"I believe the science." We've all probably heard that phrase over the past year and a half haven't we? Of course that phrase is in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the entire world in 2020. It refers to how to respond to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Do we mask or not mask? Do we vaccine up or not? Do we social distance or do we continue getting together as before? These are all questions that Americans have wrestled with over the past year and a half. Whether you believe the science or not regarding this particular issue, what is your position on science in general?
Science means knowledge and scientists have made many incredible discoveries for millennia that have helped us to know about the world in which we live. Two such discoveries are the shape of the Earth and where it is in relationship to other stars and planets. The Greeks knew a thing or two about science.
Pythagoras was credited with figuring out that the Earth was round around 500 B.C. Aristotle proved the Earth to be a sphere around 350 B.C. And a man by the name or Eratosthenes was able to measure the circumference of the Earth (although the measurement was a little bit off) without ever having to go into orbit! But, even more incredible is that a couple hundred years before Pythagoras, Isaiah wrote:
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. ~Isaiah 40:22
Who was it that found out that the Earth wasn't sitting on the back of some sort of monster or other object, but that it was hanging upon nothing in space? A French man by the name of Leon Foucault discovered that the Earth must be rotating on an axis using a plumb bob in the 1800's. Leon was mostly schooled at home (chalk one up for the homeschoolers!) and received no formal training in the area of science (don't tell your kids, but he is a college dropout). You can see a time-lapsed video of his invention below. It shows that the bob was set in motion in a particular direction, but as the Earth rotates throughout the day it changes the direction that it swings.
But even before Foucault made his discovery, the Bible already claimed that the Earth was suspended on nothing some 3000 years before in the book of Job:
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. ~Job 26:7
So how do you handle science and faith? Science confirms many things about the Bible. Consider the words of the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon:
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ~Ecclesiastes 1:12,13
The Bible doesn't throw out science, it upholds it. But we shouldn't use the Bible to prove science to be true or not true. It should be the other way around. What do you do to incorporate science in with your faith in God? How do you respond when your kid comes home from school with an opposing view from your faith? I hope you have a conversation. If you don't know how to back up the Bible's claims against the scientific subject, take some time to research. Use it as a teaching moment for both you and your teen. May you then have one more way to defend your faith against those who oppose it. For God's glory.
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