Big Bang vs. Six-Day Creation Theory

Big Bang vs. Six-Day Creation Theory

Man knows that the universe exists; however, his curiosity has not allowed him to dwell on this knowledge alone. Throughout his brief history on this planet, man has struggled to understand his "place in this universe, and furthermore, the place of the universe itself" (LaRocco & Rothstein, n.d.). For ages, he has attempted to find answers on the age of the universe, as well as on the origins of matter and the greater universe. In his quest, man has moved from the mystical beginnings of earth's origin to the development of scientific theories, some of which have only made the subject more complex and intriguing. Man's continued interest in the subject has led to the emergence of two cadres of creationists - the young earth creationists, who posit that earth was created by a supernatural being, over a span of six days, thousands of years ago; and the old earth creationists, who hold that the universe resulted from a great chaotic explosion that occurred millions of years ago.

Old-Earth View: The Big Bang

More than five billion years ago, a chaotic explosion referred to as the Big Bang hit the 10-20 billion-year embryonic universe, causing matter and space within it to begin expanding (LaRocco & Rothstein, n.d.). The Big Bang was, however, not like any other explosion; it was more of an explosion of space that caused the particles of matter, all of which were originally clamped together into a tiny ball, to rush away from each other (LaRocco & Rothstein, n.d). The planets and galaxies were separated from each other, and thanks to the continuing expansion of the universe, continue to move farther away from each other in the Red Shift phenomenon (LaRocco & Rothstein, n.d). The forces were so strong that some of the matter underwent thermonuclear reactions to form the sun; and others coalesced into the planets.

The Young-Earth View: Six-Day Creation

The young earth view derives from the description of the early universe in the Holy books. To this end, earth, and everything in it, was created in six consecutive 24-hour days, which basically translate to 144 hours (Dean, 2003). When the proper provisions for the OT genealogies are made, the earth can rightly be said to have come into existence between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago (Dean, 2003). Young earth creationists posit that the universe existed right from the beginning, although it was formless and empty (Dean, 2003). Over the first three days of creation, the creator focused on producing form by making separations between land and plants; sky and sea; and night and day (Dean, 2003). He then spent the last three days filling these forms, creating plant-eating animals for the land, fish for the sea, birds for the sky, moon for night, and sun for day (Dean, 2003).

Compare and Contrast

Old-earth and young-earth creationists seem to agree on several points, the most significant of which have been discussed in the next subsection.

Creation ex-nihilo: both sides believe that, a finite time ago, a supernatural being created the universe out of nothing, and produced all animals, as well as humans as genetically distinct forms of life (Landgraf, 2011). Both accounts posit that God created every kind of life as a brand new object, and did not rely on tinkering with older forms to make new forms (theistic evolution).

Opposition to Naturalism: both accounts are opposed to naturalism, and view it as a presupposition to the concept of evolution. Both sides observe that the whole concept of evolution would, in the absence of a naturalistic bias, lose its credibility (Landgraf, 2011).

Opposition to Macroevolution: both accounts reject the theory of common ancestry, denying that all kinds of life resulted from totally different natural processes, and were not aided by any supernatural actions (Landgraf, 2011; Taylor, 2008). To this end, both accounts blatantly reject the idea that all forms of life are connected to a common ancestry like a tree is connected to a common root and trunk; and collectively affirm that living things have different ancestries and display high degree of diversity like a forest with thousands of tree species (Landgraf, 2011). Both accounts, however, support the concept of microevolution, and use it to explain the minor changes between the different forms of life (Landgraf, 2011; Taylor, 2008).

The Historicity of the Genesis Account: both old earth and young earth creationists are evangelical, and believe that the human race descended from Adam and Eve (Taylor, 2008).

However, the two accounts differ on two major issues; the age of the earth, and the time of Adam an Eve's creation (Landgraf, 2011).

Time of Adam and Eve's Creation: the young earth account holds that Adam and Eve were created no later than 10,000 years ago; the old earth account, on the other hand, places its creation somewhere between 30,000 and 70,000 years ago (Landgraf, 2011).