The Six Days of Genesis

The Six Days
of Genesis
Biblical Wisdom and Scientific
Understanding Reunited

Presentation created by Sarah Salviander, Ph.D.,
© 2016 SixDay Science, LLC.
Inspired by The Science of God by Gerald L.
Schroeder, Ph.D.
This presentation may not be copied, in whole
or in part, without written permission by SixDay
Science, LLC.

Since the time of Aristotle,
scientists mostly believed that
the universe was eternal and
uncreated.
Matter and motion
are eternal. Therefore
the world is eternal.

An eternal universe was difficult to
reconcile with Genesis.
“In the beginning…”
–Genesis 1:1

That’s where things remained for
2,300 years, but it all began to change
at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1915, German-born physicist, Albert
Einstein, published his most famous
work—the general theory of relativity—
and it would lead to a great revolution in
science.

I want to know
His thoughts.
The rest are
details.
Einstein was known for pithy remarks. He once
famously said…

One of those “thoughts” was a theory of
gravitation expressed in a concise collection of
equations called the Einstein field equations.
Gµυ + Λgµυ = Tµυ
8πG
c4

It was elegant, but Einstein wasn’t sure
the equations could be solved.
However, physicists almost immediately
began to solve them and learn all sorts
of interesting things about the universe.

Belgian priest and cosmologist, Georges
Lemaître, discovered something shocking
about the universe in his solution to the
equations.
The universe
can expand or
contract!

Lemaître vigorously pursued the idea of
an expanding universe. He called it “the
hypothesis of the primeval atom.”
It would eventually
become the big
bang theory, and for
that reason he’s
known as the father
of the big bang.

This was the first serious scientific
challenge to the millennia-old
idea that the universe is static and
eternal.
It was later supported by
observations made by an
American astronomer
named Edwin Hubble.

You probably recognize
the name—the Hubble
Space Telescope is
named after him.

Hubble observed that
other galaxies are moving
away from the Milky Way,
and that the further away
they are, the faster they’re
moving away.
This was strong evidence
for an expanding universe.

Incidentally, there are several
references to an expanding
universe in scripture.
“He stretches out the heavens
like a canopy, and spreads them
out like a tent to live in.”
—Isaiah 40:22

15
We are still experiencing that expansion. In
fact, the rate of expansion is increasing with
time.

a beginning
past
If galaxies are moving further away from each other
with time, they must have been closer together in
the past. This implies a beginning for the universe.

“big bang”
past
British astrophysicist, Fred Hoyle, was the first to
call it the “big bang.” He thought the universe was
eternal, and was very skeptical of the big bang.

One of the main predictions
of big bang theory was that
there would be leftover
radiation from the “bang.”
The leftover radiation
was discovered in the
1960s. Lemaître learned
of it shortly before he
died.

Two American physicists, Arno Penzias and Robert
Wilson, discovered the leftover radiation.

At first, they thought the
signal was an error, and
maybe even due to pigeon
droppings on the equipment.
But it was real, and turned out to be one of the
greatest scientific discoveries of all time.

This is a sky map of the cosmic
microwave background radiation
from the WMAP satellite.

The leftover radiation from the big
bang forms a uniform background of
microwave energy pervading the
entire universe. This is what the sky
looks like in microwave light.
This is a sky map of the cosmic
microwave background radiation
from the WMAP satellite.

Back in the days of analog
television, antennas could
pick up this background
energy. About 1% of this
static was leftover energy
from the big bang.

The evidence for the big bang was overwhelming.
However, a lot of scientists hated it, including the
late biologist, John Maddox, who was a long-time
editor of the prestigious journal, Nature.
Big bang theory is
philosophically
unacceptable.

For some people, the big bang was too close to
Genesis for comfort. After London journalists
heard about evidence for the big bang in 1961,
newspapers published headlines that read “The
Bible was right” and “’How it all began’ fits in
with Bible story.”

Prior to Lemaître and Hubble, scientists
mostly agreed with Hoyle and Maddox that
the universe was eternal—no beginning, no
end, no need for God. So, Genesis was in
conflict with mainstream science and
philosophy for about two thousand years.

