Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. So could it have been created
in 7 days like in the Book of Genesis? It may sound crazy,
but it actually could have been possible for someone to watch the Earth form in 7 days.
For this adventure, we will use science to show exactly how this could have happened.
Let’s start off by saying that the Earth is very very old and took a very very
long time to become the planet we have today. Using science, math, and empirical evidence,
we know that the Earth was created around 4.6 billion years ago. In fact, life on the planet
has been around for around 3.7 billion years in the form of microbes, and humans evolved around
300,000 years ago in Africa. Obviously, all of these time spans are much longer than 7 days.
So, how could it be possible to see all of these things happening in just 7 days?
All you need is a lot of gravity and some time dilation to make it
work. The crazy part is that this can all be explained by science.
Before we get into exactly how the Earth and all the things on it could have come about in 7 days
let’s take a look at what events needed to happen for the Earth to form. There are two
versions to this story: the first revolves around science and mathematics; the second
is based on religion. Surprisingly, these two creation stories have several similarities.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. “God said, Let there be light:
and there was light.” This is where Genesis starts and how many religions, including Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam, believe everything started. Interestingly, according to scientists, this is
also how the solar system and Earth started, minus the deity getting everything started of course.
Scientists have shown that our solar system, like all solar systems, started as a nebula. The gas,
dust, and particles started to attract one another, causing everything to swirl around a
central focal point which would eventually become the sun. Once the center became dense enough,
the amount of gravity caused atoms to start fusing together, nuclear fusion had begun,
and our sun was born. At this point, there was light just like in the opening lines of Genesis.
Interestingly, some of the forces that caused the sun to form can also help explain
how Earth's entire creation could be viewed in only 7 days.
When the sun was created, it consumed around 99% of all matter in the nebula,
leaving just a small fraction of the original materials to create the planets. This remaining
matter continued to swirl and collide with one another, making slightly bigger particles.
Eventually, the remaining matter coalesced into planets and dwarf planets that moved into the
orbital paths of the early solar system. Even at this point, things were still pretty chaotic.
Around 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth was slightly smaller than it is today
and was constantly being bombarded by asteroids, comets, and other planets. We have discovered
what the Earth's early history was like by examining asteroids and other celestial
bodies that have fallen to our planet or through exploration missions around the solar system.
Early on in the solar system's formation, there were a series of protoplanets orbiting
the newly formed sun. These celestial bodies were about the size of Mars or
slightly smaller. Their size provided them with enough gravitational pull to
attract one another and led to larger, more destructive collisions. However,
this also led to the creation of many of the planets we see today, including planet Earth.
Using the composition of asteroids and other space rocks, scientists have hypothesized that
the shift from dust to protoplanets took tens of millions of years. Again, you probably realize
that this is much longer than 7 days, but stay with us. There is still an explanation for how
the Earth and everything around it could have been created in only a week's time.
However, what happens next in Earth’s history does seem contradictory to what happened in
Genesis. It is surprising how closely the chronology of events in the 7 day creation
story matches up with the events that created Earth, according to science. Unfortunately,
the next event that occurred during the conception of Earth is misplaced in Genesis.
Around 60 to 150 million years after the solar system was born,
Earth collided with another protoplanet. When these two planetoids smashed into one another,
they created a new planet that would eventually become Earth.
Millions of tons of debris were ejected into space due to the impact. This debris
eventually all came together in orbit around the Earth and formed the moon we have today.
We know that the moon was created from part of the Earth because when astronauts brought
back lunar rocks from the moon landings, it was found that the moon rocks were composed
of the same proportions of elements as those on Earth. The only way this
could have happened is if both celestial bodies came from the same initial planet.
This means that in the creation story in Genesis, the next chronological event should have been God
created the moon. But that doesn't happen until day 4. Perhaps the writers of this story just
mixed up the dates, but according to the 7 day creation story, it was on the fourth day that “God
made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night:
he made the stars also,” referring to the creation of the sun, moon, and other stars in the universe.
Either way, in the history of our planet, the moon was created before any oceans, land, or life,
so it would have been better if God made it on the second day of creation. This is especially
true because when the protoplanet slammed into Earth, it caused a massive explosion
and an immense amount of destruction. Entire portions of Earth were ejected into space
that eventually formed the moon. The rest of the planet became a gigantic molten sea of magma. So,
if this happened on day 4 of creation, everything that came before it would have been wiped out.
