Is the Bible a science book? Is it in agreement with the things we know from science in every aspect? Is this important?
The Bible is not a science book. But, the Bible is inspired by God and therefore inerrant. This means that the Bible in its original autographs (which are preserved through manuscript tradition), with all facts known and properly interpreted, will be completely true in everything it affirms including Christian teaching, morality, and social, physical or life sciences.
There are a couple things you need to understand about inerrancy, so that you don’t mistake something for a mistake that isn’t a mistake. For example, me using mistake many times was not a mistake.
1 God used a variety of expressions. God used men to write the Bible; more than 40 men with over 16 different backgrounds. God is creative - He said the same thing in many different ways at different times, from different viewpoints, using different individuals, while allowing the personality of the authors to come through.
For example, the four gospels relate the same story in different ways because they’re writing to different groups of people, but they are all true. When Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, it is recorded differently by Matthew, Mark and Luke: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29), and “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). Even the Decalogue (ten commandments) is stated differently the second time God gave it (Ex.20:8-11, Deut. 5:12-15).
1 God used people with different personalities and styles. The prophet Isaiah wrote in a powerful style, whereas another prophet Jeremiah wrote in a mournful tone. James is practical. Paul is in many places theological. The authors of the books of the Bible included: a lawgiver (Moses), a general (Joshua), prophets, kings, a musician (Asaph), a herdsman (Amos), a prince and statesman (Daniel), a priest (Ezra), a tax collector (Matthew), a physician (Luke), a scholar (Paul), and fishermen (Peter and John).
2 God sometimes used non-biblical sources. In Luke 1:1-4 we can see that Luke’s gospel was based upon research of written sources he had access to in his time. Joshua used the Book of Jasher for his quotation about the sun standing still. Paul quoted a non-Christian poet. Jude cited a saying that wasn’t from the Bible about the prophecy of Enoch. In fact several of the more notable ways God spoke truth were: through a pagan prophet (Num. 24:17), a high priest who was unaware that he was speaking prophesy (John 11:50), and a donkey (Num 22:28)!
3 Incorrect grammar does not keep the Bible from being inerrant. The rules of grammar are the normal usage of language; rules of grammar can be broken in order to communicate better a truth.
4 Figures of speech are found in the Bible. The Bible was written with many different literary forms throughout the many books of the Bible. There are many literary devices used: entire books in poetic style (Job, Psalms, and Proverbs), parables in the gospels, Paul uses an allegory in Gal. 4, metaphors (2 Cor. 3:2-3), hyperbole (Col. 1:23, John 21:25, 2 Cor. 3:2), Jesus used satire (compare Matt 19:24 with 23:24).
5 The Bible is not as historically precise as possible. Accounts do not need to record the year, month, day and hour in order to be true in their historical presentation. The Bible’s standard of precision reflects the standard of the time it was written in rather than the standard of our time. While I could say I was born in 1987 and be telling the truth. I could be more precise by giving the month, day, hour and so on, but the original statement would still be true.
6 The Bible uses nonscientific language. Now this was the topic of the original question. The Bible was written for the common man of every generation, and therefore does not use scholarly, scientific or technical language. Using observational nonscientific language is not unscientific it is rather prescientific. Once more the standards of the time for recording observations when the books of the Bible were written differ from ours now. Also the Bible uses round numbers for the same reason.
7 The Bible does not always record exact words. In order to be inerrant the Bible does not need the logia jesu (the sayings of Jesus) to contain the ipissima verba (the exact words) of Jesus, just the ipissima vox (the exact voice). When the writer cites the words of Jesus they do not need to be his exact words, in many places they may be exact but they don’t have to be exact at every point. Since Jesus often spoke in Aramaic and was then translated into Greek, even the words written in Greek would not have been his exact words. What is important is what Jesus meant when he originally spoke and that the meaning is conveyed accurately.
8 The accounts are not comprehensive. The Bible is complete in the sense that it is all we need for faith and practice. There are things that God chose not to reveal. Also each event that is recorded doesn’t need to be recorded down to every last detail in order to be true, for example when you examine accounts of different events in the four gospels they do not all record every event to the same level of detail.
9 Only what the Bible affirms is inerrant, not everything it contains. The Bible contains many lies, murders and other contemptible acts; the Bible does not affirm these events to be good it only gives a true record of these events.
10 The Bible does not need to always be taken literally; in fact it should not always be taken literally. As stated previously the Bible contains figures of speech , these should not be taken literally. It’s clear from the context and style of writing what you should and should not take literally.
In conclusion, the Bible is not a science book, does not use scientific language, and has a different standard of exactness than we do today, but the Bible is inerrant. The Bible is true in everything it affirms relating to science, but does not agree with everything that the scientific community believes today about the creation of the earth. This is an important question in order to understand how to properly read and interpret the Bible - you don’t read it like a science book.