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This page is a brief treatise on handling why I teach the Big Bang in astronomy classes while being a professing Christian. I was asked, via email, how I managed 'both' points of view.

I pounded out the article below fairly quickly but I think it hits many good points. If you have more to add or things to take me up on, please email me at ensworth@ou.edu

I cannot believe that we are reading and answering questions about ideas that cannot be proven and do not match the Word of God. God Creating the universe explains this in such a better way. Is there not a textbook that gives explanations with the aid of God's Word? I am surprised.

I was wondering, you teach the Big Bang theory in class, (curriculum dictates, I'm sure) but you do you really believe in the theory? I jumped on your website looking for your insight into the theory and I scanned over your "Why Christian?" section. It made me wonder about your personal take on the Big Bang...

To answer your question simply, yes I do. Now to answer your question in great detail...read on...

Let me give you the reasons in a number of points. I'll try to write this with some good flow, but it won't be a complete essay. <grin> (I'll pound this out into a clear concise essay soon, but time is short with life things.)

Secular Reason 1: When I teach an astronomy class, it is an astronomy class. Astronomy, as is science itself, built on a secular - Godless basis. Stay with me on this though. There is an assumption that is critical to all scientific investigation because cause and effect must be reliable and predictable. If there is a God above and beyond the laws of physics, then He can do what ever He wants when He wants. Therefore nothing is provable. You can't make cause and effect statements if God can step in whenever He wants.

Secular Reason 2: As an astronomy class, you get an opportunity to see what the current science is. The current science (with the above basis) is the best that people have come up with based on the observations that we can make. I can use the telescopes we've used to see light from objects that are 100,000's of light years away - and make the measurements that show that distance myself. Current (Fundamentalist) Church tradition shows the universe/Earth about 10,000 years old at most.

Christian Reason 1: The Gospel of John says that everything was made by Christ Jesus and nothing exists that was not made by him. I'm absolutely confident that He made it all.

Christian Reason 2: The 'word' of Science changes and will continue to change as more observations are made. It was vastly different 100 years ago than it is today, and people could 'map' it the Genesis and the rest of the 'how the universe works' mentioned in the Bible. The Word of God never changes, and Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That's a solid basis to live by.

Christian Reason 3: I believe there is no question or observation one can ask or make (respectively) that can 'break' the Truth of God. He Is. The Universe He created is. Eventually (I believe) science will run up against the Creation of Christ. Some will never admit it, but theories will dangle incomplete and will remain uncomfortably broken to honest scientists. This is already happening in some corners of cosmological investigation. (I admit this is a woefully brief statement... and will change over time as well. As an example, the center of the Earth was considered a good location for Hell, then the Sun, now Venus could look like a good match. The mapping process we do trying to get the images presented to us in the Bible is silly, but we do it anyway.).

Christian Reason 4: There is a strong tendency for the Church in history to replace sound doctrine with tradition. We (the Catholic church - and later the protestant Church) held that the Earth was the center of the solar system for about 1,500 years. People were punished, imprisoned and called heretics for saying otherwise. Can we be so arrogant/proud to say that all our doctrines are pure and free from man's traditions? I believe that ANYTHING made by man- be it Science or Theology will always be flawed, incomplete and goofed up. God is a TON bigger than any thought we can come up with AND his creation will be more complex and amazing than we will ever conceive (until we get to ask him face to face).

Christian Reason 5: Going back to the earlier cause and effect problem and God. He made not only the Universe, but the cause and effect that scientists study. He made the concept of cause and effect. He made the underlying structure and order in the universe that we can express as mathematical equations and laws. He DOES step in and 'break the rules' when he wants, but he doesn't destroy the universe doing it. He does it with infinite Wisdom backing it. The dead walked when Jesus was crucified and when Lazarus rose (and when Jesus rose). People are healed supernaturally amazing doctors- ( I had a stomach defect healed by prayer, I've prayed for a blind woman who got her sight back). Christians are given supernatural information about others to pray for them, I saw a verse form in the nap of a carpet when I was praying for direction. I had not read that part of the Bible yet, but it directly addressed my question). Science still works even with God at work in real time.

