“Does The Big Bang Disprove The Bible?”
 
Adapted from The Flier
Volume XII, Number 3
July, 2010
The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse [stretched-out space] shows His handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)
 
"What time is it?" Simple question. Unless you're on the space station. Because the station moves from one time zone to another every few minutes, the time would be constantly changing. But it gets even more complicated. Time actually runs slightly faster on the space station than on the earth because time speeds up when gravity is less. We know this from Einstein’s theory of relativity and experimental observations.
 
So, "the time" really depends on where you are in the universe and how you are moving. And since age is measured in units of time, the age of something also depends on these factors as well.
 
The Bible, of course, teaches not only that the earth is young (a few thousand years old), but that the universe is of the same age. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens [universe] and the earth.” However, these assertions seem absurd to many and are flatly rejected by the majority of scientists, for a number of reasons.
 
First of all, we know that the universe is extremely large. We can see stars that are billions of light-years away. Therefore, it is logic al to assume that light from such distant s tars must have started out toward us billions of years ago and the stars must, therefore, be billions of years old - at least by somebody's time-piece.
 
Second, the light from very distant stars has what we could describe as a lower than expected "pitch," just as the sound from a car or truck moving away from us sounds lower in pitch. This observation suggests (but doesn't actually prove) that the stars are moving away from us and that the universe therefore must be expanding. This is the main reasoning used in the development of what is called the Big Bang theory. Imagine a movie of the expanding universe. If the film were run backwards, it would show the universe eventually shrinking down to a tiny point about 14 billion years ago. This is the scenario on which many scientists base the Big Bang theory, which states that something exploded at that time and the stars, galaxies and space itself all gradually formed from the material ejected by the explosion.
 
It all seems very logical. Don't all of these facts (star-light from immense distances and from stars that seem to be moving away from us) prove that Genesis 1 must be wrong when it claims that the universe is young? If, as the Bible claims, the stars were formed only about 6000 year s ago, we should not be able to see any s tars more than 6000 light-years away – far less than the size of our own galaxy. How is the Christian to respond to such seemingly unanswerable arguments? Yet, we are commanded to "always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us."
 
Well, again, let's take a closer look at these facts and at the Big Bang theory they are said to support. Once again we will have to gird up the loins of our minds (I Peter 1:13).
 
Actually, there are many problems with the Big Bang theory which most of us never hear about. First of all, the theory has no answer to the basic question of w her e all of the matter of the universe came from before it exploded in the hypothetical big bang. Second, the theory requires the addition of at least one major fudge factor, a supposed period of unexplained hyper-expansion after the initial explosion. It also requires the universe to have enormous amounts of matter and energy which cannot be detected or otherwise accounted for.
 
As a result, since 2004 over 300 experts in the field of astronomy have signed an open letter stating that the Big Bang theory is hopelessly flawed and should be abandoned so that other theories and research can be pursued. (You can read this letter at www.cosmologystatement.org).
 
But could the basic facts of astronomy actually be compatible with a young universe? The answer is: "Yes!" Many years ago, a well-respected secular astronomer and cosmologist, Dr. Frank Tipler, of Tulane University, demonstrated that, using only the facts on which the Big Bang theory was based, he could construct an alternate theory to explain how the universe we observe might be only 6000 years old, though he himself still held to the Big Bang theory.
 
And recently, two Christian cosmologists (Dr. Russell Humphreys and Dr. John Hartnett, www.creation.org) have likewise put forth a set of theories that explain how the universe could develop in only about 6000 years of "earth-time." The basic idea behind these theories is as follows.
 
First, these two scientists agree that the universe has probably expanded, but they attribute this expansion to God's action rather than to an explosion. At least 17 times in the Old Testament it is said that God stretched out (expanded) the heavens (universe). So, instead of a Big Bang explosion, caused and controlled only by unknown natural forces, the Bible tells us that there was a big expansion caused and controlled by God.
 
Then, if it is assumed that the earth was (and is) near the center of the universe, where gravity would have started out very high in the beginning, time on earth would have run very, very slowly because of the high gravitation. However, in the far reaches of a rapidly expanding space, time would have run very quickly as gravity decreased. During this “stretching out”, the stars and galaxies in outer space, if they were viewed from the Earth, would have seemed to be moving and changing at very high speed. This would be a little like the old-time movies where the action seemed to be speeded up because the projector ran much faster than the camera. So the Bible's description of an earth that is only a few thousand years old, measured by time on earth, could easily fit with an outer space that seems immensely old as well as immensely large because of the way gravity affected the speed of time itself when God “stretched out” the universe.
 
In the final analysis, no man knows exactly how it all happened. In fact, we may never fully understand how God created and fashioned the universe, since He tells us that His ways (methods) are as far above our understanding as the heavens are above the earth!
 
But even if we may never figure it all out, there is nothing wrong with studying the heavens and seeing if we can guess how God might have done His work, as Drs. Humphreys and Hartnett have done. However, it is a sign of immense arrogance on the part of those scientists who take a few observations of uncertain meaning, mix them with questionable assumptions, arrive at a shaky theory of origins, and then claim that the word of the infinitely wise and powerful Creator God must be wrong!
 
So instead of asking "What time is it?" or "how old is the universe?", we should ask a far more important question: "Who are you going to believe?" Will you go along with sceptics who reject the straightforward understanding of the Genesis account on the basis of very limited observations and questionable theories of some of today's scientists – who may well change their story next year? Or will you believe God when He tells us in His Word that our universe is young, even though it may appear old because of the way He formed it?

In His Service,

Paul L. Tecklenberg, M.D.