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 PrintableVersion God and Cosmos: A Christian View of Time, Space and the UniverseThe hiker's guide to the galaxies' hitchGOD AND COSMOS This book is something of a curate's egg. John Byl, a Professor of Mathematics has produced an up-to-date account of recent thinking in cosmology. He seeks to move from a critique of the dominant big bang cosmology to rehabilitate a set of ideas which are, to say the least, controversial. Chief among these are his arguments that a biblical cosmology must include a form of the geocentric (earth-centred) view of the universe, and the idea that God has created a young universe (aged 6,000 years old) which nevertheless contains light from stars which deceptively appear to be many millions of years old. It would be worrying indeed if a 'Christian view' of the cosmos required such outlandish ideas, and the reader might profitably ask if Byl should not have used the same critical faculties which he brings to bear in his discussion of cosmological science when he is working out his theological views. As an account of modern cosmological science, the book reads very well. The author leads us through the development of ideas up to and including the latest variants on the big bang model. It has been commented before that cosmologists are often in error, but never in doubt. Byl sounds a much needed note of sceptical caution, pointing out the reliance of cosmological models upon assumptions which are by no means unquestionable. He rightly notes that this uncertainty in all cosmological theorising should make Christians cautious about the recent rash of attempts to prove God's existence as the cause of the big bang. It is when we come to Byl's positive account of a 'Biblical cosmology' that the argument becomes much less plausible. Byl believes that Christians must read the Bible as a literally true, inerrant textbook, so that the cosmological presuppositions of the biblical authors must override modern science, which he regards as largely a domain of subjective theorising. For Byl, taking Scripture literally means believing that God created a young universe, misleadingly containing light which is exactly as it would be if it came from stars millions of light years distant. Byl considers and rejects creationist attempts to avoid this extreme conclusion. The intellectual honesty of Byl's creationism should be lauded. Yet it remains a desperately difficult position to defend. It simply will not do to assert that this is what Scripture teaches; there is no sense in which it could possibly be said that this is what the Genesis authors meant (for one thing, they could not have had the conception of an ancient universe that we now do). It is a shame that Byl does not address more seriously positions which seek a genuine conciliation between faith and science in this domain. Nor would this mean taking a long trip away from orthodoxy; as the author himself notes, it has long been held that we should be prepared to re-interpret texts which were written in the light of what we now know to be incorrect knowledge of the natural world. Byl may be right to point out that some of modern cosmology is not secure. But when we get to the stage of postulating grand deception on the part of God in order to avoid the conclusion, suggested by a wealth of evidence from a wide range of sources, that the universe is in fact not 6,000 years old, we may reasonably look at what happens if we read the text in the light of the modern view. The book should be read discriminatingly; as such, there is much here that is helpful. Dr John Taylor© Evangelicals Now - November 2001 |
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