General considerations

To appreciate the relationship between Science and Scripture we need to consider:-

What is science and what can it legitimately put forward which is relevant to Scripture.
What, if anything, have scientists put forward as being in conflict with Scripture, and to what extent are such points either scientific or valid.
What responses have been made by Christians to such possible conflict, and to what extent are they satisfactory.
What, if anything, does Christianity particularly have to offer in the progress of science.

The next to last point is highly subjective, and I shall often be putting forward my own perspective, usually in the form of articles responding to those of other authors. The last point needs, I believe, more serious consideration than usually given.

What is science and what authority does it have?. is an introduction to the first of these questions. An introduction to the second can be seen in Comments on Villee, Walker and Barnes. and How firm is the ground you are standing on? Many Christians have for long accepted popular secular humanist propaganda about incompatibility between Christianity and science, but as can be seen in "Christianity and the Scientific Enterprise" a somewhat different story is coming to light.

Perhaps the majority of Christians who are professional scientists retain almost total respect for the position of their professional disciplines. This usually means viewing the Scriptures as largely symbolic, containing valuable gems mixed together with myths which had some value to former generations. Generations who did not have the benefit of modern science to explain the real truth about the creation. Such are typified by Hugh Ross and John Polkinghorne, whose Creation and Structure of the Physical World assumes the standard theories proclaimed by the scientific establishment to be so certain as to be unworthy of any comment. It is possible for a Christian to adopt this approach by accepting a style of interpretation, or hermeneutic, far from that used by previous generations of Bible students. One might ask if this is a valid way of treating the Scriptures.

The soundest method of understanding the Scriptures was proclaimed by the great reformers :- the Scriptures should be given the most natural interpretation possible unless there is very good ground for doing otherwise. In cases where there could be doubt then Scripture must interpret Scripture, clear statements being used to throw light on the less clear. Such a situation is essential in view of the many warnings of the fallibility of the wisdom of man. (e.g. Romans 1:22, 1Corinthians 1: 20.). It is not only the atheists who can be deceived by the wisdom of this world. Jesus often pointed to the Doctors of the Law - the theologians, the experts in the scriptures - as the most deceived of his generation. A look at interpretation is given in "Hermeneutics, Science and Scripture a Brief Introduction". Attempts to accommodate secular science are common. Herman Hanko's "The Framework Hypothesis and Genesis 1" looks at one of the many hermeneutical schemes which have been devised by Christians convinced that science has shown the Scriptures to be wrong. His assessment of all such attempted accommodations to science is very well made. One consequence of such accommodations can be seen in "Atheism In Decline Everywhere". Articles dealing with hermeneutics in greater depth can be found in the links.

The Christian can avoid the pitfalls of being "snowed" by unscrupulous secular humanists by taking the trouble to look into the real situation in science. A valuable article, Frederic Soddy's address to Nobel Prize Winners. is worthy of study by anyone serious about understanding science, its authority, how it should be taught, and whether it is where it ought to be.

To equip oneself with an understanding of the validity of science's claims it is useful to examine texts on the foundational ideas. While not perhaps quite as easy to understand as texts in the other sections I present here Einstein's "Relativity the Special and General Theories" with annotations. His Sidelights on Relativity is also presented. Almost the whole of current cosmology is based on Einstein's theories. There could hardly be more disagreement possible between the Biblical account of creation and that of the Big Bang. Looking at Einstein's text should give an idea of how reliable the anti-Biblical theories arrayed under the proud name of science really are.

The question of what Christianity has to offer towards the progress of science is addressed informally in "The Christian and Science", and formally in the "Foundational Statement on Christianity and Science"