After the massive impact that formed the moon, Planet Earth officially had been created and
put on the path to becoming the world we live on today. Although for several million years,
the entire planet was inhospitable for life as there was no atmosphere
and the entire surface was now made of magma. This brings up an interesting connection to
the Genesis creation story. On the second day of creation, it is written: “And God said, Let
there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
Perhaps this is not referring to literal water, or even heaven and Earth, but the flowing magma
on the surface of the planet. And if this is the case, then the next part of the Genesis
story and what we know from science about the creation of the Earth are eerily similar.
Over time the magma eventually cooled, and the crust of the Earth was formed.
There was still plenty of volatility during this time as volcanoes erupted
and rogue asteroids bombarded the planet, but this was also the time when plate tectonics began,
which played a key role in what would come next in the creation of Earth. Plate tectonics allowed
for the movement of the surface layer of the planet. This process created trenches, mountains,
and caused natural phenomena such as volcanoes to release carbon dioxide and water vapor into
the air. This was the very beginning of what would become the atmosphere that we have today.
In Genesis, the land was created on day three. This more or less aligns with the chronology of
when the land was created in Earth's creation theorized by scientists. In Genesis, it says:
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place,
and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth;
and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
Scientists believe that after the magma ocean that covered Earth cooled, that land was created.
As tectonic plates began to move, the water vapor released into the air rained back down on Earth
and formed the oceans and other bodies of water. This process, in conjunction with water trapped
in comets and asteroids that struck Earth, is what formed our oceans. This also aligns with
the series of events in the 7 day creation story. Again the main discrepancy here is the length of
time. According to the creation story, these events happened within three days of the sun
forming. Conversely, science says it took almost a billion years for all of these things to happen.
However, chronologically, both versions of the creation of Earth are still pretty closely aligned
except for when the moon was made. The main problem is that the span of time between the two
is vastly different. But we still believe this can be reconciled as long as everything else lines up.
First, let's talk about how and when life got started on our planet since this is one of the
key events in Earth’s past. Around 3.6 billion years ago, the very first life evolved on Earth.
These creatures were single-celled organisms, and it would be a long time before plants and
animals covered the world. Unfortunately, in Genesis, it doesn’t say anything about
“first God created the microbes.” But it does say, “And God created great whales,
and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly.”
As whales are mammals they came much later in Earth’s history than the first microbes. However,
life on the planet evolved in water, so the fifth day of the creation story matches up
with that fact. The problem is that life evolved over a billion years after the
creation of the solar system, not five days after. And it wasn’t for another
billion years or so that photosynthesizing bacteria came about that would put oxygen
into the atmosphere. All was quiet for another billion years after the first
microbes on Earth and then around 650 million years ago, life exploded across the planet.
Perhaps this burst of life corresponds to the 6th day of the Genesis story when
“God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind:
and God saw that it was good.” We are now closer to the present both in Genesis and
the timeline that scientists have provided us. The Earth is covered in life in both versions.
However, something that the Genesis story doesn’t address until later in the story
is mass extinctions. This is an important part of the creation of the Earth we have
today. There have been five mass extinctions, the largest of which occurred 252 million years ago,
known as the Permian-Triassic extinction. During this event, around 90% of all
life on the planet was wiped out. This may sound reminiscent of the Noah’s Ark story,
but humans wouldn’t be on the Earth for another 251 million years or so.
And we can’t forget the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction that occurred around 66 million
years which wiped most of the dinosaurs off the face of the planet. The reason
that these events are so important to the history of Earth is that each extinction
was a result of a massive change to the planet. Sometimes the extinction event came from space,
like with an asteroid impact. Other times, extinction came from the planet itself,
such as a supervolcano eruption or an ice age that made the world one giant ice ball.
So, the story of the creation of our planet should most certainly include catastrophic
events and mass extinctions. This is not discussed in the Genesis creation story,
but that’s okay because, in the 7 days of creation, something exceptional happened
on day 6. Something that will also help explain how Earth could have been created in just 7 days.
