The Bible and Astronomy: Dyson and Jastrow

Newsgroup rec.ponds removed (I won't ask).


"Aristotle" wrote in
message ...

The very first verse of the Bible states: "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

This is clearly false. The earth did not exist until the observed
universe was over nine billion years old.



Irrevellant; that could very well been the case. You are reading an
account.

An account that says the earth was created "in the beginning". Keep
wriggling.
Itr depends on how you define earth and whether you are literally
interpretting the Bible

The planet was not formed till about 4*10^9 years ago. But the matter
was created 13*10^9 years ago.

The matter comprising the Earth was mostly
created much later. Hydrogen, helium and
small amounts of Lithium and Beryllium were
formed in the first few minutes but all
heavier elements were synthesised much later
in stars and released into the interstellar
gas by supernovae, hence "We are stardust."

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/BBNS.html

The chart at the bottom of the page summarises
the measurements and the predicted abundances.

George