Perspectives on Bible's relationship to Science

When one reads the Bible, specifically Genesis, it reads with a different narrative of origins than that of the current scientific consensus. For this reason many people seek to reconcile the two.

There are three popular ways that people do this:

The first way is to say that Genesis must be wrong and science must be true. BillNye and others like him have their reasons for believing this.

The second way is to say say that Genesis must be true and the scientific consensus narrative must be wrong. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, and others like him have their reason for believing this approach to be true.

The third way is to say that Genesis tells the story of origins from a different perspective than that of scientific consensus. This is the approach of individuals like, Geneticist Dr. Francis S Collins who directed the Human Genome Project and then the BioLogos organization, before moving on to be the Director of the National Institutes of Health, under President Obama.

On February 4^th 2014 Bill Nye debated Ken Ham at the Creation Science Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. This debate pitted view number one against view number two. If you are interested you can view this debate in its entirety here.

Of note in this debate was that Mr. Nye referenced the third view. He pointed out that there are many Christians who believe in evolution and an old Earth.

This observation, that there are Christians who believe in evolution, seems to be somewhat missed in current educational debates over what should be taught in science class rooms around the nation. The general perception of this issue seems to be that you have to choose between view number one and view number two. You must be either Steven, “I believe in science!” or Nacho “I believe in God!” I would argue that this too is unfortunate.