Integration between the Christian Creation Story and the Scientific Big Bang Theory

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Integration between the Christian Creation Story and the Scientific Big Bang Theory

In our modern age of scientific revolution there seems to be a growing tension between the scientific and religious understanding of this world. This tension is not surprising as the two worldviews exist on different realms in many ways. The Christian faith, grounded in the revelation of God through Christ for humanity’s salvation, clashes with science on many levels especially concerning human nature, as well Divine authority, as compared to the scientific rational and mechanistic understanding of matter. However in this age of scientific revolution there has been a more concerted effort to develop ways to integrate the scientific and Christian worldviews. This is necessitated by the fact that a wholesome picture is generated by an integration of the meaning and purpose given by Christianity and the scientific mechanistic description of processes. The Christian Creation story and the scientific Big Bang theory are two key spheres of integration due to their centrality to an understanding of something as fundamental as existence of all things. The Christian story is primarily concerned about the purpose of existence as science deals with the mechanisms leading to existence.

The Christian faith is built on belief in an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God, embodied in the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christianity stands out from a lot of other religions due to God’s personal nature to humanity through the incarnation of Christ. Faith in Christ’s redemptive death and resurrection offers salvation to the faithful. The Bible is very central to Christian faith as it is viewed to be God’s word and revelation to mankin...

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...inue since both provide very plausible views of this world that do not necessarily have to contradict each other. Concerning the Big Bang and Creation, the purpose of the two stories should shed more light in providing a better effort of integration. The Big Bang theory primarily provides a description of the mechanism employed in creation whilst the Creation story gives meaning and purpose by attributing God as the cause behind all creative acts. A holistic picture is created by a worldview that gives precedence to both the actual processes, to the cause and to the meaning behind it all.

Bibliography:

1) Barbour, Ian; Religion and Science; Harper Collins Publishers; San Francisco; 1997.

2) Sidney Liebes, Elisabet Sahtouris, Brian Swimme; A Walk Through Time; John Wiley & Sons Inc; Toronto; 1998.

3) Armstrong, Karen; A History of God; Ballantine Books; 1993.

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