The Six Days of Genesis

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    THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION

    Biblical Wisdom and Scientific Understanding Reunited

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    Presentation created by Sarah Salviander, Ph.D., 2013 SixDay Science, LLC

    Inspired by The Science of Godby Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D.

    This presentation may not be copied, in whole or in part, without written

    permission by SixDay Science, LLC.

    Image and photo credits appear at the end.

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    This is astronomer Edwin

    Hubble. In 1929 he announced

    one of the most astonishing

    discoveries in the history of

    humankindthat the universe

    is expanding.

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    You may have already heard his name

    the Hubble Space Telescope is named

    after him.

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    Hubble observed that galaxies

    everywhere appear to be rushing

    away from one another.

    The further away a galaxy

    is, the faster it appears to

    be rushing away.

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    An E X P A N D I N G universe suggests thateverything must have been closer together in the past.

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    The further we go back in time, the closer everythingwas, until we arrive at a beginning when everything in

    the universe was condensed into atinypoint.

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    This tiny point suddenly expanded, kind

    of like an explosion, sending energyandlater, mattercareening in all directions.

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    We are still experiencing that expansion.

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    But what caused the expansion?

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    Georges Lematre, a Jesuit

    priest and physicist,

    formulated a theory hecalled the primeval atom

    a few years before Hubbles

    discovery. Lematre liked

    the idea because it was

    consistent with Genesis.

    The primeval atom was a

    precursor to the modern

    theory of the big bang. For

    that reason, Lematre is

    referred to as the father of

    the big bang.

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    By the way

    ... the term big bang

    was coined by English

    astrophysicist, FredHoyle, who believed in

    an eternal steady-state

    universe. He didnt like

    the big bang theory, but

    the name caught on withphysicists and the public.

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    Lematre predicted that if the universe was born in a

    cataclysmic event like a big bang, there should beleftover radiationan energy echoof the primeval

    fireball, travelling through the universe today.

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    That echo was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and RobertWilson of Bell Labs, who later received the Nobel Prize for their

    discovery. This radiation is called the cosmic background

    radiation or cosmic microwave background.

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    Lematre learned of itsdiscovery shortly before

    his death in 1966.

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    This is an image of the cosmic

    background radiation taken

    with the WMAP satellite. This

    is what the sky looks like in

    microwave light.

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    You can watch the big bang on your television set. If

    you disconnect from cable or satellite reception and

    tune to a channel with no station, you will see static

    or snow on the screen. About 1% of the static is the

    cosmic background radiation.

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    Why should you care about any of this?

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    The big bang has been hailed as the

    greatest scientific discovery of all time.

    The scientific, philosophical, and religious

    implications of a universe with a definite

    beginning in time are enormous.

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    Prior to Hubbles discovery, scientists mostly agreedwith Hoyle that the universe was eternalno

    beginning, no end, no need for God. So, Genesis was

    in conflict with mainstream science (and philosophy)

    for about two thousand years .

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    Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.

    Mainstream science reached its currentunderstanding of the beginning of our

    universe about 3,000 years after the Bible

    first described it.

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    Big bang theory changed all of this. A

    universe with a beginning is consistent

    with the Genesis account of the creation

    of the universe:

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    However, other serious conflicts between scripture and

    science seem to remain:

    1. The Bible claims the universe and all life on Earth was

    created and developed in six days, followed by about

    6,000 years since Adam. Science provides evidence that

    the universe is billions of years old.

    2. The Bible has plants growing on Earth before the Sun

    appears.

    3. The Bible says Adam was the first human, but science has

    evidence of humans living long before Adam appeared

    6,000 years ago.

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    Is this proof that the Bible is still hopelessly at odds with science?

    The answer may surprise you.

    ?

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    The truth is, there is no conflict between science

    and scripture. As was the case with the big bang,

    it is just taking a long time for science to catch up

    with the wisdom of the Bible.

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    Lets start with Problem 1.

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    Science, however, puts the age of

    the Universe somewhere between

    11 and 17 billion years.

