Science and Religion: The Creation of the Universe

Devin Fogleman
UWRT 1103
Dr. Rand
April 18, 2017
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Throughout the history of civilization, there have been many questions about
the universe that have been answered. The one question that spans the centuries
and likely will never be answered is as follows: How was the universe created?
There are many potential theories out there, some crazier than others. This paper
will serve as a conduit of thought in which we will discuss two of the most popular
creation theories out there, the Big Bang Theory and the Genesis creation story, and
draw comparison between the two in the end.
The Big Bang Theory and the Genesis creation theory have long been seen
strictly as opposing views to creation. This is part of the entire feud between
science and religion, which includes topics such as evolution versus adaptation
(which will be touched on) and the church versus the LGBT community. I hope to
convince you, the reader, that the scientific and religious views on creation can both
work together to add credibility to both of them.
We will start by investigating and gathering information from the religious
school of thought. Many people associate the Genesis creation story only with
Christianity. In reality, the creation story accepted by Christians is also accepted by
Jews and Muslims. This means that approximately 3.9 billion people, 54.9 percent of
the worlds population as of 2012, believe the same creation story. 1 In my opinion,
this adds credibility to this creation story. It makes you think that if so many people
believe this, there must be at least some truth to it. With that being said, here is the
creation story, located in Genesis 1:1-5.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 God saw that the light
was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light
day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there
was morningthe first day.2

As you can see, what Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in is an all-
powerful, all-knowing God who created the Earth as He saw fit. But who created
God? This is a common question from skeptics that people of religion face. What
they dont understand is Christians believe in an uncreated God. Since God is the
uncreated creator, the question Who created God? becomes illogical. 3 This is the
only skeptical question I wish to clear the air of before diving deeper into this. I do
not want to waste your time trying to prove the existence of God, rather I want to
open up your mind to this realm of thought without questioning how God existed to
create the universe.
Next, we are going to zoom in a little bit more and look at the creation of life.
This is covered a little bit later in Genesis 1. To summarize this longer portion, God
created life in the following order: vegetation, marine and avian animals, terrestrial
animals, and man.4 From this knowledge, many people split off into various beliefs
about the specifics of life and how it has progressed through time. There are many
different kinds of creationism that forms a kind of spectrum. The creationism
spectrum has flat-earthers on one end and philosophical materialistic evolutionists
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on the other end.5 As with political views, most people are not on either extreme of
the creationism spectrum, taking some religion and some science and mixing it
together to come out with a happy medium.
I feel as if the religious side of this argument has been covered sufficiently.
Therefore, I will move on to the scientific side and attempt to cover it to the same
extent, though it may be more difficult due to the physics and all behind it.
Though there are many scientific theories for the creation, we will focus on
what tends to be the most accepted scientific theory, the Big Bang Theory. The
father of the Big Bang is Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian physicist. After the universe
was found to be expanding, he came up with the theory using Einsteins theory of
general relativity and working backwards from the state the universe was in. 6 From
here, Lemaitre suggested that the universe must have been much smaller than
denser than it is in its current state. Once he suggested this, Lemaitre then used
common knowledge of the properties of gas to prove that this primordial atom
was extremely hot. The heat acted as the catalyst for what would become known as
the Big Bang.7 The Big Bang is what is believed to have set the universe into action.
From here, all of the elements and molecules were created and began combining to
form larger and more complex objects.
In all honesty, I dont even understand all of the technical jargon included
with the various pieces of evidence. So rather than confusing you and myself, we
will skip over the physics-based evidence and talk about a couple problems with the
Big Bang Theory, similar to how we answered the question, Who created God?,
when we discussed the Genesis creation story.
The main argument that is made against the Big Bang Theory regards the
first law of thermodynamics. Many people make the statement something cannot
come out of nothing. This has in fact been disproven. The following excerpt is from
the article titled Evidence for the Big Bang: From quantum field theory, we know
that something does indeed come from nothing: to wit, "vacuum fluctuations". In
the simplest case, an electron, a positron and a photon can appear effectively out of
nowhere, exist for a brief time and then annihilate, leaving no net creation of mass
or energy.8
To put this is somewhat simpler terms, this is saying that it technically is
possible to make something out of nothing. It states that this is possible because
what is created from nothing is effectively destroyed, leaving no net gain in mass or
energy.9 Since the universe was created from nothing, there must be some point at
which it will be destroyed, right? Well, we can take a look at antimatter, which is
almost like negative matter, to keep our net matter at zero. And for all we know, the
universe could end up being completely destroyed, leaving the net matter at zero
as well.
Now that both sides of the argument have been fully addressed and
explained, it is time to dig a little deeper. I do not intend for this to be a paper
strictly contrasting the two ideas, rather I want to do just the opposite.
We will begin with discussing a simple proof of the legitimacy of some of the
claims within the Bible. For one, there is historical proof that Jesus of Nazareth
existed. Shortly after his death, Jesus appeared in many writing of historians of
Jewish and Roman descent, as well as within Christian writings. The idea of Jesus
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existence being a myth didnt come about until the late second millennium. Most
ancient historians did not question his existence.
There is one idea that sets the Big Bang Theory and the Genesis creation
story apart from other theories; the universe has a beginning. Both theories state in
some fashion that in the beginning, there was nothing. From this nothingness, the
entire universe was created, marking the beginning of the universe and time itself.
Though the way in which everything came to be differs, both theories a consistent
with each other in that everything came from nothing.
One idea that scientists try to use to disprove the story in Genesis is the age
of the earth. The scientific world states that the earth is billions of years old while
Christians believe the earth is six or seven thousand years old. Personally, I believe
that the earth is older than just a few thousand years. I believe there is either a time
gap between Genesis 1:1 when the earth was created, and Genesis 1:2 when life
starts to be created, or the seven days that life was created in were much longer
than just 24 hours. Either one of these ideas adds consistency to both of the
theories.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Big Bang directly relates to Gods
spoken words. When you think of a big bang, you think of a large amount of light
and a loud noise. Is this not what one would expect to occur when God uttered the
command, Let there be light?10 This single piece of evidence connects the two
theories more so than any other piece of evidence.
All of the above information is essential to the following conclusion; both the
Big Bang Theory and the Genesis creation story could be true, and peacefully
coexist, bringing both scientific and religious minds together. It is hard to dispute
that if these theories happen to be true, which is essentially impossible to prove
outright, that they cannot work together to add credibility to one another.
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Notes
1. The Global Religious Landscape. pewforum.org. Accessed on April 8, 2017
from http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/

2. The NIV Study Bible, 2011 Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing
House, 2011.

3. Sarfati, Jonathan. If God created the universe, then who created God?
Creation Ministries International. Accessed on April 8, 2017 from
http://creation.com/if-god-created-the-universe-then-who-created-god

4. The NIV Study Bible, 2011.

5. Isaak, Mark. What is Creationism? Talkorigins.org. Accessed March 23, 2017

from
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wic.html

6. Kolata, James J. Elementary Cosmology: From Aristotles Universe to the Big

Bang and Beyond. San Rafael: Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2015.
7. Kolata, James J. Elementary Cosmology. 2015.
8. Feuerbacher, Bjorn, and Scranton, Ryan. Evidence for the Big Bang.
Talkorigins.org. Accessed on March 23, 2017 from
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html#homogeneity
9. Ibid.
10.The NIV Study Bible, 2011.
11.

Barr, Stephen M. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. Notre Dame: University of Notre
Dame Press, 2003.
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Bibliography
Feuerbacher, Bjorn, and Scranton, Ryan. Evidence for the Big Bang. Talkorigins.org.
Accessed on
March23, 2017 from
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html#homogeneity
Isaak, Mark. What is Creationism? Talkorigins.org. Accessed March 23, 2017 from
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wic.html
Kolata, James J. Elementary Cosmology: From Aristotles Universe to the Big Bang
and Beyond. San
Rafael: Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2015.
Sarfati, Jonathan. If God created the universe, then who created God? Creation
Ministries
International. Accessed on April 8, 2017 from http://creation.com/if-god-
created-the-universe-
then-who-created-god
The Global Religious Landscape. pewforum.org. Accessed on April 8, 2017 from
http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/
The NIV Study Bible, 2011 Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,
2011.
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Reflection
The most interesting thing I learned in this inquiry process was just how
similar the Big Bang Theory and the Genesis creation story are. I had always had
one idea of how to directly relate them, but I found that you can use small portions
from each idea to relate them further. I struggled to find many sources that seemed
reliable. I had to rely more on some of my ideas, which ended up being a good
thing.
I wouldnt say that my inquiry question really changed over time, rather it
became more specific. I was going to look at more creation theories but I could not
find enough sources on those other theories. The context of my question is
important because without considering it, you would not understand why the paper
is structured the way it is. I do think my evaluation skills have increased during this
process. I became much better at identifying a good source while taking into
consideration its biases.
I am most proud of my ability to effectively relate the two ideas presented, as
well as my lack of procrastination. The thing I would really like to know about my
topic is how the universe was created, which will never be known. I feel as if this
would really change the way I think about things if I knew this.
During peer workshops, I felt as if I gave quality feedback, specifically on
grammar. I didnt comment much on the content itself because I felt as if I did not
know enough about the topics to offer suggestions. My peers were very helpful with
my paper. They offered many structural suggestions that helped the flow and
consistency within my paper.