Comment by Molly Goodman on November 4, 2009 at 8:54am

Lynn-

This is an interesting point you make. It seems as though people either believe in God or they believe in the Big Bang...one or the other. I have never heard the idea that maybe it all came together due to science...and then God continued to develop it. So that would mean that you believe in both?

But here is my question: If God is all-powerful, then why would he not have developed the Earth himself? Why would he leave the most talked about/debated creation to science and not take it on himself? If God is all-knowing than he should have known that the Earth would come to be...it wasn't a surprise.

I like your idea. It sounds like a happy medium, but I think believers and non-believers might find too many flaws...

Comment by Jeff H on November 4, 2009 at 11:45am

One of Big Bang believers is what was there before the bang. Many refer to it as the "Singularity". It makes some (even Einstein) uncomfortable. What made the big bang go bang?

I have a different therory then conventional Christian wisdom. The period of 24 hours is clearly defined in Scripture for each of the days in Genesis. Jesus touched on it himself. The question is how much work can an All Mighty God accomplish in 24 Hours. I imagine it would look like a time lapse movie, but the scale would be off the charts. None of the laws of physics would be compromised because the scale of influence on all reality would be a 1:1 ratio.

This means instead a ~poof~ creation, God created everything in an assembly type of fashion, and accomplished in each 24 hour period what would have taken billions of years in uncompressed time. The video below is a year in forty seconds. For God it could just as easily be a thousand years in forty seconds, or more. For anyone who discounted God from the equation, it could well seem like billions and billions. Is that deceptive. No, because God said He did it, and if people choose not to believe it, that's on them.

Comment by Andrea Teal Shinn on November 4, 2009 at 12:36pm

Lynn I like your idea, that God picked up where the big bang left off. To me though, it seems, if God existed and created all the laws of the universe and everything in it, then the big bang came from him. My mom used to tell me everything came into existence when God was sick and sneezed particularly hard one time, after that, everything existed. A silly explanation, but none the less, satisfying for a child. Perhaps the scientists are right, the Big Bang happened as they say it did, and the universe came into existence. But what was before the big bang? God?

Comment by James S Saint on November 4, 2009 at 12:37pm

"But here is my question: If God is all-powerful, then why would he not have developed the Earth himself? Why would he leave the most talked about/debated creation to science and not take it on himself? If God is all-knowing than he should have known that the Earth would come to be...it wasn't a surprise."

..and it isn't a surprise.

If you were a microbe in a cake being baked, you might wonder why the Baker would bother to take such an unimaginably long time to accomplish making his cake. Why didn't he just put it together the way he wanted it to start with?

Perhaps God IS baking his cake to perfection and your life span is just so incredibly minuscule that He has no need to be concerned with what you think of His methods.

Comment by Phi 214 Lynn Honegger on November 5, 2009 at 3:27pm

There had to be something before any bang or the particles would not have existed that created the universe. My belief is that God created the particles and arranged everything that has happened since. To believe God is all powerful and then question how he chose to create is denying, after all, that He is all powerful.

I like the sneeze idea for explaining to children. I used to tell mine that thunder crashing was the angels making a strike in a bowling game.

Comment by brichie71 Student PHI-214 on November 6, 2009 at 11:16am

Perhaps God IS baking his cake to perfection and your life span is just so incredibly minuscule that He has no need to be concerned with what you think of His methods.

Interesting comment, if God has no concern for what one thinks of His methods, why does the debate go on at all. Is it human need for explanation to prove themselves right and others wrong because of our ability to rationalize?

Comment by Laili Dalloul on November 7, 2009 at 11:01am

Lynn, it makes sense that they work together. I have always thought about it as that God created all the material necessary for the big bang to occur. I do think that science and religion play off each other. What science cant explain religion can, and what relgion cant explain science can.

Comment by Erin Ray on November 7, 2009 at 9:53pm

Hi db,

I guess the color of the Big Bang echo would not be a color because it does not fall within the visable on the electromagnetic spectrum. I also guess there are many colored holes in the cosmic rainbow.

Thanks!

Comment by James S Saint on November 7, 2009 at 10:57pm

"Interesting comment, if God has no concern for what one thinks of His methods, why does the debate go on at all."

God preserves those who attend to true need. Those who do not, endlessly arguing, are merely used as "baking powder"/"yeast".

]:o)

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