Genesis or Big Bang

by Rit Nosotro

Comparative Essay

Compare various creation accounts and deduce the underlying cosmology of - societies that authored them.

Thesis:

Summary:

“It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, And I ordained all their host” (Isaiah 45:12). As Christians, we believe that God created the heavens and the earth, as stated in Genesis’ account of the world’s creation; however, the question of how the world came to be has produced many theories, arguments and debates amongst those whose beliefs and ideologies differ.

The very first words in the Bible , “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), point to God’s hand in the existence of the world. Genesis goes on to describe how God also created light, dry land, plants, the sun, moon, stars, animals, and man in a mere span of six days, beginning with absolutely nothing. Before He spoke everything into being, there was nothing with which he could have fashioned the earth; total darkness, lacking even air, prevailed.

The Bible is a book inspired by God Himself, a testament of His complete sovereignty over all and shaped not by a particular culture or society. In order to belief in His Word, however, one must have faith. This aspect of Christianity is one that causes many people to fall away from the Truth and into other forms of religion or belief systems. After all, human reason tells us that Santa Claus cannot distribute presents to every child in the world in one night, so why should we believe that someone could create every piece of land, the heavens, the galaxies, the animals, all living plants, and water in only six days? Indeed, creation as stated in the Bible might be a hard pill to swallow for those looking to millions of years as theorized by scientists who discount all miracles with naturalistic causes.

Even some Christians attempt to put millions of years into the Bible through "Theistic Evolution", "Gap Theory" (between Gen.1:1 and 1:2), "Progressive Creation" (Huge Ross). Each of these rely on man's fallible and contradictory dating methods to try to get around the obvious meaning of "day" in Genesis.

The correct exegitical hermanuetic is to take God's revealed word as it says. Even though the sun was not created until day four, Light was spoke into creation on day one. The Biblical text tells that Adam named all the animals in one ordinary day. Adam, using the perfect language that God gave him, named all animal types (for example, "cow" - not specific gernsy or herford)

Of immense theological importance is that death entered the world through Adam and that the "last Adam", Christ, conquored death. (Rom 5:14, I Cor. 15:20, Heb. 4:15). There was no animal death (plants died as they were given by God for food) before Adam's sin. Jesus quoted (Mat 19) Genesis 1-11 as authoritative. The words of inspired (2 Tim.3:16) scripture claim a six day creation, Joshua's long day, the progession of the shadow was reversed, Jonah spent three days in a fish, a virgin birth, Christ's bodily resurection, ... which statement should be reinterpreted according to man's theories? If the Bible's history of the physical world be cast aside, then it shouldn't be suprising when the Bible's moral history is cast aside through reinterpretation (of homosexuality, abortion, marriage, sin, salvation...). "Every word of God is pure... add thou not unto his words..." (Prov. 30:5-6).

Theories from palenetology, astronomy, biology proclaim millions of years which some Christians have taken as more authoratative than the Word of God. In this, they place man over God. This accelerated after the famous Scopes trial (1925) when Clarence Darrow (ACLU lawyer) got William Jennings Bryan to define the ordinary day of Genesis as perhaps being millions of years.

Every detail of the earth’s composition was shaped and designed by God’s Hand. Without God’s Divine planning, it has been proven that life could not exist on earth. If there was any variation in the composition of air, for example, humans could not live for long in that environment. Certainly, The Author of Life sculpted every minute aspect of the earth and did so purposefully.

In contrast, The Big-Bang Theory, accepted widely by atheists and many scientists, simply says this: between 10 and 20 billion years ago a “bang” or explosion occurred from a single point in nothingness and with the scattering of googles of atoms, the earth came into being. An eruption of sorts occurred, haphazardly distributing the smallest particles of matter that miraculously adjoined themselves to create living, breathing organisms and every other object on the earth. Disease and bloodshed, of course, went on for millions of years before man evolved. It is remarkable that Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said in November 2005 that the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly. It is not surprising however, given the traditions of man that have been historically supported by Roman Catholic decree to be equal with divinely inspired scripture.

The Big-Bang Theory was first proposed in 1927 in an attempt to scientifically explain the shifting of distant galaxies away from the earth. It seems that many people were not content to stare at the stars and remain in awe at the miraculous sight that they were witnessing or to try and fathom the incalculable distance between our galaxy and the next, knowing it was impossible. No longer were the words of David spoken in wonder: “Oh Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Who has displayed Thy splendor above the heavens! (Psalms 8:1). Instead, everything must have a formula, an exact explanation of the heaven’s properties.

The problem with this desire is that a human’s mind is severely limited; we will never be omniscient. Quentin Smith, an atheist author, begins a philosophical essay with these words:
“There is sufficient evidence at present to justify the belief that the universe began to exist without being caused to do so. This evidence includes the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems that are based on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and the recently introduced Quantum Cosmological Models of the early universe. The singularity theorems lead to an explication of the beginning of the universe that involves the notion of a Big Bang singularity, and the Quantum Cosmological Models represent the beginning largely in terms of the notion of a vacuum fluctuation.”

What does all this mean? As more and more scientists claim to know the reasons for various phenomena, the original intent of their calculations, which was to prove how the world came into existence, becomes lost in a never ending cycle of scientific assumptions, hypotheses, and proofs that often lack significant validation. So far many intelligent minds have worked in circles, wrestling with Christianity and attempting to prove creation with calculations of their own. The result has been a whole group of people out to prove an inhuman occurrence with human rational.

These two accounts of creation, Biblical and The Big-Bang Theory, are similar in that they both started from nothing; however, they differ entirely from there. The Bible shows that everything was perfectly planned out, from the beginning of time, while The Big-Bang theory asserts that the world came into being for no particular reason at all. The first shows that there is a caring, loving God who created us in His image, but the other merely suggests that we “are” and exist for no reason or purpose.

"billions of dead things, laid down by water, all over the earth" -Ken Ham

Quick Quiz:

Who is responsible for creation, according to the Bible?
1) no one
2) Adam
3) God
4) It’s still being debated

Of these, what group is most likely to believe the Big Bang theory?
1) vegetarians
2) atheists
3) athletes
4) Hindus

The Bible teaches what?
1) God’s power
2) Creation from nothing
3) A plan for life
4) All of the above

Many scientists deny the existence of what?
1) atoms
2) a reason for creation besides the Bible
3) a formula for creation
4) an omnipotent God

answers: 3,2,4,4

Bibliography:

LaRocco, Chris and Blair Rothstein. “The Big Bang: it sure was BIG!”. The University of
Michigan. 10 Jan 2004 <http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm>.

Smith, Quentin. “The Uncaused Beginning of the Universe”. The Secular Web. 1988. The
Secular Web Library. 10 Jan 2004 <http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/quentin_smith/uncaused.html>.

“The Big Bang Theory”. Exploration. 25 Dec 1997. Liftoff. 10 Jan 2004
<http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/universe/b_bang.html>.

The Holy Bible, Genesis 1:1

The Holy Bible, Psalms 8:1

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