According to this book report of “What is Time“, Gary Driver takes an approach to the Bible that is very popular today. I hear it in the preaching around many of the churches I’ve visited in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area, including Real Life Ministries and Life Center. It is the belief that the Bible is an infallible science book. Driver writes that the Bible accurately portrays time, the fabric of space, the elementary particles, a flat universe, dark energy, the jet stream, the Doppler Effect, the gravitational red shift and many others. He even says the Bible proclaimed the existence of the Higgs boson way back in the first century A.D. This is ridiculous.
Take the shape of the earth as an example. Fundamentalist writers such as Driver point to Isaiah 40:22 and say, “See, the Bible always said the earth was round.” But then they selectively pass over Isaiah 11:12 which implies a flat worldview. What’s worse, the deep meaning of these verses is diminished. Isaiah is talking about God’s majestic splendor and his endless love for his fallen people, not the shape of the earth. They’re completely misinterpreting Isaiah.
The purpose of the Bible is not to inform anybody about the shape of the earth or the Higgs boson; it’s to point to Christ. When authors like Driver claim the Bible is scientifically accurate, they’re not only feeding starving people with cardboard brownies, they’re downright misleading them. It’s theological dishonesty. What happens if someone actually tries to read the Bible like it’s a science book and finds out it’s full of conflicts and inaccuracies? (See any atheist website such as the Thinking Atheist for a listing.) What will Driver tell him then? Biblical literature was written long before the advent of modern science. Reading physics into such an ancient work is a classic case of eisegesis, pushing my own thoughts onto God’s word. Rather, Driver should seek out the wisdom of the church fathers, the Middle-Age Scholastics, and the modern biblical critics for his interpretation. Christianity has a vibrant 2000-year history that contemporary fundamentalists reject. They aren’t helping anyone with their faith; they’re destroying it! Take a look at the Recovering from Religion website. How many were told the Bible was a science book, then found out that wasn’t true at all?
There’s no reason to be so insecure as to demand scientific evidence. It doesn’t exist anyway. Physics is not the definitive answer on life. Science will never prove or disprove God or the message of the Bible. Such bad apologetics only undermines faith.
Great article. I have often been frustrated by the growing fundamentalist insistence that the bible be taken literally. As if God is incapable of using stories, metaphors, analogies, etc. I’m not sure what the motivating force is behind it all, but I agree with you that it diminishes the true messages that are there. Trying to force an ancient text to fit our modern cultural paradigm is an almost certain recipe for disappointment.
Bruce,
I have worked at and attended several Christian colleges, and I have seen and heard the struggle some students endure in order to understand the Bible as both a sacred book and an anthology of literature encompassing many different genres.
It seems difficult for some to reconcile the Bible as a book of Big Truths (the nature of God and humans, Christ’s redemptive story) in which the factual and scientific understanding may not be as we understand it thousands of years later. In other words, because it is considered to be a book of Truth, then all details within it must also have the same degree of truth or accuracy.
@Amy I can understand the difficulty presented to those who wish to be as faithful as they can. I think it requires careful and thoughtful examination of how our Modernistic culture places over-emphasis on factually correct, empirical information and can miss the bigger picture about knowing an infinite creator and being a person who lives in harmony with the vision of the Kingdom of God. It’s a tough problem but it’s also a relatively recent one.
Thanks Aaron. I’ve been frustrated also, hence the article. I think you’re right about the disappointment, and I fear what will eventually happen to Christianity by the widespread misrepresentation of the Bible.
Amy, I understand the temptation to elevate the Bible. I think of it something like the early problems with Jesus’ mother Mary. Many wanted her to be perfect, without sin, something more than human. Many even worshiped Mary along with Christ. After all, if she was Jesus’ mother, then there must be something special about her also? Perhaps she could answer prayer too? But I think that this has mostly been overcome now?
Sam, I agree that its a recent problem tied to our modern scientifically precise culture. It’s kind of ironic that fundamentalism is both a reaction to the modern culture, yet is help captive by that same culture. I hope that bringing the issue to light and education can help.
Again, I totally agree with what is being said here. And I feel like we’re already seeing some of what will happen to Christianity. I think more and more over the past few decades, fundamentalism has become dangerously mainstream. And as that has happened, I think there’s been a false and unnecessary wedge driven between science and religion (or faith and reason, if you prefer). Or at the very least, the divide has been pushed wider. And now there are large numbers of people being put in a position where they see it in terms of a choice between religion and rationality. I have several friends who think being a Christian is generally a sign of lower intelligence. And unfortunately the response from “the other side,” for lack of a better term (people like Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, etc.) is to affirm that divide and to actively contribute to driving that wedge. I think that’s the kind of false dichotomy where everyone loses, and the echo chamber gets sealed a little tighter every year.
Aaron I totally agree with you. I find it very sad.
Great conversation. I sometimes feel broken for how the Bible is treated or thought of. The power of it is so small when it is relegated to factual words telling a truth limited to the aggregate of those words. God is so much more as is the witness of God’s saving activity in the world as told in the Bible. The truth of the Holy Writ is the transforming power of it when read in an attitude of openness and studious intent. Can’t be done when approached as a book of facts. Thank you so much for your very thoughtful article and comments.
Great points about our attitude of openness and the transforming power. Thanks John!