On the 6th day, God created humans. Or, if you would like to think of it as a scientist,
humans evolved 300,000 years ago. This is a big discrepancy in the timeline,
but all will be revealed soon.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female. And God
saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day.” Humans are a recent addition in terms of Earth's timeline, which again matches
with the progression of events in the 7 day creation story. And this is where things get good.
Now that humans are on the planet, they invent mathematics and science. These are the tools we
will use to hypothesize how it could have been possible for all of the events in the creation
story of Genesis, and the 4.6 billion year history of Earth that scientists have developed
using empirical evidence, could both be true without divine intervention.
First, we will turn to Einstein for answers. We know that the faster you move,
the slower your time moves. So, would it be possible for someone traveling at the
speed of light to observe the entire creation of Earth in what they perceive to be only 7 days?
Let’s imagine you are from a technologically advanced civilization that is exploring our
solar system 4.6 billion years ago. You notice the nebula that will lead to the creation of
the sun and planets is about to collapse in on itself and birth our solar system. You maneuver
your super fast ship into the location where Earth will orbit around the sun. You throw your
ship's hyperdrive engines into full power and begin orbiting the Earth at the speed of light.
Now, as you look out your viewport, you notice that time is moving slower
for you than time is moving on Earth. The idea of this experiment is similar to how
astronauts currently orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station
come back slightly younger than they should be if they had stayed on Earth.
By slightly younger we mean milliseconds younger, which is an imperceptible amount of time. However,
their time moved slightly slower compared to ours on the planet
because they were moving at a faster speed than the Earth is. What this means is that
when the astronauts land back on Earth, they have traveled milliseconds into the future. Again,
the amount of time travel they actually did is so small that there is no perceivable change.
However, what would happen if you could travel at the speed of light? How far into
the future could you go and is it far enough to witness the Earth being formed in just 7 days?
If we take this example to the extreme and have you orbit the Earth at the speed of light in a
super-advanced spaceship as it’s forming, it is possible that at the end of your week in orbit,
you could have witnessed the entire 4.6 billion year history of Earth. This is beyond our current
ability to test as we do not currently have the technology to run this type of experiment yet.
There might be another way that you could watch Earth be created
in just 7 of your days. However, it would be much more dangerous.
Let’s imagine that you are still a part of that technologically advanced civilization just before
our solar system began 4.6 billion years ago. Now let's say that instead of trying to slow
down your time relative to Earth by moving at the speed of light, you take a different approach.
There is one place in the known universe where the laws of physics break down,
and time can slow almost to a stop. We are talking about a black hole.
Before you throw yourself into a black hole,
let's start with a disclaimer. No one actually knows what happens in a black hole,
especially once you pass the event horizon and approach the singularity. However,
we do know that the closer you are to the center of a black hole, the more gravity there is.
In order for an observer to watch the Earth being created in just 7 days, they would need to have
a highly advanced craft that would allow them to approach the event horizon of a black hole
while also being able to observe the Earth. The only way this would be possible was if
you created a black hole right next to Earth, or you entered the black hole at a different point in
the galaxy just as you observed Earth starting to form using a super high-powered telescope.
To avoid the black hole consuming Earth after you were done observing it being created,
let's say you chose the second option. You are sitting just outside of the gravitational pull
of the black hole when you begin to observe the nebula collapsing. The sun is about to burst into
existence, and the Earth will soon follow. At this moment, you move towards the black hole.
There are a few things you will need in order to survive this ordeal. You
need a spaceship capable of withstanding an immense amount of gravity while also having
enough power to eject yourself out of the black hole once your mission is complete.
The other option is that you sacrifice yourself for science just to prove that the formation
of Earth could have been observed in 7 days, but we’ll get to that later.
A black hole gets its name from the fact that the gravity within its singularity is so strong that
not even light can escape its gravitational pull once it passes the event horizon.
What is important to remember in this scenario is that time moves slower for someone who is
experiencing more gravity than an object—let’s say planet Earth in this case—does. This means
being near a black hole with a massive amount of gravity may allow your time to slow down enough
so that in a matter of days you could witness the 4.6 billion years it took for Earth to form.
What this means is that as you approach a black hole,
and look backward towards Earth through a super high-powered telescope,
what is seconds for you will be years for planet Earth. Taking this to the extreme,
the deeper you go towards a black hole, the slower your time will move compared to Earth.
