God and Nature Fall 2022
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By Tony Mitchell
In 1922, British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen. As he peered through an opening into the tomb, his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, asked, “Can you see anything?” And Carter responded with three words: “Yes, wonderful things” (1).
That there was anything at all in Tutankhamen’s tomb was a testimony to the skill of those who built the tomb and buried the boy king in it. Each pharaoh was laid to rest with enormous quantities of treasures that were typically looted shortly afterward. Tutankhamen’s tomb remained undiscovered and untouched until Carter found it in 1922.
In 1922, British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen. As he peered through an opening into the tomb, his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, asked, “Can you see anything?” And Carter responded with three words: “Yes, wonderful things” (1).
That there was anything at all in Tutankhamen’s tomb was a testimony to the skill of those who built the tomb and buried the boy king in it. Each pharaoh was laid to rest with enormous quantities of treasures that were typically looted shortly afterward. Tutankhamen’s tomb remained undiscovered and untouched until Carter found it in 1922.
The answer to many questions of this kind will (or should) always generate more questions... |
Photo from NASA/STScI
I think the images that came from the Hubble Space telescope (after it was repaired) and the images of the James Webb Space Telescope fall into that same category of “wonderful things” (2). Some of those images have been waiting to be seen for over 13 billion years—the time it took for the light from the objects we see in them to reach us. These include some of the oldest objects in space: stars, nebulae, and galaxies that were created close to the beginning of creation. But how and why did this happen?
I can imagine a scene many (many) years ago, at the end of the day, with everyone in the clan seated by the fire. The youngest ones in the group would ask the elders, “Where did we come from?” and the elders would begin their answer: “In the beginning…”For some, these words are sufficient. But as a curious people, we like to know how things happened. Jesus told those who wondered if He was really the Messiah to go and see what had been done. The answer to many questions of this kind will (or should) always generate more questions, and in this never-ending curiosity lie the roots of science.
The authors of Genesis gave no hints as to how creation was done or when it occurred. In 1650, Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh
(of the Church of Ireland) sought to answer the question of when the universe was created. He calculated the date of the Creation to be at sunset on the evening of October 22, 4004 BC, which would make October 23rd the First Day (3). This calculation was just one of
a series of calculations by a number of scholars, including Isaac Newton (who gave a date of 3998 BC) (4), and Johannes Kepler (who calculated that the universe was created on April 27, 3977 BC) (5). Others, including John Lightfoot and Joseph Justus Scaliger, also published research on the date of creation (6).
Lightfoot, a rabbinical scholar and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, determined that the date of Creation was 3929 BC. Scaliger was a contemporary of Ussher and his studies of the Biblical chronology and other ancient literature showed that the Egyptian dynasties and Babylonian kingdoms existed before the accepted date of the Flood, approximately 2300 BC. This led chronologists to realize that there were other sources of information that must be considered.
Even today, many individuals, known as Young Earth Creationists (YEC), use these early dates as the beginning of the universe. But to achieve that date, they must either ignore the evidence that has accumulated or somehow find a way to make the data fit the theory. As Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data” (7).
However, the early attempts to assign dates for the origin of the universe should not be dismissed as foolish or ignorant. We must understand that these early calculations were products of serious and concerted research, based upon the information available at the time, including ancient records from various cultures as well as the Bible’s genealogies. As more information became available, so too did the calculations for the date of creation change.
Stephen Jay Gould, while disagreeing with Ussher’s chronology, noted:
I shall be defending Ussher's chronology as an honorable effort for its time and arguing that our usual ridicule only records a lamentable small-mindedness based on mistaken use of present criteria to judge a distant and different past …
Ussher represented the best of scholarship in his time. He was part of a substantial research tradition, a large community of intellectuals working toward a common goal under an accepted methodology … (8)
Georges Lemaître, a mathematician, physicist, and Catholic priest used Albert Einstein’s equations for general relativity to predict that the universe was expanding. In 1924, Edwin Hubble (for whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named) made a series of astronomical observations that allowed him to conclude that the universe was expanding, confirming the theoretical work of Lemaître.
