Modern Cosmology

 I was reading this morning the comedy of modern cosmology.  One positive note; of late these cosmologists seem to be worming up to the idea “Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:” – Psalm 104: 2  You see some of them think the Universe has a diameter of 156 billion light years while all the lemmings agree the Universe is about 13.7 billion light years old.  Read for yourself from CNN.com

“"All the distance covered by the light in the early universe gets increased by the expansion of the universe," explains Neil Cornish, an astrophysicist at Montana State University. "Think of it like compound interest."

Need a visual? Imagine the universe just a million years after it was born, Cornish suggests. A batch of light travels for a year, covering one light-year. "At that time, the universe was about 1,000 times smaller than it is today," he said. "Thus, that one light-year has now stretched to become 1,000 light-years."

All the pieces add up to 78 billion-light-years. The light has not traveled that far, but "the starting point of a photon reaching us today after traveling for 13.7 billion years is now 78 billion light-years away," Cornish said. That would be the radius of the universe, and twice that -- 156 billion light-years -- is the diameter. That's based on a view going 90 percent of the way back in time, so it might be slightly larger.”

If you extrapolate this idea just a bit more, then a 6,000 year old Universe is not hard to see.  I am reminded of a problem I gave my high school students when I was a math teacher.

Just for fun let’s say that the 13.7 billion year age is an accurate coordinate time age for the Universe and that the 78 billion light year radius is equally as good and that it all started at the big bang.  What would the proper time number look like?  Well, the velocity of the expansion after the big bang is generally agreed to be preposterous or insane or some other such adjective by these folks ( LUDICROUS SPEED).   Ok, maybe not ludicrous speed.  Let’s try an average rate of expansion of 0.9999999999999c where c is the speed of light.  According to the accepted formula, ΔƮ = ΔT*SQRT(1 – v^2/c^2), for proper time ΔƮ, then due to the observable phenomenon of time dilation proper time would be about 6,128 years.  In relativity, proper time is the elapsed time between two events as measured by a clock that passes through both events.

In other words, if we would have lived through the events of the supposed big bang as they unfolded the current physics tells us that it would have taken no more than a few thousand years (proper time) for the Universe as we know it to have formed.

Day Two

Genesis 1

6 And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

     Jeremiah 10:12

     He has made the earth by His power,
     He has established the world by His wisdom,
    And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

     2 Peter 3: 5

     this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
     and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

     Psalm 136: 6

     To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
    For His mercy endures forever;

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so.

     Job 38: 8 - 11

     “Or who shut in the sea with doors,
     When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
       When I made the clouds its garment,
     And thick darkness its swaddling band;
      When I fixed My limit for it,
    And set bars and doors;
      When I said,
     ‘This far you may come, but no farther,
     And here your proud waves must stop!’

     Proverbs 8: 27 - 29

     When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
     When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
       When He established the clouds above,
     When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
       When He assigned to the sea its limit,
     So that the waters would not transgress His command,
     When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

     Psalm 148: 4

     Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
     And you waters above the heavens!

8 And God called the firmament Heaven.  And the evening and the morning were the second day.

     1 Chronicles 16: 24 - 27

     Declare His glory among the nations,
     His wonders among all peoples.

       For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
     He is also to be feared above all gods.
       For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
     But the Lord made the heavens.
       Honor and majesty are before Him;
     Strength and gladness are in His place.

     Matthew 24: 30

     Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes

     of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the

     clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Day One

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God

     Psalm 90: 2

     Before the mountains were brought forth,
     Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
     Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

     Isaiah 63: 16

     Doubtless You are our Father,

     Though Abraham was ignorant of us,
     And Israel does not acknowledge us.
     You, O Lord, are our Father;
     Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

     Romans 1: 20

     For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by
     the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without
     excuse,

created the Heaven and the Earth

     John 1: 1 - 3

     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

     He was in the beginning with God.

     All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 

     Jeremiah 4: 23

     I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void;

     And the heavens, they had no light.

     Isaiah 45: 18

     For thus says the Lord,

     Who created the heavens,
     Who is God,
     Who formed the earth and made it,
     Who has established it,
     Who did not create it in vain,
     Who formed it to be inhabited:
     “I am the Lord, and there is no other.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

     Psalm 24: 1 - 2

     The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,

     The world and those who dwell therein.

     For He has founded it upon the seas,

     And established it upon the waters.

     Job 26: 13a

     By His Spirit He adorned the heavens;

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

     Psalm 33: 6

     By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

     And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

     Psalm 148: 5

     Let them praise the name of the Lord,

     For He commanded and they were created.

     Hebrews 11: 3

     By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things
     which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

     2 Corinthians 4: 6

     For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts
     to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

     Isaiah 45: 7

     I form the light and create darkness,

     I make peace and create calamity;
     I, the Lord, do all these things.’

     James 1: 17

     Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights,
     with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

     Psalm 74: 16a

     The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

     Job 38: 12

     “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,

    And caused the dawn to know its place,