Science Versus Religion… An Old Earth Versus a New Earth, Who’s Right?
Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2008
by Myla Madson
Myla Madson.com
The large majority of my family counseling practice revolves around couples attempting to save their marriages. When I ask them to tell me how old they believe the earth to be, I'm constantly amazed at the variety of answers I receive.
The number one answer is: What does that have to do with our marriage… followed by a myriad of ages ranging from six thousand to fifteen billion years. Very few have ever said they did not know.
When you act as a mediator, it's important to find common ground between conflicting spouses, especially when you base a large part of that mediation around Biblical principles. If one person says we live on a new earth and the other says an old one, I know I have my work cut out for me.
Neither person wants to feel like they are wrong and in my opinion, most people have made their decision on the age of the earth despite very compelling evidence to the contrary. A Christian who believes we live on an earth that is only six thousand years old has to rely heavily on faith and ignore sound scientific and archeological data, and basically say that such data is wrong, or has been fabricated.
Someone who believes we are living on a very old earth has to believe we are here purely by random chance and must ignore the mind numbing complexity and improbability of our existence…much less consider the question, where and how did all this come into being in the first place…to which there currently is no credible "scientific" answer.
When I tell my clients that both views are right, we start heading towards that mutual ground so important to a healthy marriage. If we can solve this most emotional and controversial of subjects, other marital conflicts are put in perspective and more easily overcome.
So, how can both sides of this argument be right? Well, my friend, time is relative to where it is measured from, and most of us self centered folks measure the age of the earth, and more importantly, the age of the universe from the wrong place.
First, it's important to understand that Genesis starts with the creation of the universe, NOT the earth. In fact, during the first two of the six days of Genesis, there was no earth as we know it so we cannot use current earth based time; As Genesis 1:2 clearly states "And the earth was unformed…."
Understanding that the six days of Genesis and the time following Adam are not measured from the same place, allows us to have both a very young, and a very old earth, and here's why…
Einstein, in his theory of relativity, proved the rate at which time passes is not the same at all places. Differences in gravity and velocity at which we travel change the rate at which our time flows…and everything in the universe is in motion.
At the time of the big bang, (also known as quark confinement) the universe was expanding at a much quicker rate than it is today. Science has determined the temperature and hence the frequency of radiation energy in the universe at quark confinement. This article is not intended as a physics lesson but for clarity, radiant energy, or electromagnetic radiation is basically all the forms, both visible and invisible to the human eye, of light rays…the standard cosmic time piece.
Scientist have given us the age of the universe as fifteen billion years old by measuring the current cosmic background radiation as compared to what it was at the time of quark confinement; That radiant energy had a frequency a million, million times greater than today's reading of 3 degrees Kelvin. (Very near absolute zero)
All of this to simply say, the universe was expanding much faster than it is today so, according to Einstein's theory when you apply it to the known parameters, time moved a million, million times faster than it does currently. One day as we think of it now, actually took billions and billions of years to pass when the universe, and the pre Adam earth were in their infancy. You could effectively say that we had a ratio of a million-million-to-one and when multiplied out over six days as we think of them now, those six days actually equal, drum roll please…fifteen billion years! How absolutely perfect is that?
If one minute passed on the cosmic clock at the time of creation, measured from that point, not the earth, it would take a million, million minutes to pass on today's earth from our local perspective. Time is relevant from where it's measured and the first six days were measured not from earth but at varying places in an expanding universe. We have certainly been wrong in the past as to the idea that humans and the earth are the center of the universe around which everythin else revolves so stretch that mind of yours just a little bit.
Theologians have determined the age of the earth by counting the generations since the arrival of Adam, giving us an earth age of six thousand years, but you must remember, Adam did not arrive on the scene until day six. I remember asking a man of the cloth how the earth could only be six thousand years old when archeologist had found million year old dinosaur bones as evidence to a much older earth. He told me that the Devil had put them there to deceive us. Another told me it was God who placed them there to test our faith.
