Do Religious Texts Pass the Science Test?

The Big Question

Religious texts like the Bible and Quran are supposed to be divinely inspired works containing eternal truths. But when we look at what they say about the natural world through the lens of modern science, they seem to reflect the limited knowledge of their time rather than timeless divine wisdom. Let's examine how these ancient descriptions of nature stack up against what we know today.

The Expert Problem

Here's a simple way to think about it: imagine you had to explain quantum physics without really understanding it. When a real physicist points out your mistakes, you might say "that's not what I meant" or "I was speaking metaphorically." But here's the thing—a genuine expert would have been clear and accurate from the start. We can usually tell when someone actually knows what they're talking about.

This same principle applies to religious texts. If they truly came from the Creator of the universe, shouldn't they demonstrate knowledge that goes beyond what humans knew at the time?

How Believers Respond to Problems

When people point out scientific issues in these texts, believers typically respond with:

• "The words mean something different"
• "You're taking it out of context"
• "It's just metaphorical"
• "That part is symbolic"

While these explanations might preserve faith, they raise a bigger question: why would divine revelation need so much creative reinterpretation to make sense with basic scientific facts?

What the Bible Says About Nature

The Bible contains many passages that reflect how ancient people understood the world:

About the sun and earth:

• "The sun rises, and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises." (Ecclesiastes 1:5)

About earth's shape:

• "After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth." (Revelation 7:1)
• "He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:12)

About the scale of things:

• "In the visions I saw while lying in bed, I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong, and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth." (Daniel 4:10-11)

About how the sky works:

• "The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke." (Job 26:11)

These descriptions consistently show the worldview of people who thought the earth was flat, the sky was like a solid dome, and celestial bodies were relatively small objects moving overhead.

What the Quran Says About Nature

The Quran has similar issues, reflecting 7th-century understanding:

The sky as a physical ceiling:

• "We made the sky a protected ceiling, but they are turning away from its signs." (Quran 21:32)
• "It is He who made the earth a bed for you and the sky a structure." (Quran 2:22)
• "Allah is the One who raised the heavens without any pillars you can see." (Quran 13:2)

The sky falling down:

• "The Day the sky will split open with emerging clouds, and the angels will be sent down in succession." (Quran 25:25)
• "Or you cause the sky to fall upon us in fragments, as you claimed, or bring Allah and the angels before [us]." (Quran 17:92)
• "He holds back the sky from falling upon the earth except by His permission." (Quran 22:65)

About the heavens and creation:

• "Do they not look at the sky above them, how We built it and adorned it, and it has no rifts?" (Quran 50:6)
• "He who created seven heavens in layers. You do not see any inconsistency in the creation of the Most Merciful. So look again, do you see any flaws?" (Quran 67:3)

Stars as decorations:

• "We have certainly adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and made them missiles for devils, and We have prepared for them the punishment of the Blaze." (Quran 67:5)

And in the Islamic traditions:

• "Do you know where the sun goes when it sets?... it prostrates beneath the Throne..."

The Missed Opportunity

Think about this: if you went back in time to the 7th century and people asked you about space, you could tell them amazing things that would blow their minds:

• The Earth is actually round
• It spins and orbits around the sun
• The moon orbits Earth
• The sun is over a million times bigger than Earth
• There are billions of other stars and galaxies

Why didn't God reveal any of these basic truths? It would have been an incredible sign for future generations and would have distinguished these texts from ordinary human writing.

Instead, we get descriptions like someone reaching "the setting ˹point˺ of the sun, which appeared to him to be setting in a spring of murky water" (Quran 18:86). Even if you argue this just describes how it looked, the text doesn't clarify that—something that could have shown superior knowledge.

The Reality Check

Here's the uncomfortable truth: anyone today with a basic science education could write more accurate descriptions of the natural world than what we find in these ancient texts. When we examine them honestly, they consistently reflect the scientific limitations of their time periods rather than transcendent divine knowledge.

The Bible reflects ancient Near Eastern cosmology—flat earth, solid sky dome, small celestial objects. The Quran reflects 7th-century Arabian understanding of how the world works. Neither contains knowledge that wouldn't have been available to educated people of their respective eras.

When both the Bible and Quran fail basic scientific accuracy tests, we have to consider that their authors were simply human—products of their time and culture, not recipients of divine scientific knowledge. And for many people, including myself, this realization becomes a turning point in faith.