I have many acquaintances who are atheist. Most say they believed in God at one time, but now they no longer do, or have too many unresolved doubts about God’s existence. In talking with them, I have found that the prevalence of evil and suffering in the world, faith-shattering personal experiences, gross hypocrisy of many churches, and the growing belief that science somehow contradicts the Bible are the usual root causes of their reconsideration.

What I like about them, is that they have at least thought about why they believed in God. One of the biggest “beefs” I have with some fellow believers is that when asked “Why do you believe in God?” many respond with an answer such as “I just know”, or “I can feel Him” or “the Bible tells me so”. Such canned responses don’t exactly resound with logical thinkers, who are searching for more reasonable answers to their nagging questions.

There is a growing trend, however, of ending the debate of God’s existence by claiming that science has outright disproven the Bible, which many consider to be the word of God. This is no longer limited to Darwinism and the theory of evolution nor the once-popular higher-criticism movement. The basic idea of many anti-Bible memes spreading on social media is that you have to disagree with proven science to believe in the Bible, or that you’re an absolute moron to believe some things the Bible says. There is a laundry list of claims in this regard but let’s isolate some of the most popular, and consider their veracity.

Discrepancies between the Bible record and historical accounts. Historical sciences, such as archeology are not actual “sciences” in that they cannot exactly replicate the past and study the results according to scientific method. Especially the farther back you go in time, human understanding of historical events is based on multiple layers of conjecture and sometimes unreliable records, which is the reason prevailing theories are constantly in a state of flux, and it is difficult to find a consensus among even the most renown experts. So that the Bible gives a slightly different timeline or details for some events than some scholars should not surprise anyone. Ancient societies were notorious for exaggerating accomplishments and lifespans of their leaders, or similar to modern cancel culture, wiping political enemies out of recorded existence. Also, some modern scholars have unfortunately sought prominence by promoting attention-grabbing theories that ultimately lack any real foundation. (https://americanmonitor.org/2021/01/31/theology-vs-christianity-the-academic-love-affair-with-postmodernism/).

Case in point: For many years, historians gleefully felt they had “debunked” the book of Daniel’s account of the overthrow of Babylon the night of October 5/6 539 BCE. The reason? According their records, the ruler of Babylon at the time was Nabonidus, while the Bible says it was Belshazzar. However that gloat-fest ended with the discovery of the Nabonidus Chronicle, a clay cuniform script that gave a more detailed historical account of the events. It not only named Belshazzar as son of Nabonidus, but also explained that Nabonidus was away from Babylon on a war campaign, leaving his son on the throne the night that Cyrus’ forces overthrew the capital of the empire. The biblical account was even further vindicated in that Belshazzar offered Daniel the position of “third one in the kingdom” instead of the standard “second one”, showing there was someone besides Belshazzar in the monarchal line.-Daniel 5:16

Problems with translation. A popular meme making the rounds gives a list of fictional creatures such as “unicorns” and “gryphons” purportedly mentioned in the Bible. The idea is that the Bible is therefore a book of myths. Of course, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, with some Aramaic mixed in. For English speakers, the popular King James Version, originally published in 1611, was actually retranslated from Latin. In the more than four centuries that have transpired since, thousands of biblical manuscripts have been discovered and our understanding of the original Bible languages has expanded exponentially. So, while early English translations did contain the names of mythical creatures, modern versions have replaced those terms with the real-life fauna referred to in the original languages.

The creation account and miracles. Astrophysicists estimate the age of the universe as around 13 billion years, and therefore scoff at the Genesis account saying the Earth and all life on it was created in six 24-hour days. Except, it doesn’t. The Hebrew word for “day” isn’t limited to the Earth’s 24-hour rotation. In fact, the six creative “days” are called a single “day” in Genesis 2:4. Each day began and ended a creative period which may have encompassed millions of years. Interestingly enough, most scientists concur that our planet was once a formless mass that developed an atmosphere, followed by the appearance of dry land, flora, marine life, land creatures and finally mankind, which is curiously the exact order mentioned in Genesis. How did a writer who lived thousands of years ago get that right? When popular belief was that the Earth was flat and supported by a huge mythological animal, the Bible mentions a round Earth suspended in space (Isaiah 40:22; Job 26:7).

The On-line Dictionary defines a “miracle” as “An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God”. It is therefore confusing that some scholars insist on explaining away such events by somehow attributing them to natural phenomena. For instance, claims that the darkness around the moment of Jesus’ death was due to an eclipse or the ash cloud from a distant volcanic explosion, or that the star the Magi saw around the time of Jesus’ birth was actually a comet. However, the suspected natural occurrences never seem to coincide with the timeline or locale and cannot explain details such as how the star first led the Magi to Herod in Jerusalem and, only after Herod was informed of the Messiah’s birth, reappeared and led them to the very house where Jesus’ family was living in Bethlehem.

Many would be surprised that, in Bible history, miracles were few and far between and most people never witnessed one. Additionally, scientists have yet to fully explain many unquestioned reoccurring phenomena such as ball lightning or even how gravity works. So, instead of trying to establish some unprovable theory that takes God or the supernatural out of the picture on events that transpired millennia ago, it is more sincere and forthcoming to say, “We cannot explain it scientifically.”

Seeing that science has far from debunked the Bible, what is the purpose of such misleading information? We live in a society where information, both true and false, is readily accessible like no other time in human history. Some people only read or listen to what they want to hear. Dismissing the the Bible as myth serves to soothe the consciences of those who thumb their nose at its moral laws and principles, or don’t want to be bothered with the possible existence of a Creator who deserves their worship. It is much easier to dismiss something as poppycock, than to do the heavy lifting of finding out the truth.