Another problem is : why aren't there Christian texts? Well, sadly, many Christian 'scientists' start with their belief in the Church's doctrine, and work backwards into reality. This 'guided' view of how the world works makes them jump to conclusions and explanations that are not even consistent with each other, let alone with fairly straightforward observations of the world. It doesn't even take other scientists to end up unsatisfied with this type of work. This method allowed all earlier cosmological models to be 'fit' into the Genesis account (The sun was thought to be made of coal that had a burn life that was conveniently the right length for the understanding of Biblical past and futures here on earth.)

There IS one Christian scientist I've found who is making some progress with a young earth (just 1,000's of years old) with an old universe (billions of years). He uses relativity and modern cosmological concepts in a creative way and changes just one base assumption of the universe. But to explain what he has done, I still need to teach the current 'secular' view and then show the tweaking to it that brings the two views more together. He hasn't explained anything 'new' in the world with it. It is working backwards from the 'answer' that man has built.

Remember: Reality = Creation (temporary) and God (eternal). Man Made = Science (temporary) and Theology (temporary). All things man made are flawed. Period.

The Bible is a love letter, not a science text. It doesn't explain airplanes, computers, television, or a whole host of things that exist and that we understand today. It tell us first about our relationship (or lack thereof) with a loving God who created us to accept His Son and be saved.

There are tidbits in the Bible that might allow much vaster amounts of time to exist in the past than we commonly are taught in some Churches today.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. Now the Earth was formless..." The "Now" allows an indefinite period of time. You can fit years or 1,000's or billions of years between vs. 1 and vs. 2 - Maybe.

"One day is as a thousand years to God" in II Peter 3:8 That allows 6 days of creation to be 36,000 years or more generally, any amount of time? Since time is a created part of the universe, then God will be above and beyond time. He is not subject to that limited aspect of reality in anyway, but (maybe) you can't explain billions of years to the people who (through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) wrote the books of the Bible (Moses for the Pentateuch?).

On a personal note, I think this Church tradition is alienating scientists to the Gospel. It was a big hurtle that keep me apart from Him until my 20's, and I had to visit with a pastor for a few months pounding out the 'Church repulsion of science minded people' I sensed. We don't know which way He did it. But He DID create it all. And he created it to stand up to our scrutiny.

As for his personality, I can observe objects easily (the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest unrelated galaxy to us) an object that is 2.1 million light years away. That means we had to have at least 2.1 million years of history to be able to see light from it today. OR God had to create the light in transit for us to see it. That means He is creating a deceptively large universe. Nothing I know from my relationship with Him reflects this deception, nor do I see it in the scriptures concerning his dealing with humanity. Can He make it look super large for reasons I can't imagine. Sure, because who am I to out guess how the God of the Universe made it? But for now, I'm running on the gut feeling that He wouldn't do this unless it was important.

(I reject the idea that Satan buried strata, fossils, cratered the Moon, and put light in transit to fool us. Everything was created by and through Jesus.)

And finally, which is a greater miracle? God demonstrating amazing power by creating the Universe in six days? Or God demonstrating amazing patience by crafting the universe nearly 13.7 billion years with his plan of salvation and the plans for each of us in his mind across that entire time?

One last note: I don't think there will be a secular vs. Christian view in the end. As long as science keeps going after real Truth, Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth. and the Life. John 14:6. They will keep heading His way.

Thanks for prompting me to lay it all out as clear as I have so far. Please challenge me with any counterpoints of objections you may have. I love to chew these type of issues over. I know that through thought, talk and reason, my Faith in Him will only be strengthened.

Take care, and if you do take an astronomy class, do your best with the material Don't let it do anything but excite you concerning the possibilities of how Jesus did it all.

One more provocative thought/challenge, if scientists found real life on Mars, or received television from another planet/star system; what would that do to your view of Him and your faith? My belief is a true relationship with Christ is unshakable by any idea, event or fact. Sept 11th, the death of a wife one day after marriage, or alien life. Nothing exists apart from His Truth and will. It's comforting to see how infinitely you can push into Him, and find his arms wrapping more firmly around you. He doesn't fall over when you push.