The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang theory tells us how the Universe began and is
evolving. In essence, it is a theory that was created to explain
two facts that we know about the Universe - it is gradually
expanding and cooling. In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble found
that galaxies far from our own Milky Way are moving away
from us. In fact, the further away galaxies are, the faster they
are receding. So he concluded that the whole Universe must
have been expanding. Working backwards this means that at
one stage the Universe must have come from a single
point.
We also know that the Universe is cooler now than in the
past. In the 1960s Arno Panzias and Robert Wilson detected
the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the cosmic
microwave background [or CMB for short], which revealed that the Universe was once a very hot, hostile place. Both
these discoveries led astronomers to deduce that the Universe began as an infinitely compact fireball.
The Big Bang describes how this fireball grew to form all the stars
and planets we see around us now. Because of its name many
people think of the Big Bang as a kind of explosion that happened
at some specific point in space, but this isn't correct, as the
Universe didn't spring from one central ignition point. Instead,
during the Big Bang space was first created and then stretched.
How does this scientific theory Challenge the Christian
account of creation?
Atheists argue that this theory is the best we have to
explain the origins of the universe. This theory states
that the universe ‘just happened’ and that it did not
emerge as a result of the activity of a creator God.
Therefore, the universe is random and not designed!
In Christianity, the creation accounts are found in the first
two chapters of the book of Genesis in the Bible.
According to the book of Genesis, the universe was
created in six days and God rested on the seventh. The
first Human beings to be formed were Adam and Eve and
all humans are descended from them.
The Big Bang theory challenges this biblical account of
creation because scientists argue that the universe was
created from a singular point over 13 billion years ago and
that the process of creation did not take place over a
six day period.
Genesis 2:1-4
‘And so the whole universe was completed. By the seventh day
God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. He
blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because
by that day he had completed his creation and stopped working.
And that is how the universe was created.’