needless wall between faith and reason, driving people — especially the next generation — away from Christ. It falsely frames Christianity as intellectually regressive. The truth is liberating: the God of the Bible is the God of truth in every realm. Scripture does not compete with science; it grounds it philosophically, motivates it historically, and gives it ultimate meaning.
When rightly understood, the Bible and science are allies. Both reveal the glory of the same Creator (Psalm 19:1). Christians do not need to fear genuine science. Skeptics do not need to dismiss the biblical worldview to pursue truth.
Conclusion
The Bible does not teach a flat Earth. It proclaims a sovereign, orderly creation by intelligent God who invites exploration. Far from being anti-science, Scripture is the very foundation that makes science both possible and profoundly meaningful.
The fog is clearing. Faith and reason belong together — in the mind of the Creator who made both.
P.S. – A Letter to My Cousin
Dear Cousin,You said it plainly: You believe in science. You believe in biology. And because of that, you don’t believe in the Bible. You believe there is a God — but nothing else.
It’s an honest position, but one made without actually reading the Bible. Many thoughtful people land there. But I want to gently push back — not with feelings or blind faith, but with the same tools you value: evidence, history, and reason.
The sources I’m drawing from are some of the most credible voices on this exact intersection of faith and science: textual scholar and apologist Wes Huff; former atheist and award-winning journalist Lee Strobel; renowned pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur; and pastor Josh Howerton.
Their combined decades of rigorous study and investigation show that science and the Bible are not enemies — they are complementary. The Bible stands up powerfully under historical scrutiny, and the more we learn through science, the more the evidence points toward the God you already believe exists — especially through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
1. True Science and the Bible Have Never Been at War
John MacArthur has taught for decades that “true science can have no argument with Scripture.” Why? Because the same God who created the universe with exquisite order and precision is the One who inspired the Bible. Science explores what God made; the Bible reveals who made it and why.
MacArthur emphasizes that while the Bible is not a science textbook, whenever it touches on the natural world, it speaks with remarkable accuracy:
The hydrological cycle — evaporation, cloud formation, and precipitation (Job 36:27-28; Isaiah 55:10), described centuries before modern meteorology.
The life of the flesh being in the blood (Leviticus 17:11) — a truth confirmed by William Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation in 1628.
The earth hanging on nothing (Job 26:7) and the “circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22).
Even more powerfully, modern biology continues to point strongly toward intelligent design. Consider DNA: it functions as an incredibly complex, information-rich code. Information of this specificity and sophistication only arises from intelligence — not from unguided processes.
After extensively interviewing leading scientists across multiple fields, Lee Strobel concluded in The Case for a Creator that the evidence from cosmology, physics, biochemistry, and biology increasingly supports an intelligent Designer rather than blind chance.
As Pastor Josh Howerton often says: “Science is always catching up to what God has always said is true.”
2. The Bible Is Historically Reliable — Especially the Accounts of Jesus
Wes Huff demonstrates that the New Testament documents are not late legends but early, well-attested eyewitness testimony. We have thousands of manuscripts, and textual criticism gives us extraordinary confidence in the text we have today.
3. The Evidence for Jesus Christ Is Compelling
Lee Strobel, once an atheist legal editor, investigated Christianity like a courtroom case and concluded that Jesus lived, died, and rose again exactly as the Gospels report. Non-Christian historians confirm His existence and crucifixion. The transformation of the disciples is best explained by them actually seeing the risen Christ.
Believing in science and biology doesn’t disqualify the Bible — it actually invites us to examine it more closely. The God who engineered DNA and the laws of physics is the same God who inspired Scripture and stepped into history in Jesus Christ.
The God you believe in has not left us without evidence. He has given us a book that stands the test of science, history, and scrutiny — and a Savior who invites you to know Him personally. Love you.
This is Myth 20 in my 21 Myths Series: Spiritual & Eschatological Myths (Myths 17–21).
Previous:
Myth 17 — Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?
Myth 18 — Do Christians Become Angels When They Die?
Myth 19 — Devil Made Me Do It
Reliable Voices on This Topic
Peter Harrison — The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science (Cambridge University Press)
John Lennox — Can Science Explain Everything? and God and Stephen Hawking
Francis Collins — The Language of God and The Road to Wisdom
Lee Strobel — The Case for a Creator
John MacArthur (gty.org) — Sermons on science and Scripture
Josh Howerton, Wes Huff, Charlie Kirk — Contemporary apologetics addressing these myths
Martin Luther — Lectures distinguishing scriptural language from technical science