There are a whole lot of problems to overcome in this scenario, but since you belong to an
infinitely intelligent species that is trying to observe the formation of a planet and the
evolution of the human species in just 7 days, you call in your brightest scientists to make it work.
Black holes are really weird places. For example, as you descend into a black hole,
your ship will be spaghettified. This means that the end of the
ship heading towards the singularity will experience more intense gravity
than the end of the ship that is further away from the singularity. This causes the two ends
of the ship to be pulled towards the middle of the black hole at different rates. The
result of these forces is that the ship will be stretched out like a piece of spaghetti.
Your engineers overcome this problem using advanced technology such as an
anti-gravity bubble. You also had a team of scientists make a telescope
that compresses the wavelengths of light reaching you inside the black hole because
they have become stretched out and shifted into different spectrums due to the immense gravity.
Once all of that is taken care of, you can begin your journey. You move closer to the black hole
while viewing Earth from your spaceship. The closer you get into the black hole,
the more gravity there is, and the slower your time moves relative to Earth. At first,
you notice the solar system Earth is a part of beginning to form slowly. The closer you
go into the black hole, the more time seems to speed up on Earth relative to your own.
At some point, you will reach a sweet spot. There will be a specific amount of gravity that will
allow 1 day for you to equal 657,142,857 years for planet Earth. Obviously, it will be hard to make
out exactly what is happening at any given moment on Earth, but if the gravity was strong enough,
you would only have to wait 7 days for 4.6 billion years to pass on Earth. This means that
you have observed the Earth being created in 7 of your days. Does this make you God? Maybe.
Let’s be very clear. This would be impossible with the technology we currently have. In fact,
it would probably be impossible no matter how technologically advanced a civilization was.
But it is theoretically possible. Especially if you don’t mind taking a one-way trip to the
singularity at the center of a black hole. The observing of 4.6 billion years passing in Earth
time relative to your time would be the easy part. Getting out of the pull of the black hole as you
would likely need to be past the event horizon to carry out this experiment would be much harder.
It is important to note that this black hole observation scenario means that the observer
from within the black hole would see the 4.6 billion years it took to create Earth in 7
days and that the creation of the planet didn’t actually take 7 days in Earth time.
This is where we reach an impasse for this theory.
There is no way that the planet could have been created in 7 Earth days. The
vastness of space and the number of events that needed to take place in order to get
from the creation of the sun and Earth to where we are today needed billions of years
to happen. In no scenario would these events be able to occur in just 7 days.
Although that might not actually be true if we bring God into the equation. There may be a way
that the story of Genesis could have happened in 7 days, but it would have to do with semantics.
It may be due to humanity's own hubris that we believe a day for God is the same as a day for us.
Perhaps in the creation story from Genesis, a day for God equals hundreds of millions of
years. If this is the case, then it is possible that the Earth was created in 7 of God's days.
And going along with bringing God into this scenario, if he, she, or they are omnipotent and
all powerful then they could do literally anything they wanted. Therefore, if God wanted to create
the world in 7 days, they absolutely could and then hide the evidence from scientists altogether.
There is something satisfying about connecting certain parts of the Genesis creation story to
science. Science is always changing, and theories are updated when new or better
information is available. Right now, we are pretty sure that Earth was created
4.6 billion years ago with the rest of the solar system. It then went through
a series of catastrophes and changes that eventually led to the world we have today.
It was only about 5,500 years ago that writing was invented in Mesopotamia.
According to scholars, the book of Genesis was probably written around 3,500 years ago.
This means the story itself could have been changed, or mistakes may have been made,
as it was passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps instead of 7 days,
the original creation story was supposed to take 7 giga-annums. One giga-annum is 1 billion years.
This would mean that creation of the Earth actually took 7 billion years in Genesis,
which is much closer to how long scientists hypothesized it took.
This is even more true when you take into account that the Earth actually didn’t take 7
days to complete, according to Genesis. We have to remember that “on the seventh day God ended
his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."
So, Earth was actually finished in 6 days. This doesn’t really change
anything discussed in this video, it's just something to keep in mind
when trying to reconcile how 4.6 billion years could pass in only a matter of days.
Now watch “These Were The Most Important Events
In The History of the Earth.” Or check out “Most Weird Stories in the Bible.”