God and Science

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. 

- Genesis 2: 19 & 20.

Growing up, I attended several churches though only one with any real degree of regularity. These were generally Baptist and Methodist but, for my point, likely could easily have been practically any Christian denomination. This practice is called church shopping. The purpose is to find a denomination and church where one feels most at home. I would later learn this also served the purpose of having seeds sown in regards to spiritual matters.

At the time, I didn't think much about God or the possibility of such a being nor did I much care. I was a kid and had other things to think about. The idea didn't sound completely horrible and, indeed, sounded better than some others I'd heard for explanations of why and how the earth existed. I essentially just accepted it and went about my business.

Later, in public schools, I would learn about the argument for evolution and the science which supported it. I was fine with the idea but had a bit of difficulty understanding why so many people would subscribe to the thinking that something came from nothing (the one idea which no current science explained). Regardless, I accepted everything after that single event as plausible enough and found myself somewhat on the fence about the origin of the universe.

Later still, I had a conversation with a buddy who was far more knowledgeable about all-things-science than I, and he laid out what was to be the most effective argument against creation I'd heard. His position was simple: How could Noah have gathered all the animals up given they lived in such remote parts of the world and transportation during Noah's time was so primitive? That was all it took. I decided I would be agnostic if not strictly atheistic.

Several experiences and years later, I would become a true Christian. This came, in no small part, thanks to apologists like Ravi Zacharias who would introduce me to the science supporting creation. I would learn about the shape of the universe which eliminates the possibility if our universe expanding and contracting repeatedly providing an endless number of Big Bangs (though this does allow for a single Big Bang). Still, there are some who argue this does not exclude the possibility of "creation" being cyclical because our universe was "created" because two universes collided or a black hole hit what would be ours and, in either scenario, there was an explosion, here we are, and it will all happen again endlessly.

While these ideas are novel enough, they do nothing to explain how or why anything ever happened in the first place. In fact, it makes less sense a universe like ours would exist than if it didn't. Stefan Countryman, a physics PhD student at Columbia University, offers:

"Think of it this way: Imagine a bomb full of sand exploding onto an empty surface—that’s the Big Bang. You would expect a pretty uniform heap of sand after the explosion, but instead, our universe immediately arranged into lots of sand castles seemingly for no reason and with no help, and we don’t really know why. The Big Bang could have (and maybe should have) resulted in a high-entropy mass of uniformly distributed, disorganized stuff. Instead, we’ve got star systems, galaxies, and galactic clusters all linked together with dark voids between them. We have order." 

Was I to believe not only did something come from nothing (which defied science), but also that that something simply happened to organize itself in a sustainable way (which also defies science)?

For all the theories for pre-Big Bang, the one which seems most plausible to me and, I believe, is supported by scripture suggests prior to creation was not a bunch of nothing but was instead a "liquid" state. This theory proposes the liquid prior to the Big Bang crystallized into the "three spatial and one time dimension that we see today." I think it quite possible God's command for light could have been the catalyst causing the crystallization. 

Yet, only recently (due to my poor inconsistent reading of scripture), I read the verse above. This verse could readily explain how Noah, also, was able to see and gather so many animals. And this article about the original shape of our lands provides scientific support for Noah's animal gathering ability. From what I know of scripture and science, I can imagine Continental Drift occurring after the flood.

I'd like to re-visit that conversation with my friend so many years ago. Maybe one day I'll have the chance.