Science in Religion and Philosophy: Part 2 (Tyler Wren, Section 12)

            From the dawn of time, mankind has pondered the great question “Where did we come from”. From that question has arisen many different origin theories, from the Big Bang Theory, to Christianity, and even Scientology (I don’t understand that one).   

When I hear discussions on religion, I generally try to stay out of the conversation to avoid something that I have no patience for: verbal ignorance. As a Southern state, many individuals stick with their religious beliefs, and to some, give off an air of stubbornness when it comes to accepting new ideas. Similar to what Galileo had to go through (This is not applied to all Southerners, just a stereotype for a general idea of how some people respond to these conversations).

            Despite what I just said, I am someone who does have a belief in God (gasp!). However, I don’t just taken what the scripture has written literally, or even believe in it all. I choose to try to incorporate the numerous scientific concepts that I’ve learned over the past nineteen years of my life to try to deepen my faith. To me, it makes more sense to go ahead understand the world I live in. For instance, the Big Bang Theory. The theory that the universe came from one microscopic point that somehow had all the matter in the universe inside of it.

Here’s a video for a bit more of an explanation.

                                                    

Now to some, the Big Bang Theory is completely ridiculous, which I understand. To others, the entire chapter of Genesis is completely ridiculous. So how can we use science AND religion to try to understand?

Well, not taking everything in the Bible literally is a good start. The way I interpret the text isn’t that God actually created everything in seven days, but rather used the concept of days to put into the concept of millions and millions of years into perspective for early humans. By using this new view of the Seven Days of Creation, we can now begin to find parallels between the Bible and the Big Bang Theory.

Day 1- Light from Darkness, Water, Heaven and Earth	BBT- The Universe is created in the Big Bang, giant explosion capable of creating massive amounts of light
Day 2- The Sky	BBT- The atmosphere of early planets formed millions of years after the explosion, as particles and molecules started to cool down over time. Water created in series of complex reactions.
Day 3- Dry Land	BBT- Extra water formed from the birth of a new planet evaporates, exposing more dry air and forming the atmosphere further.
Day 4- The Stars and the Heavenly Bodies	BBT- Millions of light years away, the light from once living stars is just now reaching us. It’s thought that the stars formed in the early universe way before the planets did, and the light explanation can help us see why stellar creation came after planetary.
Day 5- The Water Life	BBT- Scientifically understood that all land life arose from the ocean.
Day 6- The Earth Life	BBT- Scientifically understood that all land life arose from ocean life.
Day 7- God Rest	BBT- The current times we are living in.