Carl Sagan on The argument from scripture

Sagan's approach to scripture was that of a scientist examining a claim. If the Bible were the inspired word of an omniscient being, he argued, we would expect it to contain knowledge beyond what was available to its human authors — accurate information about the age of the universe, the structure of DNA, the germ theory of disease, or the scale of the cosmos. It contains none of these things. Instead, it reflects the cosmology, biology, and moral assumptions of the ancient Near East.

In The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan noted that the Bible describes a flat earth, a solid firmament, a geocentric cosmos, and a creation narrative that contradicts every branch of modern science. These are not metaphors — they are the genuine beliefs of people who had no access to telescopes, microscopes, or the scientific method. An omniscient author would not have made these errors.

Sagan was careful to distinguish between the Bible's literary and cultural value — which he acknowledged — and its claimed status as divine revelation, which he rejected. Scripture can be a source of moral reflection and beautiful literature without being the word of God, just as Greek mythology can illuminate the human condition without Zeus being real.