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Creation? or Big Bang Theory? or is it the Same Story?Creation according to God? Or according to science? Or are they different ways of telling the same story?Scientists talk about the 'Big Bang theory' of the appearance of the universe. How does the Big Bang theory compare with the Bible's description of Creation? 'Big Bang', says Science...
In scientific terms, in the cosmology of Physics, the Big Bang theory states that that the universe appeared from nowhere as an extremely dense and hot state, about 13.7 billion years ago. This is based on observations indicating the expansion of space, as indicated by the Hubble red shift of distant galaxies, taken together with principles of cosmology. If we extrapolate these observations into the past, they show that the universe exploded from a 'gravitational singularity' - the tiniest pinpoint of the most extreme density and temperature (as predicted by general relativity) which contained all the matter and energy of the entire universe. What scientists cannot explain is "Why?" or "Where did it all come from?"! 'Let there be Light', says the BibleWe can read this in the very beginning of the Jewish scriptures
and the Christian Bible, in a book called Genesis. Here are the words
from the Bible, New International Version,
How should we interpret this?The word "Genesis", in Hebrew: בראשית and in Greek: Γένεσις, these words can mean "birth", "creation", "cause", "beginning", "source" and "origin". Genesis is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. Jewish tradition considers it to have been written by Moses, so it is sometimes also called The First Book of Moses. Bible scholars generally agree that Moses wrote Genesis under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, during the forty years that the "children of Israel" wandered in the wilderness (1450 - 1410 BC). These people were semi-nomadic herdsmen, living at a time we call the late bronze age, just before the iron age. This ties in with descriptions in the Old Testament that refer to bronze and copper, and then iron, etc. So, how would God describe the stages of His creation to semi-nomadic herdsmen? How would you? The concept of counting in 'hundreds' appears in Genesis 6; the concept of 'thousands' does not appear until Genesis 20. So, how would you explain to bronze-age man the concept of 13.7 billion years? (Can you even imagine it yourself?) Around 3,400 years ago, we would have explained creation in "stages" or "phases", so that the listeners could understand. We might even call them 'days'. And what is Time, to God?In the New Testament, 2 Peter
3:8 says this, "But do not forget this one thing,
dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day.' " But the problem with that is this: How do we know when it is morning or evening? Well, that's when the sun rises and sets. But the sun wasn't created until day 4, so that just doesn't explain it. And how far apart are evening and morning at the south pole? It's about 6 months... Therefore, it is symbolic or poetic use of language, not literal, designed to create a sense of awe and wonder. Parables are used extensively in the Bible: they aren't meant to be taken literally. Remember, the Bible is about God's relationship with
man, not a scientific text book. God gave us brains, minds,
intellect, intelligence to discover and work out how His creation
hangs together. The Bible's Big Bang theory: The First Day of CreationSo the first 'day', the first stage of creation was "Let there be light". And there was the biggest blaze of light the universe has ever seen, in the massive explosion of the "Big Bang". What a wonderful description; what a wonderful picture the Big Bang event creates in the mind's eye! It's the same story. The Big Bang and ScientistsI've been a preacher for 25 years, and I'm a scientist: I studied Physics, Electronics and Control
Engineering at four universities. And I have no problem with reconciling
the story of creation as I read it in the Bible, with the scientific Big
Bang theory. To me, they are the same story. More and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that there must be a creator God. Scenario: Suppose you were a preacher and a scientist, like me. How would you explain the scientific story to semi-nomadic, uneducated, mostly illiterate tribesmen in the semi-desert regions of Maasailand in Kenya today? Until recent times, they couldn't count beyond their fingers and toes. (I have been there as an evangelist missionary and met these wonderful people.) Wouldn't you explain the scientific creation story in pretty much the same way that God does in the Bible, to create a sense of awe and wonder, to engage their feelings?
Big Bang theory: something to think aboutRemember: 1: Science explains what happened - they call it the Big Bang theory; but science cannot explain why creation came about, nor where it all came from. 2: The Bible tells us that God decided to create, and He did. It's the same story as science, but it explains the "why?" and the "where from?" And so, here we are today.
Life on Earth “Science can only discover what God has brought about”Some fundamentalist creationist Christians think that the earth was created about six or seven thousand years ago, in seven, literal 24-hour days. But please read this, from Professor Bob White, Physicist: "Bob, how old is Planet Earth?" "The Earth is 4,566 million years old, give or take ten million
years. "Counting tree rings is one thing; but how do scientists date the universe?" "The technique depends on a mixture of observations and models.
One way is to use the microwave background that was created at the
Big Bang and observe how it is distributed. From that, you can tell
how long the universe has been expanding, and hence its age. Current
calculations suggest that, give or take a few percent, the universe
is about 13.7 billion years old. ... Also excellent reading: "God, the Big Bang and Bunsen-Burning Issues" by Nigel Bovey,
available from Amazon - buy a
copy and
read it! ...
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Coronavirus - How could God let this happen? Creation: Big Bang Theory or what?
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Philip Tory |
"In the beginning, God..." Philip Tory, BSc(Hons), Dip.M. ... Preacher, Evangelist, Scientist, Engineer and Technologist. |
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Thoughts
about the Bible's Big Bang Theory: 
The
scientific approach says that in the beginning, before the universe
appeared, there was nothing. And at some stage, there came the biggest
'Big Bang' ever: a tremendous explosion of energy, matter and, of course,
light. There never was such an enormous explosion of light, either before
or after this event.
'In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "
