Genesis and the Big Bang Theory

The Book of Genesis was written over three thousand years ago.  It explained creation for a people who had little scientific knowledge and strongly believed in myths as part of their everyday lives.  And so, for these unsophisticated, early people, a story that explained how the universe was created in six days, satisfied their hunger for the knowledge of how they came to be.

Modern science has a much more exacting explanation for creation.  Commonly called the Big Bang Theory, physicists postulate that the universe spontaneously came into existence in a miniscule fraction of a second and that the resulting ‘Big Bang’ set the formation of the galaxies, stars, planets and ultimately, us, in motion.  Genesis and The Big Bang could not be more incompatible as explanations for our being…or could they?

Here is a very basic explanation of the Big Bang Theory.  Before time began, all matter and energy in existence, anywhere in the universe, was compressed down to a mass smaller than a single grain of sand that you would find on a beach.  Think of yourself as being crushed down in size to something smaller than a grain of sand; but not just you, everybody you know.  But not just everybody, but the whole world smaller than a grain of sand.  But not just all of Earth crushed down to a speck but the moon also, and all of the planets, and the sun and all 200 billion suns in this galaxy and all of their planets and all of the space dust and comets and energy, all in this speck.  But not just the Milky Way galaxy but all 100 billion galaxies in the universe and anything in between them.

Everything that has ever existed, squeezed into a speck, all under tremendous pressure, it bursts outward in a microsecond of blinding light and energy.

3 God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  Genesis 1:3

In this first instant, all of the elements are created.  The hot, light elements, such as hydrogen, coalesce into balls of gas and begin to rotate.  As they spin, they gather in the heavier elements.  The rotation increases the heat of the gas, until a thermonuclear reaction starts.  Stars are born.  The creation of solar systems begins.

6 God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’ And so it was.

7 God made the vault, and it divided the waters under the vault from the waters above the vault.

8 God called the vault ‘heaven’. Evening came and morning came: the second day.  Genesis 1:6-8

 As these new stars begin to rotate around the galactic core, they attract the heavier elements that were cast off toward the end of the Big Bang.  Elements such as iron, silicon, carbon, oxygen, begin to gather together into rough, rocky balls.  The creation of planets begins.  Where conditions are right, rain begins on these planets.  Oceans form and continents appear.  Plants evolve, at first fronds and palms, later flowering plants and deciduous trees bearing fruits and nuts.

9 God said, ‘Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear.’ And so it was.

10 God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the mass of waters ‘seas’, and God saw that it was good.

11 God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on earth, bearing fruit with their seed inside, each corresponding to its own species.’ And so it was.

12 The earth produced vegetation: the various kinds of seed-bearing plants and the fruit trees with seed inside, each corresponding to its own species. God saw that it was good.

13 Evening came and morning came: the third day.  Genesis 1:9-13

 During the early formation of the solar system, meteors, comets and space debris constantly bombarded the young planets in our system.  One such massive collision hit the Earth, ejecting enough mass to form our moon.

16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars.

17 God set them in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth,

18 to govern the day and the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good.

19 Evening came and morning came: the fourth day.  Genesis 1:16-19

 Life began to evolve in the oceans.  Fantastically complex sea creatures, such as pleasours, mosasaurs, and megalodons roamed the seas.  On land, dinosaurs developed and evolved into the birds of today.  The world teemed with life of all kinds.

20 God said, ‘Let the waters be alive with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds wing their way above the earth across the vault of heaven.’ And so it was.

21 God created great sea-monsters and all the creatures that glide and teem in the waters in their own species, and winged birds in their own species. God saw that it was good.

22 God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply on land.’

23 Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.  Genesis 1:20-23

Modern animals evolved.  The dogs and cats of today populated the Earth.  Deer ran through the woods.  The spark of intelligence lit the hominids and God endowed them with their souls.

24 God said, ‘Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds.’ And so it was.

25 God made wild animals in their own species, and cattle in theirs, and every creature that crawls along the earth in its own species. God saw that it was good.

26 God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’



29 God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food.

30 And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.’ And so it was.
 God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.  Genesis 1:24-31

 Modern science accounts for all of creation, from the first ray of light to our lives today.  How could anyone believe in a creation myth that cannot account for our existence today?

1 Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array.

2 On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.

3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.  Genesis 2:1-3

I leave you with one parting question.  If all matter and energy of the entire universe was compressed into a single dot, where did the external pressure come from to contain it?  Perhaps it was God holding His creation in the palm of His hand.

©  2018

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