Science vs. The Bible

In 1860, archaeological expeditions in the ancient city of Babylon proved, conclusively, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Belshazzar was not the king of Babylon at the time of the Babylonian exile, but that his brother was.  This shook the biblical world to the core, because here, science had finally, conclusively proven, that there was an error in the Bible.  There could be no disputing it, there could be no arguing, the Bible was in error and science had proven it so. 

This idea stood for 90 years, until, in 1950, further digging in the same area discovered that, while Belshazzar's brother was indeed king, he spent his whole reign out of the kingdom.  He was elsewhere, and his brother, Belshazzar, acted as king in his stead. 

When this was discovered, we suddenly, for the first time ever, understood the phrase at Daniel 5:29 which reads:

"Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom."

Why did Belshazzar only make Daniel the third highest in the kingdom? Because he himself was only the second highest, and he couldn't make Daniel any higher than third. The Bible was right all along.  Our understanding of what the text said simply came more in line with the reality of what it was telling us through science done well.  But science done poorly had convinced people the Bible was wrong. 

The moral of the story is this:  Science changes.  What is scientific "fact" today may be overthrown tomorrow.  If you went to college to study science, and you found out your textbooks were two hundred years old, how much confidence would you have in the quality of that education?  Now, imagine a student two hundred years from now studying science using today's textbooks. 

The Bible, though, was written by a perfect being.  God, who is never wrong, wrote once, for all time.  Our failures to understand what is there may prevent us from seeing the truth, but the truth was there all along.