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Author Topic:   How does science disprove the Bible?
subbie
Member (Idle past 1282 days)
Posts: 3509
Joined: 02-26-2006


Message 20 of 310 (407008)
06-23-2007 11:24 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Dragoness
06-22-2007 11:20 PM


Science disproving the bible
Let's start with a basic fact about science. Science doesn't prove anything, if by proof we mean irrefutable evidence to be accepted for all time that something is or is not true. All of science is tentative. Nothing is ever 100%. Science can no more disprove anything in the bible than it can disprove that the Universe was created last Thursday by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Science proceeds by observing the Universe, making tentative generalizations about how or why something is the way we observe it to be, then testing those generalizations by further observations. If futher observations tend to suggest that the generalizations are accurate, those generalizations rise to the level of theories that are generally accepted as being an accurate reflection of reality. However, a theory is never proven in science. Further observations might undermine the accuracy of the theory. Or, someone may come up with a different generalization for the observations we make that explains things better than the old one.
Now, what science can do is tell us when the observations that we see lead us to conclusions that are inconsistent with some conclusions that some people have made about the bible. For example, some people have concluded that the bible says the world was created some 6,000 years ago. Evidence from multiple areas of science contradicts that conclusion. You can search many different threads here to find copious examples of this evidence. Some people have concluded that the bible says there was a worldwide flood in the past that killed all life on the planet save the organisms on one single boat. Again, scientific evidence in many fields contradicts the literal accuracy of this story.
Of course, for most christians worldwide, the parts of the bible that science can even address are not the important parts. The bible says god created us in his image. Science is mute on that point, but demonstrates that all the evidence we see tells us that if that did happen, god accomplished this by the evolution of life. The bible tells us how we should live our lives and how we should treat one another. Science says nothing about those parts of the bible. Some believe that the bible says if you don't believe in the right diety and worship that diety in the right way, that you will spend eternity in hell. Science tells us that there is no evidence for the actual existence of such a physical location on the Earth, but doesn't otherwise speak to that claim.
To those who insist that the bible is an inerrant and literally correct description of the history of the planet, science provides abundant evidence to the contrary. For the majority of those who do not confine the bible to such a narrow reading but instead look to it for deeper, more meaningful truths, science simply does not apply.
{ABE}
If your husband is taking the position that there never will be any scientific evidence against anything in the bible, he's pretty much disqualifying himself from the discussion right off the bat. Science cannot and will not ever say that anything will never be. As I described above, science is wholly dependant on our observations. If more evidence comes in on a particular matter, science will evaluate that evidence and, if necessary, revise previous tentatively held conclusions.
If your husband wants to accept as an axiom of faith that science cannot "disprove" anything in the bible, there's little that anyone here can do about it, or to help you convince him otherwise. There are some here who would argue with his axiom, but they would do so on theological grounds, not scientific ones.
There are no lengths to which a committed creationist won't go to dismiss scientific evidence that contradicts their beliefs. A perfect example of this can be found in this thread. In order to have any kind of productive dialogue with your husband in this area, your first task will be to get him to understand and recognize that his attitude about what science does is seriously flawed. Unless and until you can do that, I suspect your conversations will eventually deteriorate into a series of "Is to"s and "Is not"s.
Edited by subbie, : Further thoughts

Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Dragoness, posted 06-22-2007 11:20 PM Dragoness has not replied

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