    The Bible claims the universe was

    created and developed in six days,

    and a careful reckoning of the

    biblical calendar indicates that

    approximately 6,000 years have

    passed since the creation of Adam.

    They cant both be right. Can they?

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    The key to resolving this apparent

    conflict is Psalm 90:4

    For a thousand years in your sight are as

    a day that passes, like a watch in the

    night.

    This is our first hint that time described

    in Genesis may not be the same time as

    we know it today.

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    The Bible distinguishes the six days of creationfrom the

    biblical calendar, which starts, not with Day One, but withthe creation of the human soul at the end of Day Six.

    Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image

    The first six days are not included in the biblical calendar.

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    Why?

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    The Bible hints that the first six days arenot the same as the days that follow for

    the next 6,000 years.

    For each of the first six days, we are told

    that events occur and that a day has

    passed; there is no special connection

    between the events and the passage of

    time.

    That changes completely with the

    creation of Adam, after which the passage

    of time is tied directly to earthly events.

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    The flow of time for the first six days is special. But in what way?

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    The ancient biblical scholar

    Nahmanides said that the six days

    of creation contain all the secretsand ages of the universe.

    How can six days contain all the

    secrets and ages of the universe?

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    The answer is that the Bible was

    speaking of relativity long before

    physicists discovered it.

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    Weve all heard the phrase time is

    relative, but what does it mean?

    It means that the flow of time isnt

    constant, and its not the same for

    everyone.

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    Depending on your velocity or howmuch gravity youre experiencing,

    your flow of time will differ from

    that of a person traveling at a

    different velocity or experiencing

    different gravity.

    But the difference in the flow of

    time is only noticeable when

    compared from one frame of

    reference to another. Thats why

    its called relativity.

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    Let's relate this to Genesis.

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    Genesis 2:4: These are the generations

    of the heavens and the earth when they

    were created in the day that the Eternal

    God made earth and heavens.

    Genesis 5:1: This is the book of the

    generations of Adam in the day that

    God created Adam.

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    Genesis 2:4: These are the generations

    of the heavens and the earth when they

    were created in the day that the Eternal

    God made earth and heavens.

    Genesis 5:1: This is the book of the

    generations of Adam in the day that

    God created Adam.

    The Bible speaks of entire generations

    in one day. Sounds a lot like relativity.

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    But, what is a day according to Genesis?

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    109At this point, it may be tempting to resolve the

    confusion by saying that a day in Genesis is

    metaphorical. Perhaps each day is actually an

    epoch, encompassing billions of years.

    But there is no biblical basis for that assumption.

    In fact, the ancient biblical commentators were

    careful to point out that each creation day was 24

    hours long. Thats an actual day, defined by the

    length of time the Earth takes to make onecomplete rotation on its axis. No help there.

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    Even more confusing, on the first day of Genesis, there was no earth.

    Genesis 1:2: And the earth was without form and void

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    Perhaps we're asking the wrong

    question.

    We should be asking, A day

    according to whom?

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    To answer that question, lets return to what

    modern physics has to say about the nature of

    time.

    We now know that time is not absolute. Recallthat Einstein demonstrated how differences in

    velocity and gravity create differences in the flow

    of time. People are generally not aware of this,

    because huge differences in velocity and gravity

    are needed to produce a noticeable difference in

    the flow of time.

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    According to relativity, the duration

    between ticks of a clock will be

    L O N G E R in higher

    velocity conditions compared to a

    lower velocitycircumstance. The

    same is true of places with higher

    gravity compared to lower gravity.

    So, the passage of time will be

    slower in the high velocity orhigh gravity location when it is

    observed in relation to the low

    gravity or velocity location.

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    This results in a stretching of time called

    time dilation, and though it may soundlike science fiction, it is a very real effect.

    High-precision clocks on fast aircraft

    show a very slight but measurable

    slowing in time compared to identical

    clocks on the ground.