I absolutely could be wrong about this, but I'm afraid it's this type of blind reasoning that gives Christians a bad name sometimes. I know it made me think twice about accepting God into my life, I just could not ignore the scientific evidence piling up like religious "scholars" so easily could. I'm so happy I stumbled onto a theory that actually makes a little more sense and satisfies both sides of the equation...And I know God does not want us to except Him by blind faith alone because the Bible clearly states you must know God with all your heart, soul and MIND.
This article is not implying that God meant anything other than a 24 hour day in which there was a day and a night, but rather explains how that 24 hour period, measured from another place, could give us enough time to explain the inconsistencies science has placed before us.
In no way have I meant to offend anyone but rather my intent was to offer, for debate, a reasonable compromise to a very troubling question for a great many people. In fact, this concept has allowed me to help hundreds of people save their marriages and come closer to God. It sure beats killing people who do not agree with your religious views and I know in my heart, God is probably tired of all the blood shed in His name.
For more insights into the often misunderstood mind of Myla Madson, you can visit her at http://www.MylaMadson.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Hi Myla, I enjoyed this article. In fact, I've enjoyed reading all of your articles. You look at things from a little different perspective than the crowd. On Genesis, either one believes God did, or believes God didn't. The belief is a personal one and from there other things start to make sense. Your article is a reasonable explanation for a topic our human finite minds can't quite grasp; time and how can it be one way when it seems another? Thanks for sharing with us.Thank you for your comments. I'll take your assessment of me as a compliment and I'm so glad you enjoy my articles, I plan on adding many more. lol myla
hi myla, thank you for forcing me to think. very well written, interesting article. it was good information to be exposed to. best regards, sue thomThank you for your comments Susan. I do like to exercise my brain now and again and this topic is a very interesting one to me. I believe everyone should look for commom ground instead of being so stubborn and unwilling to at least look at other perspectives. lol myla
Very informative on a topic that never seems to have a solution.Thank you for your comment Robert! I really wrote this as an example of how two people can try and find compromise in an arguement insted of beating each other over the head with their opinions.
simplest thngto ask is..If god made it all what the heck was he doing before he crated the earth??Twiddeling his thumbs and well just humming ans stuff??When some 1 can answer what was god doing before he crated the earth i will believe in god..because either he came to be in existance at the same time..Or he dosent exist and the truth is we can only ever arrive at the conclusion that something was always created from nothing.. either god was created by nothing.or the entire system was...Also if god made all creation for man.. Why make plabnets billions of miles away which we could never hope to reach no matter how long we live as the planet would be dead by the time we got there..Simple physics show there was a big bang. and that matter and anti matter collided and matter out weighd anty matter so the universe was created..But as was sated in the article.. This still leaves us at the same place.. Something was created from nothing..In my oppinion. religious people believe them selfs to be so importaint that they must have been created by a intelligent design which gives them the right to do as they wiosh to the lesser creatures and plants..Where as atheists or agnostic people, believe that wer are lucky to be here along with everything els and we need to take care because if we messabout then we could end up with a venus or a mars to live on..But given a sun of our size will last aproximatly 10 bilion years before it turns in to a red giant and almost engulfs the earth (wont engulf but will engulf the other 2 closerplanets and mean the earth will be un inhabitable...This gives us a maximum 5 billion yeards left of life onearth.. But religion states that we are inthe final chapter before armagedon.To me relkigion is a feeble atempt at aanswering scientific questions which we can now answer much better than to just say "god did it"This does not mean that the 1st step of creation "the big bang" wasnt created by god..But like i said.. if you can tell me what god was doing before he decided to start the big bang. Then il believe.Untill then i will continue to searth for the correct answers, and not just say. Must be god llets move on..To quote jesus..seek and you shal find.he did not say Stop serching god did it just forget it.
And god said learn to spell, and it was good.
;)
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