How God made the world

The Bible tells us that heaven and earth were made in six days; God did not make everything all at once but bit by bit.  Science helps us to understand how and when the world was made.

The Big Bang theory

According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe began as a ball of light 13.7 billion years ago.  When the Universe was only one second old, tiny particles called protons and neutrons appeared.  After a few minutes these particles began to evolve into slightly more complex matter.  Between approximately 240,000 and 310,000 years after the Big Bang the Universe had cooled from its very hot beginnings and the first atoms of hydrogen and helium had appeared.  Almost all the matter in the Universe is in the form of these two elements.  Out of clouds of hydrogen and helium gas, stars were formed.  In the Universe there are between 30 and 50 billion trillion stars grouped into 80 to 140 billion galaxies. (1)

Our galaxy is the Milky Way.  The Earth’s immediate place in space is the solar system which is dominated by the sun, a star with a diameter 109 times that of Earth. (2)

Stars that are several times bigger than the sun are likely to end in an explosion.  In the course of these massive explosions other elements in nature that are needed for life (e.g. oxygen and iron) are manufactured, as well as molecules such as water and carbon dioxide.  It is thought that life as we know it required about nine billion years of star making to produce the right conditions for life. (3)

Some stars, such as the sun, have planets.  They are formed from material left over from the formation of the star.  This material increases in size over time to form rocks of all sizes, including huge planet-sized rocks, like the Earth. (4)

Goldilocks earth

Do you remember the story of Goldilocks?  The temperature of her porridge had to be just right – not too hot and not too cold!  The term ‘Goldilocks earth’ has been used to describe a planet where the conditions for life are just right.  Science gives us some fascinating examples of how the Earth came to be a Goldilocks planet.  For example, early in its life the Earth was hit by an object the size of Mars.  Most of the Earth’s crust was knocked off and it is thought that in time these bits of rocky material were brought together by gravity to form the moon.  The moon plays a key role in ensuring moderate seasonal changes that support complex life.  Furthermore, if most of the Earth’s crust had not been knocked off, it would have been too thick to allow for tectonic movement to occur i.e. the movements of the Earth’s crust that cause, for example, the formation of mountains. (5) 

These movements have speeded up the processes of evolution on Earth to the extent that human beings have appeared while the sun is still shining.  If evolution had progressed at only half the rate, human beings would have appeared millions of years later, by which time the sun would have been dying. (6)