“Yes,” cry others, “science is a search for truth of our environment and therefore will direct our understanding. We cannot have godless people guiding our understanding of God’s word.”
But, in the opinion of this writer, the truth is somewhere in the middle. For example, remember the trial of Galileo by religious leaders in 1633. Galileo maintained that his observations of the motions of the planets proved that the earth revolved around the sun. But, those who interpreted the Bible literally, believed that scripture maintained that the earth could not be moved, referencing 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, as well as Ecclesiastes 1:5 which says the sun rises and goes down. Yet today, I don’t know of anyone who would interpret those scriptures to prove the earth does not rotate around the sun. Our interpretation has been influenced by science.
We should all remember that it was God who gave us the Bible and it was God who created the heavens and the earth. He proclaims that the heavens declare his glory and the skies proclaim the work of his hands, Ps. 19:1ff, giving us the opportunity to realize to a degree just how wonderful the creation is and how much trouble he went to make the earth inhabitable for us. He has given us two revelations to examine, and if we think the Bible and science disagree, it is because we have misinterpreted one or the other.