Creation: the Bible and Science
The Big Bang
The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its simplest, it talks about the universe as we know it starting with a small singularity, then inflating over the next 13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today.
In the first second after the universe began, the surrounding temperature was about 10 billion degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius), according to NASA. The cosmos contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons. These decayed or combined as the universe got cooler.
Some physicists also suggest that the universe we experience is just one of many. In the "multiverse" model, different universes would coexist with each other like bubbles lying side by side. The theory suggests that in that first big push of inflation, different parts of space-time grew at different rates. This could have carved off different sections — different universes — with potentially different laws of physics.
Origins of the Solar System and the Earth
According to a relatively new theory, disk instability, clumps of dust and gas are bound together early in the life of the solar system. Over time, these clumps slowly compact into a giant planet. These planets can form faster than their core accretion rivals, sometimes in as little as a thousand years, allowing them to trap the rapidly-vanishing lighter gases. They also quickly reach an orbit-stabilizing mass that keeps them from death-marching into the sun.
As scientists continue to study planets inside of the solar system, as well as around other stars, they will better understand how Earth and its siblings formed.
—Nola Taylor Redd, SPACE.com Contributor
Evolution
What is microevolution?
Microevolution is simply a change in gene frequency within a population. Evolution at this scale can be observed over short periods of time — for example, between one generation and the next, the frequency of a gene for pesticide resistance in a population of crop pests increases. Such a change might come about because natural selection favored the gene, because the population received new immigrants carrying the gene, because some nonresistant genes mutated to the resistant version, or because of random genetic drift from one generation to the next.
What is macroevolution?
Macroevolution generally refers to evolution above the species level. So instead of focusing on an individual beetle species, a macroevolutionary lens might require that we zoom out on the tree of life, to assess the diversity of the entire beetle clade and its position on the tree.
Macroevolution refers to evolution of groups larger than an individual species.
The history of life, on a grand scale.
Macroevolution encompasses the grandest trends and transformations in evolution, such as the origin of mammals and the radiation of flowering plants. Macroevolutionary patterns are generally what we see when we look at the large-scale history of life.
It is not necessarily easy to "see" macroevolutionary history; there are no firsthand accounts to be read. Instead, we reconstruct the history of life using multiple lines of evidence, including geology, fossils, and living organisms.
Genesis 1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
My commentary
The Creation account set forth in Genesis is remarkably accurate and consistent with the order described by scientists, more complete than any other explanation put forth from ancient times to today.
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First, the Hebrew word for "created" used in the first verse says plainly that the universe is formed from nothing by God. This is contrary to the Laws of Physics which state that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, and is the main reason why atheist scientists are constantly exploring new ideas like the Multiverse and String Theory to explain this apparent impossibility. Note that every other instance of creation uses a different verb than the one in this first sentence.
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The verb tense might better be set as imperfect in most places in Genesis 1, that is, an action begun in the past and continuing. For instance, you might say "In the beginning, God began to create (from nothing) the heavens and the earth."
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A key issue is the matter of the definition of a day. Biblical scholars insist that in the context used, with an ordinal number (first day, second day, etc.) the word day always refers to a 24-hour period. However, you also see each day beginning at sunset and "ending" at sunrise. Couple that with the imperfect verb tense and the more accurate translation of "day" seems to be "an indefinite period of time". (The Hebrews have the same definitions of "day" that we do in English - the hours of daylight, a 24-hour period, or an indefinite period of time.) With that, we are no longer confined to 144 hours (six literal days), but some period of time, even billions of years. So a better translation might be "And there began to be evening and morning, the beginning of the first age."
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Evolution is also evident in the Bible. We know that living beings procreate within a species, or as stated in Genesis "each according to its kind." But science is still struggling to explain how one species evolves into another, known today as macro-evolution. Genesis states that each new stage of creation, God uses existing material to form or bring forth the next creatures, whether it be plants, sea creatures, birds, land animals or humans.
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You may also note that the Bible appears to indicate that the sun, moon and stars are created in the fourth age. However, light is obviously created in the first age. What is being described in the fourth age is actually that the sun, moon and stars are being made to shine on the earth for the first time. Prior to this time, the earth was covered with a thick cloudy atmosphere, with just enough light to start photosynthesis needed for plant life to begin.
There are more details here than can easily be described in this venue. Clearly the Biblical description is more accurate than any ancient creation story. I would suggest that it is even more accurate than any current scientific explanation, whether it is the Big Bang Theory, a Multiverse, String Theory or any other hypothesis. The Universe was created by, for and through an all-powerful, all-present, eternal God.
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Therefore, seeing that this was written over 3000 years ago, before telescopes, cosmology, the notion that the sun was the center of the solar system, any understanding of the Laws of Physics, the obvious question is: how did the author (Moses?) know? The only logical explanation is the one he himself gave: "God told me."