The bulk of my graduate research is focused on the work and thought of Max Tegmark, an MIT astrophysicist/cosmologist, who’s responsible for a tremendous contribution to multiverse models. In honor of Charles Darwin’s 204th birthday he did an article for the Huffington Post, “Celebrating Darwin: Religion and Science are Closer Than You Think.” There are some very interesting survey results regarding faith and conflict between evolution and big bang cosmology.
So is there a conflict between science and religion? The religious organizations representing most Americans clearly don’t think so. Interestingly, the science organizations representing most American scientists don’t think so either: For example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science states that science and religion “live together quite comfortably, including in the minds of many scientists.” This shows that the main divide in the U.S. origins debate isn’t between science and religion, but between a small fundamentalist minority and mainstream religious communities who embrace science.
So why is this small fundamentalist minority so influential? How can some politicians and school-board members get reelected even after claiming that our 14 billion-year-old universe might be only about 6,000 years old? That’s like claiming that 90-year-old aunt is only 20 minutes old. It’s tantamount to claiming that if you watch this videoof a supernova explosion in the Centaurus A Galaxy about 10 million light-years away, you’re seeing something that never happened, because light from the explosion needs 10 million years to reach Earth. Why isn’t making such claims political suicide?
February 14, 2013 at 14:30
Max
Have you not heard of White Hole Cosmology or that the bible indicates on numerous occassions the fact that The Lord stretched out the heavens. Imagine creating a nice cake with raisins or blueberries an hour ago yet in moments after yeast and heat and what was once touching is no longer.
In addition there are numerous contraindications of old earth cosmology are really unaware of them all?
Youngearth.org
February 14, 2013 at 15:05
Daniel,
I have heard of white hole cosmology and I don’t think it works at all. So, what are the ‘numerous contradictions’ in big bang cosmology? You can read about a rebuttal to white hole cosmology here: http://sententias.org/2011/03/20/young-earth-cosmology-just-doesnt-cut-it/
February 15, 2013 at 08:45
I am not in any position to debate the validity or interpret Russel’s equations. I will let someone else manage that, however, you are still left in a very awkward position to claim that the Earth was created after the Sun.
The bible clearly states that the Sun, Moon and stars were created on Day Four.
As for known contradictions of standard old earth cosmology, may I refer to the examples on YoungEarth.com…
And then there is Lawrence Krauss
http://kgov.com/lawrence-krauss-debates-a-creationist
How do you reconcile the literal straightforward claim that the Earth was created before the Sun?
How do reconcile the declared genealogical record of the bible to countless generations of an old earth?
It seems to me that it takes a lot of work to synthesize scientific beliefs with biblical ones. Something has to give.
My whole life I have been instructed that evolutionary science is true. Thus requiring old earth cosmology.
I love science and recent findings like Star clusters missing millions of years of collisions or that Galaxy spirals are missing millions of years of deformation seem to be indicators that the universe may not be so old after all.
February 18, 2013 at 10:23
Max
Do you believe that science and the bible are mutually exclusive domains? I assume that you do not. So how do you personally resolve bible or science difficulties.
Was the Sun literally created before or after the Earth?
Science= Sun prior to Earth and Earth prior to Moon.
Bible=Earth prior to Sun and Moon
The same question can be asked regarding genealogies.
What is your foundation of belief based on? If there literally is a conflict, where do you get your initial resolution?
Daniel
February 19, 2013 at 13:10
The bible is a salvation-history before and after it concerns itself with ethnic histories. That’s not a disclaimer; foundations of belief based on the bible do not require you to believe that Adam starts things very much differently than Abram starts things. Whatever came before them, they headed up the genealogies of people in relationship to God. That Cain worried about whoever finding him killing him shows that there were other people around with whom the history of the faithful does not bother itself, and need not, anymore than it should need to be considered ‘incomplete’ for not including the genealogies of the Egyptians or anybody else.
March 26, 2013 at 14:11
What’s most interesting, and overlooked, is the fact that Tegmark seems to be equating science with the concepts of evolution and the Big Bang. This concepts are just a tiny corner of Western sciences. In fact, although it currently is the “standard model” there are many scientists who don’t find the Big Bang idea viable.