Saturday 8 January 2011

The Pope and the Big Bang



Pope Benedict XVI. Image courtesy of Fabio Pozzebom, Agência Brasil, via Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

When the Pope says that the universe is not the result of random processes, his statement makes headlines all over the world.

As reported by Reuters, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Epiphany sermon on Thursday:

God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident. The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe."

While many Christians might equate the big bang with the initial creation event mentioned in Genesis, the Bible’s account differs considerably from the secular view of how the universe came into being. The most conspicuous differences are the time scale and the order of events. Exodus 20:11 states:

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.”

In the space of six days God created everything there is. God is a God of miracles. In the New Testament He instantaneously turned water into wine and created new cells for Lazarus in no time at all.

In other words, God did not need 13.7 billion years to create the cosmos. The belief in millions of years of earth history would mean that death was not the result of Adam’s sin. In effect it would elevate fallible man’s opinion over that what God says in the Bible.


Source:

Pullella, Philip. 2011. God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope Yahoo! NEWS (6 January).