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Beginning of the Universe	02.06.2009 13:40

This post is about an issue that I've been thinking about lately. Background Current theory holds that the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old. The most popular beginning of universe event theory is dubbed the "Big Bang". At the time of writing, the most distant object detected is Quasar J1030+0524 at 14.5 billion light-years distance from Earth, by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)¹. This means that the light from that quasar took 14.5 billion years to reach us. (I don't know how that would be possible if the universe started only 13.7 billion years ago...)

Big Bang Theory The Big Bang Theory is deduced in particular from observations that, from a holistic viewpoint, galaxies are collectively moving away from each other in the universe more often than towards one another. In other words, the universe is continuously expanding as far as we can see. Big Bang Theory says that the whole universe was once a tiny, infinitely dense pinpoint of energy which exploded and expanded into what we see and experience now. This then begs the question: Where did that dense point of matter/energy come from? Let's hold off on that for the moment.

NASA/WMAP Science Team Genesis Chapter 1 From the first chapter of the first book of the Bible: 16 God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. (Read the chapter leading up to here) Here's a summary of the first chapter of Genesis: Day 1 - Water-covered planet "Earth" created with Day and Night Day 2 - Sky created Day 3 - Land created with plants Day 4 - Sun, moon and stars created Day 5 - Fish and birds created Day 6 - Land animals and mankind created
Big Discrepancy After Adam was created on Day 6, the Bible lists the lineage of him up until Jesus, including their ages, so the number of years since the beginning of creation is summed up as about 6000 years (4000 BC to 2000 AD). When you compare that figure, 6000 years, to the 13.7 billion years of the apparent age of the universe, there is a huge discrepancy. Many may say, "Well, the Bible must be wrong." But, if God can create the universe, surely He can also create a universe that is aged by 13.7 billion years already. When He created Adam, he didn't create him as a fertilized (or unfertilized) embryo, and grow it to an infant, then grow the infant to a man. God created Adam and Eve as adults. In the same manner, God created an "adult" universe, that already contained mature galaxies. What about the time that it takes for the light to travel from the stars to Earth? Well, there is nothing stopping God from created the light rays already streaming and propagated from the stars and galaxies to Earth, that they may be visible on the 4th night.
References: 1. Three Distant Quasars Found at Edge of the Universe - Sloan Digital Sky Survey press release 2. WMAP Spacecraft - Timeline of the Universe 3. SDSS - FIRST LIGHT: ASTRONOMERS USE DISTANT QUASAR TO PROBE COSMIC 'DARK AGE,' UNIVERSE ORIGINS 4. SDSS - Sloan Digital Sky Survey Finds Most Distant Object Ever Observed 5. BBC News - Most Distant Objects Observed
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