In the Beginning....

That has nothing to do with the conversation at hand. Google "starlight problem".

 

Has everything to do with it. Scientists (generally speaking) have long abandoned the quest for what is true and seek now to prove their own hypothesis about the origins of the Earth and Man while denying that God exists or had anything to do with it. Any "science" that does that is a false science and begins with a false premise.

I'd rather just trust the plain statements of God in the Bible. He didn't need 40 billion years (or put in your own number here) to create the earth or mankind. He can create a new life in a millisecond. His Son changed so many lives and did so many amazing things in His short 33 year life that the Apostle John supposed "that the world could not contain the books that could be written." (John 21:25)

The "old earth" teaching is nothing more than an attempt to reconcile the Bible to "Science" when we should rather reconcile "Science" to the Bible.

 

This is exactly what fundamentalists Moslems decided centuries ago ... and remember they accept Genesis. We see how this has led to stagnation in the sciences, including medicine, in Islamic countries.

Read the book, "Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes" By Mir Tamim Ansary

Mr. Ansary, a Moslem, makes this point very clearly in his book. Also he gives much credit to the Protestant Reformation as a key to the development of the West over the Mid-East.

Science should not be reconciled with the Bible and the Bible should not be reconciled with science.

Science attempts to explain how God did the things he did.

The Bible explains why God did what he did.

One should never be used as a ruler of the other. They are answering different questions.

 

Science is the study of God's creation.
Theology is the study of God's revelation.

God's creation and God's written word both require study and interpretation,
And these interpretations should to be reconciled. [your word].

We "old earth" creationists desire to reconcile our interpretations in both fields of study.

"Young earth" creationists also seek to reconcile the same interpretations with their "Creation Science" and Flood Geology".

Rob

 

There's good theology and bad theology and there's good science and bad science.

Now here's the kicker- what makes the difference?

 

Your question would be an interesting topic in another thread.

There are probably a number of answers, but one, IMHO, is that one not try to improperly impose itself on the other; i.e. theology not attempt to explain how God worked and science not attempt to explain why God worked.

The Bible is God's revelation of why ...

Science is an attempt to explain how ...

Deacon made an excellent point.

 

Exactly! :thumbsup: (Edit- maybe not "exactly" what I am thinking but close. I'm still mulling...)

 

In the new heaven and new earth thats coming----there will be no sun---yet time will be measured by day!! Imagine that---living in eternity but still measuring time!!!

 

Baloney. While I am certainly no expert, I have been into astronomy my whole life. I own a very nice telescope now. The big bang is a theory with many problems that it cannot explain. It is not a proven fact, it is a THEORY.

Back in the 80's Christian physicist Barry Setterfield presented evidence that speed of light has slowed down tremendously in just the last few thousand years. There were actually many astronomers and physicists who argued this before him. At first there was great skepticism, but since that time many secular astronomers and physicists have submitted evidence for this. It is becoming more accepted in the field every day.

Just a few thousand years ago, light was billions (yes, billions) of times faster than today. Light could arrive from the most distant parts of the universe almost instantly. This theory actually explains many of the problems that the big bang theory could never solve. There are many articles on this if you care to study it.

So, spend some time studying, you might be surprised at the new evidence for a young universe. And much of this evidence comes from secular scientists, not just creationists.

 

Here is one huge problem with the big bang theory. It suggests that out of an explosion came order. Find me one explosion, just one, from which order was the result. What comes from an explosion is not order but chaos.

 

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I appreciate your thoughtfulness of my weakness.

 

The Big Bang Theory does not actually contradict the scriptures. It is quite different from the scriptures but also very similar. The Bible does say that God spread out the universe.

Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Many secular scientists objected to the Big Bang Theory when it was first proposed, because it was too similar to what the scriptures said.

So, the Big Bang Theory does not contradict the scriptures in some ways. However, saying it took billions of years does contradict the scriptures. But new evidence strongly suggests the universe was spread out very quickly, and could have happened only a few thousand years ago.