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    Gravity also stretches the

    flow of time. For instance,

    time flows just a tiny bit

    slower on the surface of theearth, where gravity is

    stronger, compared to high

    orbit, where gravity is a little

    weaker.

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    Einstein described

    gravitational effects

    on time in his

    General Theory of

    Relativity.

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    Though the effect is small due to Earths

    modest gravitational field, gravitational

    time dilation is not a negligible effect. If

    scientists and engineers failed to account

    for it, GPS systems would not work.

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    Even extremely smalldifferences in gravity, such

    as that between the top and

    bottom of a tall building, will

    cause a difference in the

    flow of time.

    Time will flow a tiny bit

    faster at the top than at the

    bottom. The difference is

    extremelysmall, but it is

    real.

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    The effect is more noticeable in

    more extreme gravitational

    scenarios. If you were in close orbit

    around a black hole, time would bestretched even more by the extreme

    gravity near the black hole.

    While you measure 24 hours passingon your spaceship clock, scientists on

    earth might observe 30 hours passing

    on their earth-clocks.

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    As strange is it sounds, Einstein's

    theory of relativity tells us that the

    flow of time is never the same for

    any two places in the universe.

    Everything in the universe that has gravity

    and velocity has its own time zone. It's like

    having countless cosmic time zones, excepttime in each zoneflows differently.

    So, when scientists say that the universe is

    13.7 billion years old, that number is only validfrom the Earths perspective. Anywhere else in

    the universe, the age would be measured as a

    different value.

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    In light of this, can we calculate the flow of time

    in a way that includes the whole universe?

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    It turns out that we can do it byusing light as a cosmic clock.

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    Light is electromagnetic radiation, and it exhibits both

    particle and wave behavior. Light always travels at the

    same speed in a vacuum (670 million mph), but its

    energy can change. The energy of light depends on

    the frequency of the light wave. The wave aspectthe frequencyis what allows us to measure time

    over cosmic distances.

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    Wavelength is the distance from crest to

    crest or trough to trough.

    Frequency is the number of crests or

    troughs that pass a given point per second.

    Waves 101

    wavelength

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    Waves 101

    This wave has a shortwavelength and a

    high frequency

    compared to this

    wave, which has along wavelength and

    a low frequency.

    Wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional, which means

    when one gets smaller, the other gets larger. This is because their

    product must always be equal to the speed of light:

    wavelength frequency = speed of light

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    We can use the frequency of the

    light wave to calculate the passageof time. The frequency of light is the

    beat of our cosmic clock.

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    We use the frequency of the light wave

    to calculate the passage of time. The

    frequency of light is the beat of the

    cosmic clock:

    tick..tick..tick..tick..tick..tick..tick..tick..

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    Every time a wave crest passes

    this point, the clock beats once.

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    The greater the wavelength, the lower

    the frequency and the more slowly theclock will tick:

    tick......tick......tick......tick......tick......

    Every time a wave crest passes

    this point, the clock beats once.

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    Lets put all this together withGenesis.

    Humans dont appear until

    Day Six, so its God alone who

    is observing the events duringthe first six days.

    God is the observer measuring

    the ticks on the Genesis clock

    He created, and for whom a

    day is 24 hours.

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    How do we know each day is literally

    24 hours from Gods perspective?

    We dont know this with certainty,but two of the great ancient biblical

    scholars, Rashi and Nahmanides,

    make this claim, so we will proceed

    with this assumption.

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    God, as the creator of the universe, must

    have a perspective that encompasses the

    entire universe, so we need some physical

    way to consider the universe as a whole.

    This will form the basis of the Genesis clock.

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    We have two requirements for the Genesis clock:

    1. It starts ticking on Day One, when the universe is

    created, and stops ticking at the end of Day Six,

    when humans first appear.

    2. It must relate the passage of time between different

    moments in the universe as it developed after the

    big bang.

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    Just after the big bang, the universe was

    hot, dense, and very compact. Energy and

    matter were distributed very evenly, with

    only a tiny bit of lumpiness, so the flow of

    time was nearly the same throughout.

