Creation and Cosmology Flashcards
(21 cards)
What does scripture tell us?
The world is categorically dependent on God
Not obvious if the world was created ex vetere or ex nihilo
Genesis 1
First three days, things are given form,
Last three days, things are filled with things
Chiastic structure
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Primarily concerned with cosmology
‘In the beginning (when) God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.’
The ‘when’ is a translation question
Genesis 1:1-3
Creation ex vetere
‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…’
John 1:3
Creation ex nihilo
‘All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.’
Maccabees 7:28
Creation ex nihilo
‘Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.’
Creation Ex Nihilo (5)
Most supported by scripture
‘God saw that it was good’
Repeated six times throughout Genesis 1
Is it good as in well made, beautiful, plentiful, and/or sharing in the characteristics of God?
God as a necessary being, the world is contingent (rooted in Classical philosophy)
Key Einstein text
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (first published 1916)
Cosmology (4)
The science of the origin and development of the universe
A key assumption: there are ‘laws of nature’ that allow us to model what happened in the early universe
Assumes regularity, or in theology, a ‘lawgiver’ - makes laws controversial
Unique as a science because there is only one available object of study – the universe – when usually science is done through normal research
Evolution of the Universe (3)
Working theory is the ‘Big Bang’ theory
Seems strangely close to the theological account
The Big Bang theory demonstrates that our universe has a beginning, but not that the sum total of everything that exists – there could be a multiverse/we are in a cosmic bubble but no one knows if this is true yet – there is evidence either way
1929 (4)
Astronomer Edward Hubble observed that light had shifted towards the red – known as red shift
A form of the Doppler effect
Light is being stretched (red) or squashed (blue)
Hubble noticed that the further away a galaxy was, the closer it was to the red end of the spectrum, implying that galaxies are moving away from us
Initially rejected by Einstein
Friedmann–Lemaître (FL) equations (4)
Mathematical equations that describe how the universe expands or contracts over time
A set of equations in physical cosmology that govern the expansion of space in homogeneous and isotropic models of the universe within the context of general relativity
Homogeneous means the universe looks the same everywhere, on a large scale
Isotropic means the universe looks the same in every direction
Georges Lemaître
Catholic priest, convinced the Pope not to draw theological conclusions from scientific accounts because it means that when the science changes as does theology
Is it possible to disentangle physics, philosophy, and theology?
Science cannot go before the Big Bang – maybe something else can?
Fred Hoyle
English astronomer Fred Hoyle is credited with coining the term ‘Big Bang’ during a talk for a March 1949 BBC Radio broadcast, saying: ‘These theories were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past.’
Disparaging remark
Cosmic Microwave Background
Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1964
Afterglow of the Big Bang
Radiation
Empirical evidence that the Big Bang did occur
The CMB is faint radiation left over from the early universe, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when atoms first formed and light could travel freely
The light released then has been traveling ever since, stretched into microwave wavelengths by the universe’s expansion
It’s almost the same in every direction, with tiny temperature fluctuations that show the seeds of galaxies and large-scale structure
This uniformity matches predictions made by the Big Bang model about the state of the universe when it was about 380,000 years old
Initial Singularity
Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose used General Relativity to show that the universe began with a singularity, approximately 13.8 billion years ago
At a singularity, spacetime collapses in on itself creating a point of no return
Shows that everything in the universe emerged from one singularity
The universe is expanding and cooling
Young Earth Creationism
Belief that the Earth and universe were created by God relatively recently, typically around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago
Based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, especially the Genesis creation account
Rejects much of mainstream science, including evolution and radiometric dating
Argues that geological and fossil evidence can be explained by events like Noah’s Flood
Promoted by groups such as Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research
Terry Mortenson
The order of creation in Genesis 1 contradicts the order of events in the evolution story in at least 30 points’
Old Earth Creationism
A view within creationism that believes the Earth and universe are billions of years old, aligning with scientific evidence, while still affirming God’s role in creation
David Ferguson
‘We can understand the creation narratives as testifying to the origin of the world in the being and act of God. The account of the how of creation can thus sit alongside the account of its why’
