Gen 1:1 = Big Bang?

[Atria]

I'm assuming that this has been touched on before, so sorry for the repeat.

I'ma new Christian and have started from the beginning, Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

I was thinking that perhaps the 'Big Bang' theory isn't too far from the truth. This passage doesn't say how God created the earth, just that he did. Could the big bang simply be God creating the earth?

What do you think?

 

[MemeBuster]

I think there is no need for a creator god. Why do you think there needs to be a creator god anyway?


MB.

 

[Vene]

I think it's about 1000 times more reasonable than creationism.

 

[NPH]

Could the big bang simply be God creating the earth?

The "Big Bang" is the beginning of the entire universe, not the earth. The earth didn't come along until about 9 billion years later. According to genesis heaven and the earth came first, with the stars and sun not showing up until the third day. Big contradiction right there.

 

[Patashu]

Well, if you go by the big bang theory, Earth's creation wasn't in the beginning; it happened a dozen or so billion years after the event.

 

[Atria]

OHHHHH! ok...so neither really go together at all...fair enough. Thanks guys!

 

[NOTW]

The "Big Bang" is the beginning of the entire universe, not the earth. The earth didn't come along until about 9 billion years later. According to genesis heaven and the earth came first, with the stars and sun not showing up until the third day. Big contradiction right there.

You take Genesis as literally as Creationists do.
[BIBLE]Genesis 1:1[/BIBLE]
The Hebrew word for heaven is shamayim, which also includes the definition of universe.
Crosswalk

So, my interpretation is the following:

Since Genesis was written in an allegorical and poetic language, God was simply stating that the Earth and the universe were created.

I do not see any contradiction with scientific theories.

Well, if you go by the big bang theory, Earth's creation wasn't in the beginning; it happened a dozen or so billion years after the event.

Yes, but in a religious text, God was not going to be so detailed as to mention when the universe was created, how many years passed before the Earth came about, how many molecules were present at the time, where did the rest come from...etc

The intention of Genesis was to explain to Moses where God fit in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Merlin]

The 'big bank' is simply an 'educated guess' based on a low level background noise.

 

[TeddyKGB]

The 'big bank' is simply an 'educated guess' based on a low level background noise.

The big bang was a consequence of Einstein field equations. It made several predictions apart from CMB radiation, including universal expansion and element distribution, which have been confirmed experimentally.

 

[eri]

Since Genesis was written in an allegorical and poetic language, God was simply stating that the Earth and the universe were created.

I do not see any contradiction with scientific theories.

Except for that 'created' part. Perhaps you mean that both the Bible and science say that everything had a beginning? Because that's about all they had in common. Even if God were trying to dumb things down for Moses, wouldn't he have at least told him the correct order of when stuff came about? Earth before light? We KNOW that's not true.

 

[NOTW]

Except for that 'created' part.

Even "created" part [Hebrew: Bara] also means to shape or to form or to fashion, which requires the existence of something first to shape it or form it.

Perhaps you mean that both the Bible and science say that everything had a beginning? Because that's about all they had in common. Even if God were trying to dumb things down for Moses, wouldn't he have at least told him the correct order of when stuff came about? Earth before light? We KNOW that's not true.

The intention of Genesis was not even to keep things in chronological order, the intention was an orientation coursefor Moses so that he would at least have some background information debating with the Pharaoh of Egypt.

In NO WAY is Genesis the record of chronological order of when and how the universe came to exist.
Genesis simply was not intended for that purpose.

 

[milkyway]

Even "created" part [Hebrew: Bara] also means to shape or to form or to fashion, which requires the existence of something first to shape it or form it.


The intention of Genesis was not even to keep things in chronological order, the intention was an orientation coursefor Moses so that he would at least have some background information debating with the Pharaoh of Egypt.

In NO WAY is Genesis the record of chronological order of when and how the universe came to exist.
Genesis simply was not intended for that purpose.

That's one interpretation of Genesis. Why do you believe it's the correct one?

 

[necroforest]

The big bang was a consequence of Einstein field equations. It made several predictions apart from CMB radiation, including universal expansion and element distribution, which have been confirmed experimentally.

