And God Said . . .

Science And Religion Are NOT At War

You may recall …

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. …

I’m sure we all have at least passing familiarity with the first lines from Genesis.  This creation story was written several thousand years ago when scientific knowledge was nascent.  Many cultures have similar tales for the origin of the universe.

So… what if we consider the Genesis story as a scientific theory – a theory developed long ago using the science of the time when we knew far less about how things work than we do today?  Sure, it’s not as mathematically developed as modern theories but can we find facts and evidence in the Bible that align with what we know today about the Big Bang?

The good news is alignment of the Genesis story with the Big Bang story is both compelling and remarkable.  Many of the discoveries that validate the Big Bang align with what we find in the Bible and vice versa.

Watch this excellent 8 minute video with Dr. Jeff Zweerink – a practicing PhD astrophysicist at UCLA with a deep understanding of the Bible.  Jeff is coauthor of more than 30 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Astrophysical Journal, and Astroparticle Physics, and Astrobiology.  Jeff makes a very strong case here.

Jeff Zweerink’s Key Conclusions In The Video

• There are many verses throughout the Bible, not just in Genesis, describing God creating the universe
• According to those verses, the universe was created from a “singularity”, is expanding and is based on constant laws of physics
• Multiple biblical authors aligned with these points thousands of years ago – describing a Big Bang universe

“Old Earth” vs “New Earth”

As you read this you might be wondering about those who believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible which seems to imply that the earth is not billions of years old as modern science shows but instead was created in 6 regular earth days by God just thousands of years ago.  This is sometimes referred to as the “old earth” vs “new earth” debate.

We won’t get into a biblical inerrancy nor a biblical interpretation discussion here because it deviates from the original premise for this website – to follow the facts and evidence where it leads.  If we stay true to that premise, however, then the preponderance of facts and evidences available to us today make it very difficult to support a “new earth” story line – one that says the earth is thousands of years old, not billions.  You may believe otherwise.  That is for you to decide.

Here’s a short 4 minute video from “Reasons To Believe” again featuring Jeff Zweerink as he interviews Dr. Hugh Ross on this topic.  Dr. Ross presents just three compelling examples of old earth evidence – among many others.

Dr. Hugh Ross is a practicing researcher and teacher with a PhD in astronomy who did post doctoral work at CalTech.  He has also authored many books, articles, videos and podcasts on this and other related topics.  Dr. Ross is the Founder and President of Reasons to Believe

Dr. Ross’s Three Examples Of Old Earth Evidence

• 76 quadrillion tons of biological deposits found in the earth’s crust that couldn’t have been deposited in just thousands of years – fossils, oil, limestone and other remnants of deposited and decayed life
• Naturally occurring radio isotopes with short lifespans (e.g., Plutonium) are missing from the earth’s crust – they have all decayed away but couldn’t have done so in a new earth scenario
• Ice cores from ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland that contain more than a million annual layers of ice and sediment indicating the ice sheets are more than a million years old

Conclusion

• Science and religion are NOT at war
• The facts and evidence in favor of an “Old Earth” – one that is billions of years old – is very strong making it difficult to have faith in a literal interpretation of the origin story in Genesis
• The Bible itself has many references to a Big Bang-like universe that are consistent with the laws of science
• Modern, “Old Earth” science and the Bible are consistent – not at odds with each other