Does It Matter How Old the Universe Is?

In terms of subjects, astronomy was my first love and is still way up there. (OK, bad joke.) When I was a teen in the mid-1970s, I began to study it in earnest through some books I had bought. In the process, one thing that began to trouble me was the age of the universe. Even though I wasn’t a Christian yet, I was very familiar with the Genesis 1 account of God’s creating the world in six days. I wondered if the six days were literal 24-hour days or not. (I also struggled with the transition from Day Three to Day Four, but eventually I discovered a scientific explanation for what happened, which I have written about elsewhere.)

Eventually, I talked to my dad (a pastor) about this, and he said there were a lot of things that happened on Day Six, including Adam’s naming the animals. He humorously illustrated this by saying, “I picture Adam sitting on a rock, with the animals parading by. He says, ‘Ah, let’s call this one with the big trunk an elephant, and here’s one with antlers; let’s call it a deer. And…’ Whoosh! An animal runs by super-fast. ‘Come back here!’ Adam calls out and then says, ‘That must have been the cheetah.'” I laughed and laughed at my dad’s imagination because of his humor, but also because I was relieved that he was open to the idea of an ancient Earth (and universe). And for decades, this is what I believed very strongly.

Fast-forward to the early 1990s, when my wife and I came back to the U.S. after spending a few years teaching English in a Third World country. I began to notice that there were plenty of Christians, including some church leaders, who not only believed that the Earth was only about 6000 years old; they even codified it in their churches’ statements of faith! This was certainly not a new idea; in 1650, Archbishop James Ussher published his calculations of the Earth’s (and universe’s) beginning in 4004 B.C. In fact, he wrote that God began creating on Saturday, October 22nd of that year at exactly 6:00 P.M.! I thought–and still think–that whatever you may believe about the age of the Earth, trying to nail down the exact date and time was great hubris on Ussher’s part.

Jumping ahead another two decades, to the 2010s, I began to read some attempts by “young-Earthers” to scientifically explain how the Earth and universe could be only a few thousand years old rather than billions of years old. A brief background: the reason that I believed so strongly that the universe (and Earth) are ancient has to do with the speed of light as it relates to distance. Regardless of your scientific background, you have probably heard of light-years. (Hello, Buzz Lightyear!) When we say that the most distant galaxy we have observed is about 13.5 billion light-years from us, that means it has taken 13.5 billion years for its light to reach us–which means that the universe is at least that old. The most recent calculations put the age of the universe at about 13.8 billion years. (The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.) Although light is super-fast, it cannot travel any faster than about 186,000 miles per second, which limits how fast it can reach us.

One intriguing way to explain how the universe (and therefore Earth) could be only a few thousand years old has to do with time dilation. Imagine that there’s a clock traveling so fast that it’s approaching the speed of light; that clock would “tick” more and more slowly the faster it goes. If it actually reached the speed of light, it would stop “ticking.” In fact, light itself does not experience the passage of time. Applying this to creation: light from stars created on Day 4 would take billions of years to reach us as measured by clocks in deep space, but could theoretically reach us in a few thousand years as measured by clocks on Earth. In truth, it’s more complicated than what I have very briefly laid out here, but by now I’ve probably “bent” your mind enough!

I mentioned earlier that in the 1990s, I noticed that some churches (not including mine, thankfully) even included a young Earth as part of their statements of faith. I also met other people, especially a couple of teens, who had questions about the age of the Earth. One of them was the son of a close friend of mine; the son was also a close friend of my son. His father was a scientist but was rather adamant that the Earth was only a few thousand years old; a church youth-group leader said the same. When my friend’s son asked me about it, I told him that I thought the universe and Earth were billions of years old; he is now in his mid-30s and is not a Christian, at least not yet. My son (a Christian) also had questions related to the age of the Earth as well as evolution; my wife and I answered those questions as they came. To be clear: I’m not saying that my son is a Christian because we at least allowed for the possibility of an ancient universe and Earth; neither am I saying that my friend’s son is a non-Christian because of what his father said about the same topic. I’m saying that if Christians and the churches they are a part of are not so adamant about a young Earth and universe, it helps keep the door open for more conversations about that topic as well as many other important conversations, including about evolution. I should add that as a lifelong friend of mine would say, what you believe about the age of the universe and Earth is not a salvation issue.

Regarding evolution: it seems that there are many Christians who believe that if the universe and Earth are ancient, that automatically implies macroevolution (the change from one species to another). Not so! I have written several posts related to evolution, which I think hardly deserves to even be called a theory anymore, let alone a fact as it’s presented in our schools. Some scientists have written that even 4.5 billion years is not enough time for evolution to have produced the amazing diversity of life that we see. And in fact, more and more scientists are coming around to the idea of intelligent design, which I have also written about. In other words, it’s possible to believe that the universe and Earth are ancient–and at the same time, it’s possible to believe that evolution is not true.

So, where do I stand now regarding the age of the universe (and the Earth)? I am an agnostic, meaning I don’t know if the universe and Earth are a few thousand years old or billions of years old. However, I lean somewhat in the direction of ancient rather than young. I believe that God created everything, regardless of the time frame in which it happened. When I get to heaven, I look forward to finding out the answer to this important question, and I am content with waiting until then. Much more importantly, I look forward to being in the presence of the Lord and all of His people for all eternity!