More stunning images of deep space have been released, once again highlighting the vast and awe-inspiring reality of the universe—one that stands in stark contrast to the ancient cosmology described in the Book of Genesis.
According to that account, the universe was a small, flat Earth covered by a solid dome, fixed and immobile at the centre of creation. The sun, moon, and stars were imagined as small lights affixed to the underside of this dome. Surrounding it all, above and below, were the primordial waters—and somewhere within or beyond this structure lay a magical, supernatural realm inhabited by divine beings bearing a striking resemblance to capricious, tribal warlords, and winged men (Genesis 1:1–18).
And, according to the Bible narrative, it has only existed for 6-10,000 years!
Since the invention of the telescope, and as our instruments have grown ever more sophisticated, our understanding of the universe has revealed a reality far removed from the one imagined by the authors of Genesis. The cosmos is not only vastly older than they could have conceived, but also incomprehensibly immense. Earth itself is far larger and older than they believed, a spherical planet orbiting the Sun—which is just one of perhaps half a trillion stars in our own galaxy. And that galaxy is, in turn, just one among perhaps a trillion others. Altogether, this vast universe is nearly 14 billion years old.
The most recent images are from the James Webb Space Telescope, of a region of deep space, between twelve billion and one billion lightyears away, so showing how the universe has evolved since it was about one billion years old – younger than Earth is now.
Rubicondor presents facts, facts that only a young earth creationist would disagree with. As I was reading the aforementioned post, it dawned on me that there’s an easy test we can use to show the ignorance of the men who wrote the Bible. Are you ready?
The universe according to the Bible, as interpreted by young earth creationists.
The universe according to modern science, as revealed by the Jame Hubble Space Telescope.
You may view other photos from the James Web telescope here.
Maybe the real ignorance here is the ignorance of young earth creationists who treat the Bible as a science textbook.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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For the life of me, I don’t understand the obsession that my fellow brethren and sisteren have with this and Noah’s Ark. They are stories told by ancient people. I’m not saying they’re necessarily “false” per we, but there is simply no physical evidence for either event. The flood story seems to be common amongst that part of the world, so it may be an ancient account of a catastrophic flood that occurred at the end of the last ice age. For Genesis, the theory that advanced human-like aliens from Mars brought life to Earth can be gleaned from the creation story as much as God creating the Earth is six literal 24 hour days 6,000 some odd years ago.
That’s why we have science, to actually help us to understand how our planet really functions, how old it is, the processes that sustain the planet and the life on it.
I feel perfectly fine saying this as a Christian. I can still follow Christ’s teachings and also have a modern mind when it comes to the scientific method. I can also keep an “I don’t know” mind when it comes to the questions science or my own faith can’t presently answer. I don’t personally believe my eternal standing rises and falls on whether I take every Old Testament story literally. I do wonder about the standing of whoever thought it was better to spend millions of dollars on a Creation Museum and massive Noah’s Ark in Kentucky (that isn’t even waterproof, by the way) when that money could have instead been used to open numerous homeless shelters in the same small towns in Kentucky for rural homeless people. I guess that doesn’t bring the tax dollars or tourist revenue at the gift shop, though, does it?
One question.
Where are the turtles and the elephant holding the whole mess in place?
This is/was a huge part of my cognitive dissonance. The amount of stars in the sky is proof enough to show we couldn’t have been around the amount of time xtian doctrine claims. We would have never seen the night sky in its current form if we were only around for even 10,000 years. The amount of light we see is evidence alone, because the night sky would only have the light of 10,000 years of light arriving to earth in the first place.
Which isn’t much.
And the fact that science only fully acknowledged plate tectonics from the 1960s shows how much we still have to learn about our Pale Blue Dot. And when you see THAT photo and realize that photo was taken from space, at the distance of 6 billion kilometers, 3.7 billion miles or 40.5 AU., either you’re a liar or a con artist for telling people we’ve only been around 10K years
We’re nothing on the grand scheme of things…though there is no “grand scheme” in the first place.
Thanks for awesome reading material. You were instrumental in my first months of deconverting and it’s sweet not having that cognitive dissonance draining my brain.
And as awesome as the Pale Blue Dot image is, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field [<a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra-Deep_Field>Wiki link] is even more jaw-dropping. Images from 13 billion years ago.
Thank you for that link. I had totally forgotten about that Hubble Deep Field…gorgeous isn’t it? And that’s the area in the sky that had “nothing” we could see wasn’t it? Yeah, right.
Thanks again!!
We live in an awesome universe, do we not? Even an atheist can turn his eyes skyward and feel a deep sense of awe. ❤️❤️
Thanks for providing this link. I sometimes forget the “freaking awesome” the Hubble has given us over the years.
We live in an awesome universe.❤️❤️