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    As the universe expanded, however, those

    tiny bits of lumpiness were amplified into

    regions with concentrated matter andvastly different gravitiesand, therefore,

    different flows of time. So our Genesis

    clock cant be tied to any one place in the

    universe.

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    Since regions of the universe differ in theirgravitiesand, therefore, flow of timewe

    cant use anything thats in just one place in

    the universe for our Genesis clock.

    What we need for our Genesis clock is someaspect of the universe thats uniform.

    Does such a thing exist?

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    Yes. Weve already encountered it: the

    radiation remnant of the big bang in the

    form of the cosmic background radiation.Its also called the cosmic microwave

    background (CMB). Recall that this was the

    predicted energy echo of the big bang.

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    The CMB has been around since the beginning,

    and it is uniformly everywhere in the universe.

    How uniform? Though the contrast is turned up

    very high in this image, the WMAP satellite has

    measured the CMB to be the same intensity in

    every direction in the sky to one part in 100,000.

    Thats perfect for our purpose.

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    This is an all-sky view of the CMB as measured by WMAP. The

    yellow and red spots correspond to regions of higher intensity

    while the darker spots correspond to regions of lower intensity.

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    As the only source of light that has existed since the big bang,

    we will use the CMB as the basis of the Genesis clock.

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    Keep this in mind:

    1. The frequency of light is the beat of any

    cosmic clock.

    2. The frequency of light can changeit can

    increase or decrease.

    3. This means the flow of time measured by a

    cosmic clock can speed up or slow down

    including the Genesis clock.

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    Three things affect the frequency of light, and therefore

    our measure of the flow of time. Two weve already

    discussed: velocity and gravity.

    The third is the s tre tc h I n - g of space

    as the universe expands.

    For the Genesis clock it is only the stretching of space

    that is important.

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    Recall Hubbles discovery

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    the universe is stretching.

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    Space, not matter, is what stretches as

    the universe expands.

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    The stretching of space stretches the light waves

    traveling through it. When light waves are stretched,

    their frequency decreases.

    A decrease in the frequency of light

    means a slowing of the perceived passage

    of time as measured by a cosmic clock.

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    Let's test this idea by applying it to very distant

    sources of light.

    Astrophysicists routinely observe distant

    supernovaeexploding starsthat occurredwhen the universe was much younger.

    Because supernovae are extremely bright, they

    can be observed at great distances, even billions

    of light-years away.

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    Let's say an astrophysicist observes a

    th t d h th i

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    supernova that occurred when the universe

    was half its present age. If we assume the

    universe expands at a roughly constant rate,

    the universe has doubled in scale since the

    supernova occurred.

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    Let's say an astrophysicist observes a

    supernova that occurred when the universe

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    supernova that occurred when the universe

    was half its present age. If we assume the

    universe expands at a roughly constant rate,

    the universe has doubled in scale since the

    supernova occurred.

    With this stretching of

    space, we expect the

    frequency of light from the

    supernova to be halved bythe time it reaches us.

    Thus, the astrophysicist

    should perceive that the

    flow of time today is half

    compared to the flow of

    time when the supernovaoccurred.

    Is this what is actually

    observed?

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    Yes, astrophysicists have

    observed the predicted time

    dilation effect from the

    stretching of space.

    Supernovae at great

    distances appear to take

    twice as long to fade as

    similar supernovae that

    explode relatively nearby.

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    So what does the stretching

    of space mean for our

    cosmic clock?

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    At the instant the big bang

    occurred, the entire

    universe was packed into

    a tiny speck of space.

    That tiny speck suddenly

    expanded in anenormous burst of

    energy. The stretching of

    space as the universe

    expanded stretched the

    energy left over (the energy

    echo) from the big bang.

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    The light waves traveling through space

    since the big bang (the CMB) have been

    stretched by the same amount that the

    universe has stretched since the beginning.

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    The light waves traveling through space

    since the big bang (the CMB) have been

    stretched by the same amount that the

    universe has stretched since the beginning.

