Q. Can the Big Bang be harmonized with Genesis?
A. Like the Bible, the standard Big Bang model postulates that the universe, including time and space, came into being in the finite past. Furthermore, if the universe had a beginning, it had to have a cause. Indeed, the cause of all space, time, matter, and energy must be non-spatial, non-temporal, immaterial, and unfathomably powerful and personal, lending credence to the Genesis contention of an uncaused First Cause who spoke and the universe leapt into existence.
Finally, though evolutionists hold to Big Bang cosmology, the Big Bang does not presuppose biological evolution. In other words, Big Bang cosmology answers questions concerning the origin of the space-time continuum, as opposed to questions concerning the origin of biological life on earth.
Q. Were the Genesis Creation days literal, long, or literary?
A. There are three dominant schools of thought within evangelical Christianity regarding the Genesis days of Creation. First, the popular 24-hour view posits that God created the heavens and the Earth in six sequential, literal days, about 10,000 years ago. In contrast, the day-age perspective posits that God created the heavens and the earth in six long, sequential day-ages totaling billions of years.
Finally, the framework perspective holds that the seven days of Creation are non-literal, non-sequential but nonetheless historical; and that the age question is settled by natural revelation (Book of Nature) rather than by special revelation (Bible). In my view, the literary framework interpretation most closely corresponds to reality.
Q. When was the universe created?
A. Based on the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) astronomers have determined that the observable universe with its hundred billion galaxies each containing a hundred billion stars is at least fifteen billion light-years in diameter (a light-year is the distance light travels in a year).
Furthermore, the age of the universe is measured in billions of years based on inference from the observable phenomenon that galaxies are moving apart at the speed of light – astronomers extrapolate backwards billions of years to a point at which the “stretching of space” began.
Finally, science points to realities such as background radiation, radioactive decay, entropy, star ages, and white dwarf stars as proof positive that the universe is billions of years old. Yet the finite nature of the universe – a universe measured only in billions of years, not infinite time – is insufficient for the evolution of a protein molecule, much less a living cell.