With the big bang, science finally
accepted that the universe had a
beginning, just as Genesis says.
Prior to Lemaître and Hubble, scientists
mostly agreed with Hoyle and Maddox that
the universe was eternal—no beginning, no
end, no need for God. So, Genesis was in
conflict with mainstream science and
philosophy for about two thousand years.

However, other serious conflicts between
scripture and science seem to remain.

The Bible claims the universe and all life
on Earth was created and developed in
six days, followed by about 6,000 years
since Adam. Science provides evidence
that the universe is billions of years old.
Problem
1

The Bible has plants growing on Earth
before the Sun appears.
Problem
2

The Bible says Adam was the first
human, but science has evidence of
humans living long before Adam
appeared 6,000 years ago.
Problem
3

Is this proof that the Bible is still
hopelessly at odds with science?

The answer might surprise you.
Is this proof that the Bible is still
hopelessly at odds with science?

The truth is, there is no conflict between
science and scripture. As was the case
with the big bang, science is just taking a
long time to catch up with the wisdom of
the Bible.

This idea was echoed by the late NASA
astrophysicist, Robert Jastrow, when he said...

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of
reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the
mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest
peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted
by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for
centuries.
“
“

U
Six days is
ridiculous.
Billions of
years is
heretical.
And yet, at first glance, Genesis and science
couldn’t seem to disagree more.

The truth is, both are correct.
Genesis is literally true and the
universe is billions of years old.

The key to resolving this apparent
discrepancy is understanding that time
described in Genesis is special. Let’s
look at the evidence.

1When the contemporary Western calendar
tells us it is October 1st of the year 2016, it
will be the start of the year 5777 according to
the Jewish calendar. A naïve interpretation is
that it has been 5777 years since the creation
of the universe; however, the Jewish calendar
does not include the first six days of Genesis.
The first six days are set apart, as though there
were something special about them.

2Time described in Genesis differs from time
described in the rest of the Bible, once Adam
appears.

2
Before Adam
Blocks of events occur,
and then we’re told a day
passes. There is no special
connection between the
events and the passage of
time.
After Adam
The passage of time is
tied directly to earthly
events.

3Genesis describes time going forward.
Why does this matter? Humans can only
perceive the events of the universe after they
have happened, not while they are happening
—we are always looking backward in time.
But there is a subtle clue that the events in
Genesis are not described in the usual human
way.

3
Compare these two passages:
Genesis 1:5: And there was an evening and a morning, one day.
(cardinal)
Genesis 1:8: And it was evening and morning, a second day.
(ordinal)
Many English translations incorrectly give the day in Gen 1:5 in
the ordinal form: “a first day.” In Hebrew, it’s in the cardinal form:
“one day.” Nahmanides explains the meaning: In relating the
events of Genesis starting with the cardinal “one day,” we infer
there are not yet any other days with which to compare it. By the
second day, there is already a first day, so Genesis uses the
ordinal form. Genesis describes events going forward in time,
which is not the way we perceive them.

4Prior to the creation of Adam on Day 6, God is
the only one watching the clock.

There are non-scriptural clues, as well. The
ancient biblical scholar Nahmanides intuited
that the six days of creation contain “all the
secrets and ages of the universe.”
How can days contain ages of the universe,
unless there is something special about them?

Five clues that Genesis time is special
1.  The first six days are not included in the
Jewish calendar.
2.  Events before and after Adam are described
differently.
3.  Genesis describes time going forward.
4.  Only God was watching the clock before
Adam.
5.  The days of creation contain “all the secrets
and ages of the universe.”
5

Together, these clues strongly
suggest Genesis 1 is told
solely from God’s perspective.
The Bible switches to an earthly
perspective, but only after Adam
appears on Day 6.

So, how do we use this to relate six
literal 24-hour days with a universe
that is 14 billion years old?

Time is not
absolute.
In order to relate Genesis time to earthly time,
we go back to Einstein.

