The Bible Scientific - Job 25:2

"The Bible Scientific" is my current blog series. Each post will examine a verse or two directly from Scripture and try to explain that Biblical quote from a scientific perspective.

It is often stated that the Bible and Science are not compatible, that the Bible is not a scientific text and that you can not believe the Bible and also believe science. I think this is short sighted as there are a number of places in Scripture where scientific facts were stated even before man understood them. The Bible is not a scientific text in that it is not meant to be the full explanation of scientific fact, but it does direct us to understand the nature of God scientifically as well as spiritually. It complements science. God uses His Word to help us understand Him and His creation with our mind, soul and spirit.

Galileo Galilei said:

"The prohibition of science would be contrary to the Bible, which in hundreds of places teaches us how the greatness and the glory of God shine forth marvelously in all His works, and is to be read above all in the open book of the heavens."

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This post of "The Bible Scientific," looks at - Job 25:2

Job 25:2 (NIV) - Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.

By NASA / WMAP Science Team [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This verse shows that God has created an all-encompassing order to the universe. Science has found that all physical laws apply to the whole universe everywhere and equally. This concept is called "The Cosmological Principle."

Astronomer William Keel explained it like this:

"The cosmological principle is usually stated formally as 'Viewed on a sufficiently large scale, the properties of the universe are the same for all observers.' This amounts to the strongly philosophical statement that the part of the universe which we can see is a fair sample, and that the same physical laws apply throughout. In essence, this in a sense says that the universe is knowable and is playing fair with scientists."

The cosmological principle is first clearly asserted in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) of Isaac Newton. Newton conceptualized the Earth as a sphere in orbital motion around the Sun within an empty space that extended uniformly in all directions to immeasurably large distances. Earlier cosmologies held that the Earth rested at the center of universe, with the sun and moon rotating around it. Newton also asserted the uniform extension of the physical laws of motion to a great distance beyond the observational location of Earth itself.

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The harmony of natural law reveals an intelligence of such superiority that,
Compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings
is an utterly insignificant reflection. - Albert Einstein

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Now if we translate this verse from a more scientific bent, it might say this - "The great power and rule of God brings order to all the heavens. "The great power and rule" are the physical laws that we see everywhere in the universe. Thus God, by His all-powerful nature, created the heavens and holds them in place by the physical laws He established. For man to be able to examine and understand anything about the universe around us, the laws of physics must apply uniformly and completely to the entire universe.

An orderly universe has traditionally been seen as “proof” of a creator-God who ordained natural law. As Albert Einstein said, “The harmony of natural law reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

In the next blog we will examine the verse: Psalm 104:2 (NIV) - The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent...