Out of all the creation myths, it’s the creation myth of one Divine God that created everything versus the creation myth of a Big Bang that gets the most intellectual debate, and for good reason. Understanding the Book of Genesis from the Bible and understanding the theory of an explosion that took place almost 14 billion years ago couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to each other yet both end with the creation of the universe, earth, man, animals, and plants.
Divine creation is from the Book of Genesis, Chapter one, of the Christian Bible, and tells us the world was created in six days. On the first day, God said, “Let there be light.” The sun hadn’t been created yet, so it was just light created by God. On the second day, God said, “Let there be something to divide the water.” The water was divided by land. There was a sky so now there are an atmosphere, wind, and clouds. On the third day, God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear.” The dry land was called Earth. Then God said, “Let the earth produce plants.” So, the earth now produced plants producing fruit, flowers, vegetables, etc.
On the fourth day, God “made the two large lights.” One light for daytime and a smaller light for nighttime. The sun gave the earth light and warmth as well as sunsets and sunrises. The earth could not survive without the sun. The moon and stars gave off light as well and made the sky sparkle with beauty. On the fifth day, God said, “Let the water be filled with living things. And let birds fly in the air above the earth.” The water became full of fish, mammals, and other species, and the sky was filled with all sorts of birds. On the sixth day, God said, ‘Let the earth be filled with animals.” The earth was populated with wild and tame animals. Also on the sixth day, God created man, The man was named Adam and was able to think intelligently. God didn’t want Adam to be lonely, so he created a partner for him in a woman named Eve. Everything was finished by day seven, so God rested and made this day a holy day. The world was his creation and Adam and Eve, who lived in the Garden of Eden, were to take care of the garden.
Divine creation is simply based on faith and belief in the Holy Bible as the word of God. There are 2 billion people in the world with this belief. Although being a Christian concept it isn’t a Catholic concept as they don’t teach creationism anymore (God creating the world in 6 days). Catholics teach “that the account in the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the world” and “the Church now accepts evolution as a scientific theory and sees no reason why God could not have used a natural evolutionary process”. (Pullella).
While many people believe in the Book of Genesis and that God created the world as we know it in six days, many scientists believe the Big Bang was the beginning of creation and that it happened almost 14 billion years ago. The Big Bang started as a hot and infinitely dense point only a few millimeters wide. This tiny singularity violently exploded. From this explosion came the creation of all matter, energy, space, and time. Then two eras began, the radiation era and the matter era. These two events help shape the universe. Now the universe had the ability to form elements, which are the building blocks of matter. A few billion years later planets were formed and eventually the earth. What religion states took 6 days; science states took billions of years, and it has been a well-received theory for the last century.
The Big Bang theory cannot be proved by observation because it happened so long ago. What is often written as proof of the Big Bang are beliefs based on assumptions and conjecture. To say that it can all be proved using hard science isn’t an accurate statement. Some of the science used to explain the universe is sound and doesn’t require a person to choose between these two creation myths. For instance, the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation in 1965, “showed clearly that the universe had a beginning… It turned out to be the predicted radiation left over by the initial explosion that began the expansion of the universe itself “(Ball).
However, an event that took place millions of years ago cannot be recreated with accuracy or certainty. Even if science could prove the Big Bang, it wouldn’t negate being God’s own plan for creation as the bible agrees with certain points that apply to the Big Bang theory and the evidence that supports it. The bible was written and recorded several thousand years before modern science, so it seems remarkable it would contain facts that support the Big Bang theory.
So many questions remain about our creation with dozens of creation myths formed throughout the centuries by various cultures and religions. The only theory that needs to be proven is the Big Bang Theory because it is based on science and not faith and belief. So, we really do not know that the Big Bang happened. “The notion that the Universe began in a single event which caused all of space-time and matter-energy to come into being is a theory. A theory is a proposed explanation for a set of observations. A theory can never be proven but must be "testable" through observation or experimentation. Thus far, despite some notable problems, the Big Bang Theory has remained largely consistent with the observations and is widely accepted through the cosmological community” (USM).