    Time has been stretched by the same amount that spacehas been stretched.

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    C id h t h d ti

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    Consider what happened every time

    the universe doubled in scale...

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    C id h t h d ti

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    Consider what happened every time

    the universe doubled in scale...

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    the distance between waves crests of

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    lightand hence the duration between

    the ticks of the Genesis clockalso

    doubled.

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    Every time the universe doubled in scale,

    time passed at half its initial rate.

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    Every time the universe quadrupled in scale,

    time passed at one-quarter its initial rate.

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    According to this Genesis clock, when the

    universe increased in scale by a million, time

    was passing at one-millionth its initial rate.

    You get the idea.

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    Were now ready to understand

    how the six days of creation

    contain all the secrets and ages

    of the universe.

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    d h l

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    To do this, lets map Genesis time onto

    time as we perceive it looking back

    from our earthly perspective.

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    But first we must decide when time actually

    began. The quick answer is: with the big bang.

    However, time couldnt have grabbed holduntil matter formed.

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    A peculiar property of time is that it is only

    experienced by things that have mass.

    Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity saysthat any particle that travels at the speed of

    light experiences no time at all. Such

    particles live in an eternal state of now.

    Particles of light (called photons) are

    massless and thus experience no time.

    Particles with mass, on the other hand, can

    never travel at the speed of light, so they

    always experience time.

    Immediately after the big bang, there was

    only energy (light) throughout the universe.

    So it seems scientifically sound to mark the

    beginning of time at the moment when

    matter first appears.

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    Matter was not created directly by the big bang.

    First we had a hot, dense soup of energy. From

    this energy soup, matter formed according to

    Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, which says

    that matter and energy are interchangeable. But

    when the universe was still very young and hot,

    matter could just as easily turn back into energy.

    Once the universe expanded and cooled enough

    for matter to remaina condition physicists refer

    to as quark confinementtime grabbed hold.

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    Quarks are tiny, fundamental particlesthe basic

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    Q y, p

    building blocks of matter. This means that, unlike

    particles such as protons and neutrons, they cant be

    broken down into smaller pieces. Quarks were the first

    particles to be made from the energy of the big bang.

    They comprise, among other things, the protons and

    neutrons that all visible matter is made of.

    proton

    quarks

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    Lets relate this to what the Bible says.

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    Hebrew for in the beginning of. The of isusually left out of English translations of the

    Bible, but its presence is important. So, we

    must ask, in the beginning ofwhat?

    The first word in the Bible is Braisheet

    In the beginning oftime which grabs hold when matter forms.

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    Let's take a closer look at Genesis

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    Let s take a closer look at Genesis

    1:1-2:

    In the beginning [of time] God

    created the heavens and the earth.

    Now the earth was formless and

    empty

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    Nahmanides commented that

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    Nahmanides commented that

    Genesis 1:1-2 means the universe

    was initially filled with the prime

    matter of the heavens and all it

    would contain and the prime

    matter of the earth and all that it

    would contain. Even though

    Nahmanides wrote this statement

    over 700 years ago using nothing

    but his understanding of the Bible,

    it could have come from a modern

    textbook on particle physics.

    Physicists have identified quarks as

    the prime matter or building

    blocks of matter. The Genesis clocktherefore starts ticking at the

    moment that prime matter is

    created, the moment of quark

    confinement.

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    Scientists calculate that space has expanded by a factor of

    almost one trillion since quark confinement. So space has

    been stretched to about 1,000,000,000,000 times its

    original scale since time began.

    That means the frequency of the CMB has been

    stretched by the same amount. Therefore, its

    frequency has decreased by a factor of almost a

    trillion since quark confinement.

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    So, the Genesis clock now ticks

    about a trillion times slowerthan at the beginning of Genesis

    Day One.

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    From our perspective looking

    backward in time from an earthly

    perspective, the age of the

    universe is billions of years old.But, the Bible takes the earthly

    view of time only after the

    creation of Adam on Day Six.

