Can a person take the Bible literally and still do good science?
That depends on what science they’re doing. But it’s a tricky answer, because in many cases, the creedal belief is something where you raise your hands and say, “Yes, I believe,” as a form of membership in your church, your social group. For example, Science News had an article in 1996 — an interview with several creationists and pagans — which found a significant number of people who said, “Yes, the Earth was made 6,000 years ago,” but who also said, “Dinosaurs roamed the world millions of years ago — oh yeah, I believe that.” It means these statements have no mathematical significance to these people, because they don’t think like techies do. But certainly there are devout evangelical Christians who are also very good scientists. Because they’re scientists, they understand the problem of dinosaurs millions of years ago versus a young Earth, and they’re careful to say they don’t believe in the second idea. What about physics? Oh, there’s lots in that realm where you could be a Biblica
