Surf'n the Net - Archived Story

Dating the Moment of Creation?

This issue of Surf''n the Net brings us to a web site describing a recent scientific discovery. It is an all-sky map of the oldest light in the universe called the WMAP, which reaches back to when the universe was only 380,000 years old. This map is a refinement (35 times more detail) of the COBE map created back in 1992. The research involved puts the separation of the evenly dispersed microwave light at about 380,000 years after the Big Bang and puts the first star ignition when the universe was about 200 million years old. The research also puts the Big Bang at 13.7 billion years ago give or take a 100 million years.

I think the relevance of this discovery to Christianity cannot be overestimated. It allows Young Earth Creationists to put a date on two major events in the book of Genesis, the separation of light from darkness on "Day 1" (380,000 years after the creation event) and the creation of the "lights in the expanse of the sky" on "Day 4" (200 million years after the creation event). Since light was also first created on Day 1, which occurred immediately after the Big Bang, Day 1 in Genesis must have lasted 380,000 years. Since stars formed 200 million years after the Big Bang (13.5 billion years ago) and the moon was created about 4 billion years ago, we get the length of Day 4 in Genesis of about 9.5 billion years. For Young Earth Creationists, these dates are devastating. They completely fly in the face of a literal 24-hour day interpretation of the 6 days of creation.

The word translated "Day" in modern translations of the Bible appears to be a mistranslation of the Hebrew word "yowm," which should probably be translated as a variable amount of time in the creation account in Genesis 1. Not only that, the order of the creation days in Genesis do not lend themselves to be taken as if the things were created in the given order. For example, the earth is mentioned as existing before the light in verse 2, which would make it before the Big Bang (the creation event) mentioned in verse 3.

The meaning of the creation events in Genesis 1 might be better interpreted as the author seems to attempt to convey. Verse 1 sums up the creation of the universe, including the earth. Verse 2 sets up the author's subject's vantage point, which is the earth. Verse 3 on tells us what the subject would see as things miraculously unfold on the earth. Such an interpretation is not only intellectually consistent but is also more in tune with what I believe the original author meant.

In conclusion, could the recent WMAP discovery that refines some key ages of events in the early universe be completely incorrect, along with many other scientific dating techniques of the age of the universe? Could Young Earth Creationists be correct in their conclusion that the universe is only about 10,000 years old? It is possible but seems to grow more and more unlikely as time goes by. There seems to be a growing movement among Christians toward an old-universe interpretation of the Genesis 1 account, which is consistent with a literal interpretation of the Bible. Many Christians are starting to realize that the study of the creation (sometimes called "nature") is not something to be feared and, when done correctly, is completely consistent with the Bible.

Well, I've been a bit long-winded in this issue. As always, keep those (key)boards waxed as you continue Surf'n the Net.

M

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