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    Before Adam, the Genesis

    clock was not tied to any oneplace in the universe, but to

    the universe as a whole.

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    What does all this mean for the age of the universe?

    101

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    14 billion years 1,000,000,000,000 six days

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    14 billion years 1,000,000,000,000 six days

    Actually, 14 billion years divided by one trillion equals 5.1 days. The

    Genesis clock should stop ticking with the creation of Adam about

    halfway through Day Six, so it should be about 5.5 days total. The math

    involved in relating universal time to earthly time is more complicated

    than the simple division operation above, because the rate of

    expansion of the universe has not been entirely constant. When

    corrected for acceleration in the rate of expansion, the result works out

    to almost exactly 5.5 days. (There is also some discrepancy that results

    from not knowing the exact age of the universe in Earth years.)

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    That is a rather amazing claim by itself. But our

    ultimate goal is to map cosmic time onto the

    Genesis account of creation. To do this, we first

    need to brush up on some math.

    104

    As the universe expanded after the big bang its scale

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    As the universe expanded after the big bang, its scale

    and the ticks of the Genesis clock were becoming ever

    closer to those of the present time.

    Working from the simpler assumption that the universe

    has expanded at an approximately constant rate, each

    doubling of the scale of the universe took twice as long

    as the one before it.

    Mathematically, this is expressed as an exponential

    relationship:

    A = Ao e-kt

    This is the well-known compound interest formula.

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    Keep in mind that the next slide shows only an approximatemapping of Genesis time onto cosmic time, following the

    simplified assumption that the universe has been expanding

    at a roughly constant rate. It does not take into account the

    acceleration in the expansion rate discovered by cosmologists.

    A more detailed mapping is shown on the slide after the next.

    106

    Let's apply this formula to Genesis and cosmic time.

    Genesis time and Earth time (without acceleration):

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    Genesis

    Day

    Start of Day

    (years B.A.)

    End of Day

    (years B.A.)

    Earth-time

    (years)

    1 15,750,000,000 7,750,000,000 8 billion

    2 7,750,000,000 3,750,000,000 4 billion

    3 3,750,000,000 1,750,000,000 2 billion

    4 1,750,000,000 750,000,000 1 billion

    5 750,000,000 250,000,000 500 million

    6 250,000,000 ~ 6,000 250 million

    B.A. = Before Adam

    Earth-time is the duration of the Genesis Day from

    our earthly perspective

    Genesis time and Earth time (without acceleration):

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    Genesis time and Earth time (including acceleration):

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    Genesis

    Day

    Start of Day

    (years B.A.)

    End of Day

    (years B.A.)

    Earth-time

    (years)

    1 14,070,000,000 6,970,000,000 7.1 billion

    2 6,970,000,000 3,370,000,000 3.6 billion

    3 3,370,000,000 1,570,000,000 1.8 billion

    4 1,570,000,000 680,000,000 890 million

    5 680,000,000 230,000,000 450 million

    6 230,000,000 ~ 6,000 230 million

    B.A. = Before Adam

    Earth-time is the duration of the Genesis Day from

    our earthly perspective

    108

    Genesis time and Earth time (including acceleration):

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    How much agreement is there between

    science and the Bible about what

    happened on each of the Genesis days?

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    Day One: Genesis 1:1-5

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    The Bible says: God creates the

    universe; God separates light from

    dark.

    Science says: The big bang marks the

    creation of the universe; light breaks

    free as neutral atoms form; galaxies

    start to form.

    110

    Day Two: Genesis 1:6-8

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    The Bible says: The heavenly

    firmament forms.

    Science says: The disk of the Milky

    Way galaxy forms; the Sun, a disk

    star, forms.

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    Day Three: Genesis 1:9-13

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    The Bible says: Oceans and dry land

    appear; the first life, plants appear;

    Kabbalah holds that this is only the

    start of plant-life, which develops

    further during the following days.

    Science says: The Earth has cooled

    and liquid water appears 3.8 billion

    years ago followed almost

    immediately by the first forms of life;

    bacteria and photosynthetic algae.

