2021

Some religious believers accept the Big Bang theory which is currently the leading scientific explanation for how the universe began / it suggests that the universe started with an incredibly small, hot, dense something – a singularity, which expanded over approximately 13.8 billion years or so to become the cosmos which we know today / as the universe cooled the material which had been flung in all directions became stars and galaxies and planets, etc.

Christianity
Genesis 1 states that God designed and created the universe and it was good / God spoke the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) / Genesis 1.1 – 2.3 says that God created the universe and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh day and made it holy / some Christians believe that this is literally true but others say that the story is designed to show that the universe wasn’t an accident but was created by God / others accept the Big Bang theory as the way God created everything, etc.

Judaism
Genesis 1 tells how God, by speaking, created everything that exists, including humans on the sixth day / “When God began to create heaven and earth – the earth being un-formed and void” Genesis 1:1 / the Torah says that God created the universe and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh day and made it holy / many Jews say that the Torah suggests that God designed everything and so do not accept that it was an accident / some Jews believe that the Big Bang was caused by God / others say that Judaism asks the question ‘Why did the universe come into being not how, etc.

2020

Arguments in support
• Some believe that God created/caused the Big Bang as a way of forming the universe.
• Most scientists believe that the universe had a beginning. So was God the first cause?
• Some creation stories suggest that God created the universe in six days but the days might stand for a long period of time and so not disagree with the Big Bang theory.
• The creation stories may only be designed to show that God was involved in creation and not to explain how it happened, etc.

Arguments in support of other views
• The Big Bang theory does not need a supernatural cause as the universe could have come into being by accident.
• Scientists say that the universe has evolved naturally over billions of years not in six days for instance.
• There are contradictions in the religious teachings about the origins of the universe.
• The creation stories are just myths, etc.

Christianity
Genesis 1:1 – Genesis 2 : 3 gives an account of how God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh / Genesis 2 gives a second creation story / fundamentalist Christians believe that these stories are exactly how God created the universe as they believe that every word in the Bible has been inspired by God and is therefore true / The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe has come into being over billions of years so the six days cannot be true / Many Christians see the six days of creation as just symbolic of a period of time which can be interpreted as an indefinite length, so there is no contradiction / Some Christians believe that the Genesis stories are myths that portray important truths about the universe, eg that it is good / The ‘why’ is more important than the ‘how’ / They may argue that the Big Bang was how God formed the universe, etc

Judaism
The Torah, Genesis 1 and 2 tell the creation stories of God creating the world by speaking it into existence / It tells of six days of creation and God resting on the seventh day / Some Orthodox Jews believe this account literally / Other Jews believe that it is symbolic and that the days mean a passage of time / Some Jews believe that the creation stories are important not as scientific accounts of creation but in emphasising the importance of human beings being made in the image of God / Some believe that the universe started at a particular moment in time as the Big Bang theory suggests / They believe that it came about by design and not by accident, etc.

2022

Helps them believe the world was created by God / makes them think of God / reveals the nature and qualities of God / they cannot comprehend how the world was the result of an accidental explosion / world has the ‘wow’ factor, eg view of the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or dew on a cobweb / such beauty, eg in a flower / it gives a sense of amazement, eg the different seasons / world is complex, eg how everything in nature works / fascinating, eg caterpillars turn into butterflies, black and white cows eating green grass produce white milk / feelings of fear and dread / raises ultimate questions