 Ancient people held several ideas that seemed silly in light of modern scientific research. The human authors got inspired to write the Bible were no different than any other ancient people. As a result, antiquated ideas about the natural world show up in their writings. As I've outlined in resources available at drmsh.com, the Bible's authors believe the earth was flat. They also thought the liver, kidneys, or intestines, and not the brain, were the seat of human intellect and emotion. St. Paul may even have thought that a woman's hair helped women become pregnant. I get asked a question over and over. How can we trust the Bible if some of the information it records is not actually true? I'm going to answer this question with a story. One day, Joe was sitting on a park bench when he saw Pastor Bill and his five-year-old daughter Mandy going for a stroll. After the exchange greetings, Joe asked the pastor where his wife was. Pastor Bill explained that his wife was at the doctor's office. Concerned, Joe asked if everything was all right. Pastor Bill smiled and said that everything was fine. Then he leaned down to young Mandy and said, Should we tell Joe the big news? Excited, Mandy nodded and said, The stork is going to bring me a new baby brother or sister. Now here's where the story might take a few different turns. When Joe heard what Mandy said, he got angry and shouted, Your views about human reproduction do not align with modern science. I can no longer trust you or your daughter for information on any subject. Then he stormed off. The end. Wait a minute. That's silly. Let's change the ending. After listening to Mandy, Joe shrugged his shoulders and said, Well, since you're a trustworthy man, Pastor Bill, I must take the position that babies are actually delivered by storks, even though empirical evidence suggests otherwise. The end. Wait a minute. That's an even worse ending. Maybe what really happened is Joe heard Mandy's explanation about the stork and was immediately able to see past the child's ignorance to get at the real truth. By now you've realized this is an analogy for the way God communicates through Scripture. In our story, a being with higher knowledge, Pastor Bill, chose to reveal information through an imperfect messenger, his five-year-old child. Obviously, Mandy does not understand human reproduction. But believing that babies come from storks doesn't stop her from comprehending the larger truth, that she will soon have a sibling. Furthermore, Mandy has a message she can share with children and adults alike, regardless of how much they know about reproduction. God chose to communicate his message through ancient people who held pre-scientific beliefs. He chose not to correct those beliefs because teaching correct science wasn't the aim of Scripture. The aim of Scripture was to tell the Israelites, and everyone thereafter, who God was and what their relationship was with him. Just as Joe could see past Mandy's ignorance and get to the real truth of the message, modern people are able to read Scripture and parse out antiquated ideas about science. So even if parts of the Bible contain outdated information about the physical world, we can still trust it for the truths that God really wanted to communicate. How does this work in Scripture? Let's look at a psalm about creation. The Holy Spirit wanted everyone to know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, created the world, so he inspired a psalmist to communicate that idea. Since the psalmist was an ancient person, he thought the earth was flat and that it sat upon physical foundations. So when he wrote about creation, it ended up like this. He established the earth upon its foundations so that it will not totter forever and ever. The psalmist accomplished what the Holy Spirit wanted. He accredited creation to Yahweh in a way his contemporaries would understand. It would have been pointless for God to explain to the psalmist that the world is actually a sphere floating in the void of space, even if the psalmist could grasp the idea. It would have meant nothing to his ancient audience. They didn't know what outer space was. When modern people read this psalm, they can immediately see past the pre-scientific notions and still understand the message. There's probably still a lingering question. A human father letting his daughter believe in storks is one thing, but aren't the stakes higher when God lets people believe untruthful things? Doesn't that make God a liar? The first thing to realize is that God wasn't the one who told people to believe unscientific things. God didn't tell people the world was flat or that rain came through portals in the sky or that their liver, kidneys, or intestines were the seed of human intellect and emotions. Those views were already commonplace in the ancient world when God inspired Scripture through the people that he picked to do so. The biblical writers were already part of that world. God wasn't endorsing their beliefs. He decided to use people who held those beliefs. That was God's decision. He didn't mind because he knew the ancient writers could make the points he wanted them to make in their own way. God was fine with the people he chose. He knew what he was getting. God chose to leave ancient people in their ignorance concerning the natural world because he had bigger goals to accomplish. Teaching science was never the aim of Scripture. The aim was communicating spiritual realities that endure forever and transcend science. Even if we know more about the physical world than ancient people, the Bible is just as relevant now as it was in ancient times. For more information on this topic and many others, visit drmsh.com or thedivinecouncil.com.