    112

    Day Four: Genesis 1:14-19

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    The Bible says: The Sun, Moon, and

    stars become visible in heavens.

    Science says:Earths atmosphere

    becomes transparent when

    photosynthesis produces an oxygen-

    rich atmosphere. Once Earth's

    atmosphere is transparent, the Sun,

    Moon, and other celestial objects are

    visible from the surface of the earth.

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    This brings us to Problem #2: On Day Four, the

    Bible has plants (which need light) growing on

    Earth before the Sun appears.

    The important word here is appear. The Talmud

    explains that the Sun was created on Day One

    with the other stars in the firmament. It

    provided light to the Earths surface as soon asthe Earth formed.

    But the Sun only became fully visible on Day

    Four along with the Moon and the rest of the

    stars in the sky, when the Earths atmosphere

    became transparent.

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    Day Five: Genesis 1:20-23

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    The Bible says: The first animal life

    swarms abundantly in waters;followed by reptiles and winged

    animals.

    Science says: The first multicellular

    animals suddenly appear, the watersswarm with animal life having the

    basic body plans of all future animals,

    and winged insects appear.

    115

    Day Six: Genesis 1:24-31

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    116

    The Bible says: The appearance of

    land animals; mammals; andhumankind.

    Science says: A massive extinction

    destroys 90% of life. The land isrepopulated by mammals; hominids

    appear, followed by humans.

    We can now address Problem #3: The Bible says Adam

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    We can now address Problem #3: The Bible says Adam

    was the first human, but science has convincing

    evidence for human-like creatures before Adam.

    Contrary to what its critics say, the Bible has no problem with

    the fossil records of early humankind. Day Six is often

    confusing to readers who assume that human and hominid

    are synonymous. The ancient biblical commentators accepted

    the existence of hominids, who were physically identical to

    Adam and his sons but lacked one all-important feature: thehuman soul. These hominids possessed the animal spirit

    (nefesh in Hebrew) but not the human soul (neshama).

    The great biblical commentator, Maimonides, called these

    beings mere animals in human shape and form. *The Guide

    for the Perplexed, Part II: Chapter VII]

    117

    In the original Hebrew language, Genesis 2:7 says

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    In the original Hebrew language, Genesis 2:7 says

    ... and the adam became to a living soul."

    Nahmanides argued that the grammatically superfluousto is an important clue: God chose a pre-existing

    hominid life form and endowed it with a neshama

    Hebrew for communicating spiritto make it fully

    human.

    This implies that humans are distinguished from the

    hominid animals by their ability to communicate

    spiritually with their Creator.

    In other words, it doesnt matter if human bodies are

    biologically related to those of cavemen or apes. The

    human spirit is in Gods image.

    118

    The New Testament confirms

    h f h l

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    1 Corinthians 15:42-49

    So it is written: The first man Adam became *to+ a

    living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The

    spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and

    after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dustof the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was

    the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth;

    and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who

    are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image

    of the earthly man, so let us bear the image of the

    heavenly man.

    this view of the natural

    existing prior to the spiritual:

    119

    None of the preceding scientificallyprovesGods existence.

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    p g y p

    It does, however, show two important things

    1. The atheist claim that science and the Bible are

    at odds is completely false.

    2. Genesis 1 is the greatest scientific document of

    all time.

    Genesis 1 makes at least 26 scientifically testable

    statements about the origins of the universe and the

    emergence of life. All 26 are compatible with modern

    science and in the correct order. This amazing featwas accomplished 2,500 years before the dawn of

    modern science. (See the SixDay Science website for

    a discussion of this.)

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    It has taken many centuries for science to catch up to

    the wisdom of the Bible. Science is still catching up.

    We may not currently understand the basis for

    everything in scripture, but the truth of Genesis

    should support our faith in the written word of God.

    121

    When I consider your heavens,

    the work of your fingers

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    the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars,

    which you have set in place,

    what is man that you are mindful of him,the son of man that you care for him?