Is it? I thought it was due to Hubble extrapolating expansion back in time, and realizing that everything would ahve come together at one point.

Granted, I have a decent qualitative understanding of GR, but I lack the math background for it (maybe i need to work on that )

 

[Lakercom]

I'm assuming that this has been touched on before, so sorry for the repeat.

I'ma new Christian and have started from the beginning, Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

I was thinking that perhaps the 'Big Bang' theory isn't too far from the truth. This passage doesn't say how God created the earth, just that he did. Could the big bang simply be God creating the earth?

What do you think?

God does not need to prove how he made the earth just like He does not need to prove that He exists. He is all-powerful and all-knowing and exists outside the dimension of time. He merely needs to speak something into existence and it will be.

The early church fathers did not believe in an "old earth" (long period for creation). Clergymen (and scientists) did not begin to seriously doubt the young earth (literal) account of creation in the bible until the nineteenth century. Partly for this reason some early church fathers (theologians) thought the earth was created instantly and the seven-day account in Genesis was an allegory. Seriously, all God had to do was snap his fingers and everything could have been done instantly. I think that is what AV calls ex nihilo.

It is hard for a new Christian to accept the supernatural after being brain washed in secular society with an antibiblical worldview. It almost drove me crazy getting my head around what and who God is after I first became a Christian. The best and maybe the only way for most people to "get it" is to dedicate their life to God (Jesus), study His word and follow Him with all their heart and He will prove himself.

Believing the Bible first and then studying it to understand who God is, and how He has a plan for me, is not an unreasonable step to find ultimate Truth (God/Jesus). If I receive a letter from someone and I want to determine the contents/claims in the letter to be true the best thing to do is question the sender and test the sender to see if it is true. I don't mean I should use doubt as a starting point but give the sender the benefit of the doubt. Scripture says to "ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7. The Bible has God’s name all over it in terms of how he revealed himself to the authors.

There is plenty of evidence to confirm the physical state of the earth being a product of young earth creation (6,000 years) but I am not getting into this now. The fact remains that until someone gets the right worldview and has their understanding opened they will not believe. People believe what they want to believe based on their worldview. Just as the atheists call Christians blind to their (our) “Bible-only” view, they are blinded by their naturalism.

I like the scripture Matthew 11:28-30 which says (words of Jesus), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and LEARN OF ME; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." KJV

 

[TeddyKGB]

Is it? I thought it was due to Hubble extrapolating expansion back in time, and realizing that everything would ahve come together at one point.

That was the culmination of a series of theoretical steps that began with Friedman.

 

[Parogar]

God does not need to prove how he made the earth just like He does not need to prove that He exists. He is all-powerful and all-knowing and exists outside the dimension of time. He merely needs to speak something into existence and it will be.

The early church fathers did not believe in an "old earth" (long period for creation). Clergymen (and scientists) did not begin to seriously doubt the young earth (literal) account of creation in the bible until the nineteenth century. Partly for this reason some early church fathers (theologians) thought the earth was created instantly and the seven-day account in Genesis was an allegory. Seriously, all God had to do was snap his fingers and everything could have been done instantly. I think that is what AV calls ex nihilo.

It is hard for a new Christian to accept the supernatural after being brain washed in secular society with an antibiblical worldview. It almost drove me crazy getting my head around what and who God is after I first became a Christian. The best and maybe the only way for most people to "get it" is to dedicate their life to God (Jesus), study His word and follow Him with all their heart and He will prove himself.

Believing the Bible first and then studying it to understand who God is, and how He has a plan for me, is not an unreasonable step to find ultimate Truth (God/Jesus). If I receive a letter from someone and I want to determine the contents/claims in the letter to be true the best thing to do is question the sender and test the sender to see if it is true. I don't mean I should use doubt as a starting point but give the sender the benefit of the doubt. Scripture says to "ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7. The Bible has God’s name all over it in terms of how he revealed himself to the authors.

There is plenty of evidence to confirm the physical state of the earth being a product of young earth creation (6,000 years) but I am not getting into this now. The fact remains that until someone gets the right worldview and has their understanding opened they will not believe. People believe what they want to believe based on their worldview. Just as the atheists call Christians blind to their (our) “Bible-only” view, they are blinded by their naturalism.