At that time, most physicists, including Albert Einstein, felt that the universe was static. Einstein told Lemaître that “your calculations are correct, but your physics is abominable” (9). Einstein added what he called a “cosmological factor” to his relativity equations to keep the universe static. He would later say this was his biggest mistake.
In April 1948, Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow presented a series of calculations that confirmed Hubble’s observations and Lemaître’s calculations. Further observations by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965 also confirmed that the beginning of creation was approximately 13 billion years ago. This moment in time was named, somewhat derisively, the “Big Bang” by British mathematician and physicist Fred Hoyle.
Hoyle was a committed atheist and he felt that such a moment was a bit too much like the words of Genesis. Despite the evidence given by Hubble and later observations, Hoyle and others attempted to prove that the universe was static and without a beginning. Interestingly enough, some of Hoyle’s work required the very beginning that he didn’t believe in.
While it may seem that a discussion of the creation of the universe is a relatively modern construct, it was an item of discussion in the early church. Origen, the 3rd century philosopher/theologian, opposed the idea that the opening verses of Genesis were a historical and literal account of how God created this world and universe. Later scholars such as Thomas Aquinas and religious figures such as John Wesley made similar arguments. Wesley would say that the Scriptures were not written to satisfy our curiosity but to lead us to God (10).
While God may not have told us when he created the universe, he did give us a mind and the capability to think and ask questions. And he gave us the evidence to look at. So we ask questions, and when we find the answer to those questions, we get new questions to be answered.
And while we may get closer to understanding when the universe was created and how, what we discover will never tell us why it was done. The answer to this and other questions that arise will only come on our faith journey. As we view the images provided by the James Webb Space Telescope and we think of the opening verses of Genesis, we need to see them as the beginning of a journey, a journey of exploration and understanding of both the world we live in and our relationship with God.
References
1. Carter, Howard & Mace, A.C. (1977) The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. Dover Publications; Unabridged Reprint edition, p. 96.
2. First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope | NASA (https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages).
3. Kelley, Peter. (2015) “Documents that Changed the World: Annals of the World, 1650.” UW News, online. https://www.washington.edu/news/2015/07/29/documents-that-changed-the-world-annals-of-the-world-1650/
4. Mulvihill, Mary. (2003). “How an archbishop calculated the Creation.” The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/how-an-archbishop-calculated-the-creation-1.378556
5. Kepler, Johannes. 1981. The secret of the universe = Mysterium cosmographicum. trans. By A. M. Duncan & E. J. Aiton. Abaris Books, UK, p. 221
6. Branch, Glenn. (2014) “Seven Myths about Ussher.” National Center for Science Education. https://ncse.ngo/seven-myths-about-ussher
7. Doyle, Arthur Conan. (210) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, “1. Scandal in Bohemia.” Dover, p.4.
8. Stephen J. Gould. (November 1991). “Fall in the House of Ussher.” Natural History, Volume 100, p. 12 – 2.
9. Deprit, A. (1984). "Monsignor Georges Lemaître.” In A. Barger (ed.). The Big Bang and Georges Lemaître. Reidel, p. 370.
10. Biologos. “How was the Genesis account of creation interpreted before Darwin?” - https://biologos.org/common-questions/how-was-the-genesis-account-of-creation-interpreted-before-darwin
Dr. Tony Mitchell earned a doctorate in Science Education with an emphasis on chemical education from the University of Iowa in 1990. He also earned a B. S. in chemistry from Truman State University (1971) and a M. Ed. from the University of Missouri – Columbia (1975). He served as a lay speaker and lay minister in the United Methodist Church for some twenty years. He continues to look at how science and faith intersect and interact. His thoughts on both areas can be found on his blog, “Thoughts from The Heart On The Left.”