    You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

    and crowned him with glory and honor.

    You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

    you put everything under his feet:

    all flocks and herds,and the beasts of the field,

    the birds of the air,

    and the fish of the sea,

    all that swim the paths of the seas.

    O LORD, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

    The Astronomers Psalm (Psalm 8:3-9)

    122

    Image and Photo Credits

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    g

    Slide 1: HST image of the Carina Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and

    The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

    Slide 3: Photo of Edwin Hubble. Credit: the Edwin Hubble Biography at the Western Washington University

    Planetarium.

    Slide 4: Photo of the HST in orbit. Credit: NASA.

    Slide 7: Wikipedia entry for expansion of the universe.

    Slide 9: HST image of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team

    (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: D. Carter (Liverpool John Moores University) and the Coma HST ACS TreasuryTeam

    Slide 11: Photo of Georges Lematre. Credit: the archives of the Catholic University of Leuven.

    Slide 12: Photo of Fred Hoyle. Credit: unknown.

    Slide 14: Photo of Penzias and Wilson with the horn antenna that detected the CBR. Credit: Bell Labs.

    Slide 16: Cosmic microwave background map. Credit: the Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data

    Analysis (LAMBDA). Support for LAMBDA is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science.

    Slide 27: HST image of newly forming stars in galaxy NGC 602. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage

    Team (STScI/AURA) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration.

    Slide 31: Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of star-forming region 30 Doradus. Credit: NASA, ESA, and F.

    Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field

    Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee.

    Slide 32: Photo of Albert Einstein from his Wikipedia entry. Credit: Ferdinand Schmutzer.

    123

    Image and Photo Credits

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    g

    Slide 40: Earthrise photo taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, December 24, 1968.

    Slide 45: The Blue Marble. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stckli (land surface,

    shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation).

    Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere

    Group; MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote

    Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights).

    Slide 63: Computer-simulated image of dark matter clumping by Andrey Kravtsov.

    Slide 74: Supernova remnant in the Pencil Nebula (NGC 2736). Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble HeritageTeam (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: W. Blair (JHU) and D. Malin (David Malin Images)

    Slide 75: Hubble image of the supernova remnant M1 (Crab Nebula). Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll

    (Arizona State University).

    Slide 87: Hubble image of NGC 6302, the Bug Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

    Slide 109: (right) Hubble image of galaxy M74. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-

    ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: R. Chandar (University of Toledo) and J. Miller (University of

    Michigan).Slide 112: (left) Artists conception of the Milky Way galaxy based on telescopic surveys. Illustration Credit: R.

    Hurt (SSC), JPL-Caltech, NASA. Survey Credit: GLIMPSE. (right) Image of the sun courtesy of SOHO/EIT

    consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

    124

    Image and Photo Credits

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    g

    Slide 112: (left) NASA image of the earth and sun. (middle) Image of cyanobacteria bloom captured by the

    Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASAs Terra satellite. Image

    based on data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Instrument:

    Terra - ASTER. (right) Image of green algae by Simon Andrews.

    Slide 113: (right) Hubble image of ancient white dwarf stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Credit for Hubble

    telescope photos: NASA and H. Richer (University of British Columbia).

    Slide 115: (left) Wikipedia entry on multicellular organisms. (middle) Wikipedia entry on captorhinidae (early

    reptiles). (right) Image of Rhyniognatha hirsti from Natural History Museum Nature online.

    Slide 116: (left) Photo of early mammal model from the Wikipedia entry on Megazostrodon. (middle) Image of

    Stone Age: The Feastby Viktor Vasnetsov from the Wikipedia entry on Cro Magnon. (right) Image ofAdam and

    Eve by Jan Gossaert from The National Gallery online.

    Slide 119: Image ofThe Creation of Adam fresco by Michelangelo from its Wikipedia entry.

    Slide 122: Hubble image of the great clouds in the Carina nebula. Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith

    (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Credit for CTIO Image: N.

    Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF.