Stephen E. Jones

Projects: Book (Outline): "Progressive Creation: A Scientific General Theory of Creation":
Chapter 7, Creation of the Universe

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This is Chapter 7, Creation of the Universe, of the outline of a book that I plan to write on Progressive Creation.

"Progressive Creation" (Outline): Chapter 7. Creation of the Universe
Copyright (c) 2004-2005, Stephen E. Jones

  1. Creation of the Universe
    1. Raw Materials of the Universe
    2. Age of the Universe
  2. Creation of the Moon
    1. The Moon in the Bible
    2. Origin of the Moon

  1. Creation of the Universe
    1. Raw Materials

      2. The "heavens and the earth" (Gn 1:1), were originally created ex nihilo (out of nothing) by God as a unformed raw materials called "waters" (Gn 1:2) (Calvin, 1554, p.70; Milne, 1988, p.72; Thiessen & Doerksen, 1977, pp.111-112; Shedd, 1888, p.I:464).

    2. Age of the Universe

      3. The Bible makes no statement of the age of the Universe (Pearce, 1969, p.88). The length of time between the original creation of matter (Gn 1:1), until the first creative word (Gn 1:3), is not stated (Young, 1949, p.52; Pearce, 1969, p.88; Zimmerman, 1959, pp.161-162). The current scientific estimate for the age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years (Reichhardt, 2003, p.777). This is obtained from several converging lines of evidence, including: the expansion of the universe, rate of stars' fuel burning and abundance of radioactive elements (Dalrymple, 1991, p.393; Gorst 2001, p.274; Ferris, 1997, pp.15,36; Bryson, 2003, p.150-151; Ross, 1994, pp.91-95,101).

  2. Creation of the Moon
    1. The Moon in the Bible

      2. The Moon is called the "lesser" of the "two great lights" (Gn 1:16). It was made [Heb. 'asah] by God on the fourth day (Gn 1:14-19), and set in the sky with the Sun and stars (Gn 1:17) in order to give light on the earth (Gn 1:14,15); separate day from night (Gn 1:14; 1:18); serve as signs (Gn 1:14); mark seasons and days and years (Gn 1:14) and to govern the day and the night (Gn 1:18) (Ross, 1998, p.44). God saw the creation of the Moon, along with the Sun and stars as "good" (Gn 1:19). There is no simple alternative to the regular, rapid, easily measurable, cycles of the Moon, providing a natural clock and enabling the development of agriculture" (Comins, 1993, pp.44-45).

    2. Origin of the Moon

      3. The Moon is very large relative to the Earth and the Earth-Moon pair has been called a double-planetary system (Ward & Brownlee, p.222; Whitehouse, 2001, p.238). Without the Moon, Earth would not have developed the way it did and neither we, nor advanced life, would not be here (Ward & Brownlee, p.222; Whitehouse, 2001, pp.239,256,257).

      There were three main theories on the origin of the Moon: it formed in place, it formed elsewhere and then was captured, and it was ejected from Earth (Ward & Brownlee, pp.229- 230; Whitehouse, 2001, pp.238-239). The most popular theory was the first, that the Moon had formed cold and grew by accretion (Ward & Brownlee, p.229; Whitehouse, 2001, p.239). However, in 1969, Apollo 11 returned lunar surface rocks which indicated that the Moon had a highly improbable origin (Ward & Brownlee, p.229), that no one had thought of (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.239-240; Whitehouse, 2001, pp.239-240). These moon rocks lacked volatile elements, which vapourise when heated (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.241). They contained an over-abundance of sideophile, or `iron-loving', elemnts (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.241). Indeed, the lunar rocks were similar in composition to the Earth's mantle (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.241).

      Eventually it was realised in 1984, after computers simulations that the formed by an impact by a Mars-sized planet with the newly forming Earth (Ward & Brownlee, p.230; Ross, 1998, p.32; Whitehouse, 2001, p.245-). This impactor also had a rocky crust and an iron core like Earth (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.246,251-254). When the two planets collided, their metallic cores coalesced to form Earth's core while portions of the mantles of both bodies was ejected into orbit and aggregated to form the Moon (Ward & Brownlee, p.231; Whitehouse, 2001, p.250). The Moon then spiralled outward which it continues to do (Ward & Brownlee, p.231; Whitehouse, 2001, p.25).

      This single event, blew away Earth original opaque, toxic atmosphere, increased the mass of the Earth enough to retain by gravity a large quantity of water vapor, and it stabilised the tilt of Earth's axis (Ross, 1998, p.32; Ward & Brownlee, p.234; Whitehouse, 2001, p.257). In order to produce such a massive moon, the impacting body had to be the right size, the right composition, it had to impact at the right point on Earth, and the impact had to have occurred at just the right time in Earth's growth (Ward & Brownlee, p.230; Ross, 1998, p.32; Whitehouse, 2001, p.246).

      So the Earth we now live on is Earth Mk. II, Earth Mk. I being a much smaller and different world that we could never have lived on (Whitehouse, 2001, pp.237,244). And having a large moon may be a key characteristic necessary for a life-permitting Earth-like planet (Ward & Brownlee, p.234; Whitehouse, 2001, p.257). Without the impact driving a lot of water off permanently into space, sea level may have been thousands of metres higher than it is, with little, if any dry land (Whitehouse, 2001, p.259). In addition, the Moon may have deflected or intercepted asteroids that otherwise would have collided with Earth and changed the course of life's history (Whitehouse, 2001, p.258). [top]

    Copyright © 2003-2005, Stephen E. Jones. All rights reserved. This page and its contents may be used for non-commercial purposes only.
    If used on the Internet, a link back to my home page at http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones would be appreciated.
    Created: 8 August, 2003. Updated: 10 February, 2005.