I like the scripture Matthew 11:28-30 which says (words of Jesus), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and LEARN OF ME; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." KJV

Not to be rude, but that SERIOUSLY sounds like something someone in a cult would say. And it's kinda freaky.

 

[Blackmarch]

I'm assuming that this has been touched on before, so sorry for the repeat.

I'ma new Christian and have started from the beginning, Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

I was thinking that perhaps the 'Big Bang' theory isn't too far from the truth. This passage doesn't say how God created the earth, just that he did. Could the big bang simply be God creating the earth?

What do you think?

Actually I don't think Genesis involves time that far back. Probably back to the creation of the solar system.

 

[Molal]

There is plenty of evidence to confirm the physical state of the earth being a product of young earth creation (6,000 years) but I am not getting into this now.

Can you provide some evidence? Like a peer reviewed published scientific paper describing the evidence?

(Sorry - I had to ask. *opens a can of PRATTs*)

 

[NOTW]

God does not need to prove how he made the earth just like He does not need to prove that He exists. He is all-powerful and all-knowing and exists outside the dimension of time. He merely needs to speak something into existence and it will be.

As Ken Miller said, "In the beginning was the Word -- evolve".
Yes, God is capable of creating the Earth by saying 1 word, but why is God not capable of creating a universe that grows old and flexible creatures that adapt to their environment? Why is it that God must have created set and fixed living organisms?

Give it a thought!

The early church fathers did not believe in an "old earth" (long period for creation). Clergymen (and scientists) did not begin to seriously doubt the young earth (literal) account of creation in the bible until the nineteenth century. Partly for this reason some early church fathers (theologians) thought the earth was created instantly and the seven-day account in Genesis was an allegory. Seriously, all God had to do was snap his fingers and everything could have been done instantly. I think that is what AV calls ex nihilo.

No, I'm sorry. I have to stand strongly against what you have said here. The topic of how old the Earth is has been debated by the early church fathers and Christian scholars. Young Earth Creation came about between 1089 and 1164, proposed by Ibn Ezra in his commentary of Genesis, but even in Judaism and many early Christian Fathers, like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine, and Eusebius, did not believe the Genesis account depicted ordinary solar days and read creation history as an allegory as well as being theologically true.

It is hard for a new Christian to accept the supernatural after being brain washed in secular society with an antibiblical worldview. It almost drove me crazy getting my head around what and who God is after I first became a Christian. The best and maybe the only way for most people to "get it" is to dedicate their life to God (Jesus), study His word and follow Him with all their heart and He will prove himself.

True, but first you would want to show some qualities of an open-minded person. Besides all Jesus said to do was "tell them about me, if they reject, shake the dust off and move on"

Believing the Bible first and then studying it to understand who God is, and how He has a plan for me, is not an unreasonable step to find ultimate Truth (God/Jesus). If I receive a letter from someone and I want to determine the contents/claims in the letter to be true the best thing to do is question the sender and test the sender to see if it is true. I don't mean I should use doubt as a starting point but give the sender the benefit of the doubt. Scripture says to "ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7. The Bible has God’s name all over it in terms of how he revealed himself to the authors.

This is getting off topic!

There is plenty of evidence to confirm the physical state of the earth being a product of young earth creation (6,000 years) but I am not getting into this now. The fact remains that until someone gets the right worldview and has their understanding opened they will not believe. People believe what they want to believe based on their worldview. Just as the atheists call Christians blind to their (our) “Bible-only” view, they are blinded by their naturalism.

Please, do present these evidences for your Young Earth hypothesis.
That's why we're here debating.

I like the scripture Matthew 11:28-30 which says (words of Jesus), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and LEARN OF ME; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." KJV

[/quote]

 

[Blackmarch]

Even "created" part [Hebrew: Bara] also means to shape or to form or to fashion, which requires the existence of something first to shape it or form it.


The intention of Genesis was not even to keep things in chronological order, the intention was an orientation coursefor Moses so that he would at least have some background information debating with the Pharaoh of Egypt.

In NO WAY is Genesis the record of chronological order of when and how the universe came to exist.
Genesis simply was not intended for that purpose.

Very interesting.