Are accusations of the Bible not being scientific absolutely true?

Many quickly reject what they see as Bible myths, without actually looking into the facts.
Others think that the Bible needs to read like a scientific report if it is to be true and believable, but is that the case?

Don Stewart answers the criticism, that the Bible should be in some form of scientific format for it to be true and believable:

“It is obvious that the Bible is not a scientific textbook in the sense of giving detailed technical descriptions and mathematical formulations of natural phenomena.
But this is not an adequate reason for questioning the objective accuracy of the numerous portions of Scripture which do deal with natural phenomena and historical events.
…the Bible is not technically a textbook of modern science, but when it refers to things that can be measured or checked by modern science, it should be accurate” ¹

Allegorical writings — discerning the myths from the reality

Rational Wiki says:

“The Bible makes it clear that stars are tiny objects in the sky that will fall down when Jesus comes back (Rev. 8:10).
However, other verses in the book of Revelation clearly use “stars” in a figurative sense (for example, see Rev. 9:1 and Rev. 12:3, 4), so it is possible that the writer did not intend to make a statement about literal celestial bodies in 8:10 either.
Indeed, given the highly allegorical and symbolic nature of apocalyptic literature in general, any literal understanding of Revelation is generally ill-advised until taking into consideration the idea that this is supposedly divine inspiration to which laws, societies and lives are proposed to be based upon.”

Let’s just check what the Bible says:

“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.
The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.” ²

So obviously ‘the star’ here is a ‘being’ of some kind because that being was “given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.”

The Bible makes no statement that cannot be trusted if the person looking at the verse wants to know its meaning.
Those who just want to pick holes in the Bible will not see the truth behind the words.

How to interpret the Bible — it’s not sorting out the myth from the truth

There are different ways of looking at what is written in the Bible, and many agree with four sub-methods of Scriptural interpretation:

A Latin rhyme designed to help scholars remember the four interpretations survives from the Middle Ages.
The rhyme is roughly translated as:

The literal teaches what God and our ancestors did,
The allegory is where our faith and belief are hidden,
The moral meaning gives us the rule of daily life,
The anagogy (spiritual) shows us where we end our strife.

“St Augustine of Hippo (354–430) used this four fold interpretive method in his explanation of Christian doctrine…” ³

So the four ways to interpret what is written in the Bible are:

Literal interpretation: starting from the historic time and trying to understand the text in the culture and time it was written and the location and language it was composed in.

Allegorical interpretation: connecting the events of the Old Testament with the New Testament, particularly drawing allegorical connections between the events of Christ’s life with the stories of the Old Testament.
Also, a passage can speak directly to someone and is like a direct word from God to the individual.

Moral interpretation: ‘the moral of the story’ or how one should act now.
Many of Jesus’ parables and the Book of Proverbs and other wisdom books are packed with moral meaning.

Prophetic interpretation: dealing with the future events of Christian history (eschatology) as well as heaven, hell, the last judgement, the General Resurrection and the second coming of Christ, etc.

Rational Wiki only sees one way to interpret the Bible and that is the literal way and possibly reading a moral from the story.

What is forgotten is that Jesus taught in parables:

“Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables;
he did not say anything to them without using a parable…” ⁴

Why did Jesus speak in parables?
Most people would say it was to make it as simple as possible, but that is not the correct answer.
Jesus told us why:

“His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
He said, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ ” ⁵

Yes, the secrets are hidden from people.
What type of people?
Those who are too proud, or who are too full of themselves and their learning, who won’t stoop to humbly know what Jesus is actually saying.

Bible myths that don’t appear to be right but in fact are scientific

Many would say that the Bible is unscientific.
For example, what is the Bible’s view of the earth?
During the creation in Genesis, it tells us that God:

“separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light day and the darkness he called night.” ⁶

If you had a blob of red plasticine and a blob of blue plasticine pushed together on a table.
Then you separated the red plasticine from the blue and left them both on the table.
Both are present at the same time.
That’s a no-brainer!
But now relate that to “separated the light from the darkness.”

That is such an interesting phrase!
It implies that light and darkness, day and night are both present at the same time on the surface of the earth.
Early man probably would not have appreciated that concept.

But day and night being on the earth at the same time were only fully realised when astronauts were able to look back at the earth and see this for themselves.
Space flight gives better insight into the early verses in Genesis.
Light and darkness, day and night are both present at the same time on the surface of the earth, just as the Bible implies.

References and credits:
Bible image by Pexels from Pixabay.
1 ‘Does the Bible Make Unscientific Statements?’ by Don Stewart
2 Revelation 9:1 NIV
3 ‘Allegorical interpretation of the Bible’ Wikipedia
4 Matthew 13:34 NIV
5 Luke 8:9 NIV
6 Genesis 1:4 NIV
Earth image by Alexander Antropov from Pixabay