The Origin of Heavens and Earth: Science vs The Bible

The origin and evolution of the heavens (Universe) began as a hot, dense point roughly 13.8 billion years ago. This event marked the beginning of the expansion of space, time, and matter. Since then, it has been expanding till what we can see now marks the observable universe.  The observable universe refers to the portion of the entire universe that we can potentially observe from our vantage point here on Earth. It includes all the celestial objects and phenomena that are within our range of detection, such as stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and cosmic microwave background radiation.

As for how far the observable universe extends, it's constantly expanding due to the expansion of the universe itself. The current estimate for the radius of the observable universe is about 46.5 billion light-years. This doesn't mean that the universe is only 46.5 billion years old, but rather, it reflects the distance that light has been able to travel since the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago.

What lies beyond the observable universe, is a question that remains largely unanswered because what lies beyond is now so far away that light has no time to reach us. and hence we cannot see them. In fact, we are seeing light from the distant past from all objects that lie light years away.

The observable universe represents only a tiny fraction of the entire universe, and there could be much more beyond what we can see. One possibility is that the universe extends infinitely beyond the observable universe, meaning there's an infinite amount of space with an infinite number of galaxies and other structures. Another possibility is that the universe is finite but unbounded, meaning it curves back on itself in a way that makes it impossible to perceive its boundaries from within. There are also theories proposing the existence of multiple universes, each with its own set of physical laws and properties, which would lie beyond our observable universe. However, these ideas remain speculative and are areas of active research in cosmology.

The fact that the universe is expanding and stretching away from us is clearly summed up in these two verses in the Bible:

” Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

 It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, who stretched out the heavens as a curtain and spread them out as a tent to dwell in.”

(Isaiah 40:21-23)

Amazingly! How true and clearly predicted and told long, long even before Jesus Christ that only now in the 21^st century science knows and acknowledges.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.

 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

There is no speech or language, where their voice is not heard.

 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.

 His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hidden from the heat thereof.”

(Psalms 19:1-6)

The Bible does not explain in technical details how the Universe began. But God gave us the brains to marvel at the evidence summarized below.  We cannot deny these scientific evidence by giving our own version and unsubstantiated “theories” whether from the church or otherwise.

 We need to respect Science that is evidence-based conducted by collective teams of brilliant hard-working scientists world-wide who gathered observational and experimental data to support their findings, besides admiring and worshiping God, the Creator of all things.

 The concept of creation ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing," is not explicitly stated in a single verse in the Bible. However, there are passages that are often interpreted to imply this concept.

One such passage is Genesis 1:1, which states:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." without giving the details. 

The phrase "heavens and the earth" is often understood to encompass the entire cosmos, suggesting that God created everything from nothing. This interpretation is supported by other verses in the Bible, such as Hebrews 11:3, which says:

"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."

This verse suggests that God created the universe through His word, implying creation ex nihilo.

While the concept of creation ex nihilo is not explicitly stated in a single verse, it is a central tenet of many Christian theological traditions and is inferred from various passages throughout the Bible.

Genesis does not explicitly, and deniably tell us how earth and the heavens were created out of nothing as the Bible is not a science book to write on technical details. The Bible is a book on salvation for mankind.

Being silent on how it was created does not mean the universe came into existence out of nothing. The Bible does not explicitly claim ex nihilo directly.  It must have a beginning out of something. God gave scientists their brains to discover so that we can adore and worship Him.

Here’s what astrophysicists discovered through their evidence-based studies and data collection to come out with their Big Bang theory which is widely accepted among scientists including myself who have studied the mysteries of the Universe at Oxford University at post-doctoral level as the prevailing explanation for the origin and evolution of the universe. Here are some key pieces of evidence and observations in very brief summary form that support the Big Bang theory:

1. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB): The discovery of the CMB in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson provided strong evidence for the Big Bang. This radiation is the remnant heat leftover from the early universe and is observed uniformly in all directions, consistent with the predictions of the Big Bang model.
2. Hubble's Law: Edwin Hubble's observation in the 1920s that galaxies are moving away from us, and that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is receding, supports the expansion of the universe. This expansion is a key prediction of the Big Bang theory.
3. Redshift of Galaxies: The redshift of light from distant galaxies indicates that they are moving away from us. This redshift is consistent with the expansion of the universe and provides additional support for the Big Bang model.
4. Abundance of Light Elements: The Big Bang model predicts the abundance of light elements such as hydrogen, helium, and lithium that were formed in the early universe. The observed abundances of these elements in the universe are consistent with the predictions of the Big Bang theory.
5. Large Scale Structure of the Universe: Observations of the large-scale distribution of galaxies and cosmic structures, such as galaxy clusters and superclusters, are consistent with the gravitational growth of structure predicted by the Big Bang model.
6. Nucleosynthesis: The Big Bang theory successfully predicts the formation of light elements through nucleosynthesis in the early universe. This process is supported by observations of the elemental abundances in the universe.
7. Age of the Universe: Measurements of the age of the oldest stars and the expansion rate of the universe are consistent with the age of the universe predicted by the Big Bang model.
8. Cosmic Inflation: Although not initially part of the original Big Bang theory, the concept of cosmic inflation has been proposed to explain certain features of the universe, such as its large-scale uniformity and flatness. While not directly observed, inflationary models are consistent with various observations, including the CMB.
9. Gravitational Waves: The detection of gravitational waves by experiments like LIGO and VIRGO provides further evidence for the Big Bang, as these waves are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity and are a consequence of certain cosmological events, such as the rapid expansion of the early universe.

These evidence collectively support the Big Bang theory as the most plausible explanation for the origin and evolution of the universe. These evidence however is not exhaustive. There may be newer evidences yet to come to support the Big Bang theory on the Creation of the Universe even though some church believes heavens and earth were created by God out of nothing in seven days too (in the their eyes) against observational studies that put the age of the beginning of the heavens and earth at 13.7 billion years, with an error plus or minus of not more than only 200 million years old.