God's Creation

I think it is appropriate to post this as my 6th article, as the number 6 has a certain meaning in the Bible.

Many people I work and socialize with are familiar with my study of the sciences. Sometimes, conversations turn to the issue of science and religion. Inevitably, the following statement is made: "I don't believe in any of the Big Bang stuff. God made humans; they didn't come from apes." Now, the argument regarding evolution and natural selection is one I will save for another time. The point I want to make here is...

The Big Bang is NOT the same thing as evolution!!

I have explained this to multiple people who come back a week later with the same understanding of the Big Bang that they had before my conversation with them. This is frustrating.

Look at it this way. Creation in the Bible is spread out among six days. Take days one and two and you are essentially looking at the creation and development of the universe, the stars, and the planet Earth. Days three through six deal life on Earth, with day six being the day of birth of animals and Man. The first two days are what we are talking about in the case of the Big Bang. It is the birth of the universe: all of space and time, and the conditions leading up to the formation of matter. Following the Big Bang is the formation of stars which group into galaxies. Later, planets form. The time scales involved here are arguable, and believe me, they do get argued.

The domain of life falls within days three to six. The conditions for intelligent life are forged on Earth on days three and four, with simpler life forms emerging on day five, and more complex ones (including humans) on day six. Now, if you believe that evolution did take place, it is somewhere in there. If not, then you don't. But there was no more Big Bang taking place during that time period, and that is that.

The very first thing to be created in the world was light (Gen. 2:3). This is entirely consistent with the theory of the Big Bang. We know that all matter began as energy (consistent with E=mc^2) in the form of photons, which are particles of light. There is enormous evidence of the Big Bang taking place. (One person mentioned to me that since this is man's physics and not God's physics, our observation must be flawed. I say that the laws of physics are God's very first creation, and therefore must be sacred!) I must add that I do believe that there is a God and that He created everything. People argue that a creation needs a creator. I will not argue this. But, after all, do builders not use tools to build things? The mechanism of creation is never mentioned in the Bible, yet we have found it with science. Fundamentalists decry this discovery as blasphemous and the work of the devil. Why? The dichotomy between science and religion is artificial. Shouldn't looking upon God's creation yield only truth? And beauty? There is nothing out there that defiles the Bible.

Question: Why should I care about all this?
Answer: Read post #5.