Genesis 1 and Modern Science 13.8 billion year Universe

[Spyridon]

note Ga - Giga-Annum - (a) billion years [ago]
Ma - Mega-Annum - (a) million years [ago]
Ka - Kilo-Annum - (a) thousand year [ago]

This is something I authored a while ago showing how we can reconcile Genesis 1 with modern science. I know Scripture isn’t a science textbook, but I think this is useful eisegesis.

The Universe exploded into existence when the Big Bang event occurred, which science tells us happened about ~13.8 Ga.
Our Solar System / Sun formed about ~4.57 Ga.
The Earth formed about ~4.54 Ga
The Moon forms about ~4.53 Ga
Early life / single cell organisms appear to have origins going back about ~4 Ga
Early atmosphere evolves and the ozone layer develops (~2 – 1 Ga)
Multicellular complex life dates back to about ~1 Ga
Plant and animal life exploded into existence during the Cambrian explosion period, ~550 to 500 Ma
Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve (anatomically modern Homo sapiens) appeared ~150 ka
Modern human civilization sprung up in the Fertile Crescent around 7,000 B.C.

 

[Spyridon]

On the first creation day, day One, God created the heavens and the Earth, Light comes into existence and is deemed good, as well as darkness which is not deemed good or bad, it is simply a part of the Creation. (The Universe and the Solar System and our Earth and Moon, 13.8, 4.57, 4.54, 4.53 Ga respectively)

Day two – the Earth is evolving, the atmosphere and seas (the firmament and waters above and below) are forming and they’re being prepared to spring forth Life (4.54 – ~3.8 Ga)

 

[Spyridon]

Day three – the Earth is continuing her journey and her mission to spring forth Life, the continents are forming and early multicellular life begins to appear on the Earth (~3.8 Ga – 550 Ma)

Day four – the Sun and the Moon and the Stars are now being seen by the multicellular organisms developing on earth, the atmosphere and ozone layer are becoming what they are today and Life becomes complex to the point where eyes develop that are able to sense the Sun, Moon and Stars through the earth’s atmosphere (~2 Ga – 490 Ma)

Day five – Life abounds in the waters and gradually spreads across the waters, the land and the air. The Cambrian explosion occurs. This is really when we can say Life began as we think of it, prior to this the “life” that existed was very alien to what we think of when we hear the word life. (~575 Ga – 100 Ma).

This fifth day is also the day God creates the “great sea creatures-monsters-whales-serpents-dragons”. In the Hebrew of Genesis 1:21 it reads “Elohim ath e-thanniyn e-gadlowim”. “Tanniyn, H8577, means dragons, serpents, land or sea beasts, etc.” and “gadowl, H1419, means mighty, great, loud, etc”. These mighty, great and loud land sea serpents / beasts were called in Greek zoon herpeton, living reptiles, ketos megas, massive fish. Gadowl tanniyn in Hebrew or megas zoon herpeton could easily be considered synonymous with deinos sauros, or dinosaur. So when folks ask “where are dinosaurs in the Bible?”, or more specifically, where are dinosaurs in the creation account? You can say “they are right there mentioned by God in the 21st verse of that 1st chapter of the 1st book of Sacred Scripture.”

Day 6 – Life continues to abound and become more complex, eventually springing forth all sorts of animals, which provide the basis for the physical body of Man, who evolves physically from the early Hominids to more advanced hominid species all the way down to the appearance of fully modern (anatomically speaking, not philosophically or theologically) Homo Sapiens with the appearance of Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve coming on the scene simultaneously around ~150 ka (and there is much scientific debate about these, with a window of time anywhere between 200 ka at the earliest to 90 ka at the latest, but it’s safe to say they both appeared in the same period of time approximately 150 ka).

Later on during the sixth creation Day, Jesus creates Man in his own image, this Man being Adam who (I believe) was created around 7,000 B.C. 7,000 B.C. happens to be when civilization really began to boom in the region located around the Tigris and Euphrates in the center, and with the Tigris-Euphrates (Mesopotamia) being the epicenter, the Cradle of Life stretches from the heart (the Tigris-Euphrates) in the center, to the Nile in the West (which I believe is the Gihon), and the Indus in the East (which I believe is the Pison).

I think it’s quite the coincidence that modern archaeology has confirmed that civilization began in the area between the Nile and the Indus, and really flourished around the Tigris and Euphrates in the 8th millennium B.C.

 

[Spyridon]

Day 7 – God rested and continues to rest from 7,000 B.C. and the creation of Adam and Eve and civilization and religiously modern humans (homo religiosus) to today, the 31st day of January, Anno Domini 2016.

Day 8 – the 8th day is the Eternal Day, the Day we enter into upon either our bodily death, or the Day that comes when the Lord Jesus comes riding on the clouds with myriads upon myriads of His Holy Ones,
Amen.

For more information synthesizing the Time found in Genesis compared to the time scales revealed by mankind, see Gerald Schroeder’s work. He is an MIT educated physicist who holds a PhD and is a highly intelligent man, who happens also to be an Orthodox Jew and has done incredible work in defending the Truth of the Most High God. The Age of the Universe | Gerald Schroeder

 

[Genesis315]

With regard to the Big Bang and an old universe, I always liked this possible explanation put forth by St. Augustine. In Book 6 of “The Literal Meaning of Genesis” on the creation of man, he explains the idea that the six days represent not literal days, but a scheme or plan of creation. The actual creation during those “days” was instantaneous and of things in potency and causation, but not necessarily their final visible form which would be shaped later over time. For example, he places the actual formation of man’s body after the seventh day:

St. Augustine

There can be no doubt, then, that the work whereby man was formed from the slime of the earth and a wife fashioned for him from his side belongs not to that creation by which all thing were made together, after completing which, God rested, but to that work of God which takes place with the unfolding of the ages as He works even now.

I find this explanation especially compelling because it explains why there are two separate creation accounts of man. It also is compatible with the Big Bang (creation in an instant of all in potency, but not final form) and a long evolutionary time frame (the shaping of everything after the creation).