Lesson 07: Science vs. Religion

At first glance, the the Bible and the Big Bang Theory seem to conflict with each other. The scriptures say God created the heavens, earth, stars, land, water, animals, and man. The big bang theory says the universe developed from a hot soup of basic particles. Another common point of conflict is that people argue that something as complex as our universe couldn’t have resulted from an explosion. People also insist that the universe couldn’t be 13.7 billion years old because it was created in six days, according to a literal reading of the Bible.

However, at a closer look, the two really aren’t so contradictory. First off, although it goes back to within 10^-43 milliseconds of the creation of the universe, science has limitations right now that don’t let us know what happened in that very first instant when "time begins," as it is labeled on this graphic. It doesn’t explain how the hot soup came to be, just how it evolved from a dense ball of energy into what we observe today. It never once denies the existence of God. Whose to say that God didn't say, "Let there be light," and the universe was created and started expanding from there. 

Secondly, many people often think of it of a big explosion, but it really is just describing the rapid expansion of the universe and is not really an explosion how we might imagine it. It was a very methodical and organized process that took place over time. Our God is a God of order. While he may have just poofed his creations into existence, it makes more sense to me that he would take time to create planet with resources for his children. And, if he spent that much time preparing a planet for us, why is it so hard to believe that he might have spent that much time preparing, or evolving, a body fit for his spirit children.

Additionally, although the scriptures describe the creation in terms of days, it could be a literal day, it could be a thousand years, or it could be a broader term for a long period of time that lost meaning in translation. In October 2014, President Uchtdorf started off his address talking about the vastness of the universe. He points out that just a century ago, most astronomers thought our galaxy was the only one. Today we can see countless galaxies. Following this, he said, “The immensity of the universe didn’t suddenly changed, but our ability to see and understand this truth changed dramatically.” We have made many amazing discoveries in recent years and can’t just discount the big bang theory because it’s new or seems crazy. Almost all new scientific discoveries are viewed through an eye of scrutiny.

Overall, it seems a lot of the confusion that surrounds the creation versus big bang debate stems from people accepting personal opinion as doctrine. I’m not saying the big bang theory is absolute truth, but it is a plausible explanation that should not be rejected on the basis that it contradicts religion. It may seem impossible, but God does impossible things all the time. When God uttered those beautiful commands of creation, who’s to say that this is not what happened?