Time is flexible. It can be
stretched so that it flows
at different rates.
Differences in the flow of
time are only noticeable
when you compare one
frame of reference with
another—this is why it’s
called relativity.

A frame of reference is like a point of view. In
physics, it refers to things that are experiencing
the same conditions, like the same velocity and
gravity.

For example, the subway train on the right and everyone on it are in
the same frame of reference, because they’re all going the same
velocity—the velocity of the train.
The people on the platform are in a
different frame of reference, because
they are stationary with respect to
the moving train.

Differences in the flow of
time depend on…
Relative speed
Relative gravity
The stretching of
space as it expands

Relative speeds stretch out
the flow of time. If we place
a clock on a fast-moving jet
and an identical clock next
to a person on the ground,
the person on the ground
will observe the clock on the
jet to tick slower relative to
his clock.
Relative speed

Gravity stretches out the
flow of time. If we place a
clock on the surface of the
Earth and an identical clock
on a satellite in orbit around
the Earth (where gravity is
not as strong as on the
surface), the clock on the
satellite will tick faster than
the Earth clock.
Relative gravity

The difference in the flow of
time is tiny but measurable
even between the top and
bottom of a skyscraper. For
people at the top, where
gravity isn’t as strong, time
flows slightly faster relative
to the people on the ground
floor, where gravity is
slightly stronger.
Relative gravity

The stretching of space as
the universe expands
stretches out the flow of
time. The more the
universe expands, the
more the ticks of the
cosmic clock slow down
relative to earlier times
when the universe was not
as stretched out.
The stretching
of space

You may be wondering if the stretching of time has
actually been observed. The answer is yes! Many
times, in fact. Here are a few examples…
§  Muon decay in the Earth’s atmosphere
demonstrates stretching of time due to relative
velocity.
§  Spectra from the Sun’s surface demonstrate
stretching of time due to relative gravity.
§  Distant supernovae demonstrate stretching of
time due to the stretching of space.

“For a thousand years in your
sight are as a day that passes,
like a watch in the night.”
–Psalm 90:4
Interestingly, the Bible contains
hints of awareness of relativity.

To relate Genesis time to earthly
time, only the stretching of space
matters.
However, keep in mind that relative speed
and gravity do not account for the difference
between 6 days and 14 billion years. Those
examples just serve to show that the
stretching of time is real and measurable.

Criticisms of Dr. Schroeder’s model are
often based on the false assertion that
the model relies on differences in
gravity and/or velocity. It does not.
The model only relies on the stretching
of time due to the stretching of space.

Let’s see if the stretching of time from an expanding
universe can account for the difference between
what scripture says and what science says.

To do this, we use light as a
cosmic clock.

To do this, we use light as a
cosmic clock.
But first you need to understand
a little about waves to see how
this works.

wavelength
wavelength
A wave is characterized by its wavelength, the
distance between two peaks or two troughs.

It’s also characterized by frequency, the number of
waves going past an arbitrary point per second. The
longer the wave, the lower the frequency.

short wavelength
high frequency
long wavelength
low frequency

We will use the frequency of light as the
beat of our cosmic clock.

We use the frequency of the light
wave to calculate the passage of
time. The frequency of light is the
beat of the cosmic clock:
tick...tick...tick…tick...tick…tick...
Every )me a wave crest passes
this point, the clock beats once.

Every )me a wave crest passes
this point, the clock beats once.
The greater the wavelength, the
lower the frequency and the more
slowly the clock will tick:
tick.....tick.....tick..…tick.....tick.....

Remember, humans don’t appear
until Day 6, so it’s God alone who is
observing the events during the first
six days and measuring the ticks on
the Genesis clock. For God alone, a
day is 24 hours.
Let’s put all of this together with
Genesis.

How do we know each day is literally 24
hours from God’s perspective? Mostly from
context in scripture (e.g. Exodus 20:8-11).
Great biblical scholars like Rashi
and Nahmanides also believed the
days were literal 24-hour days.

Now we just need to establish some things about
God’s frame of reference. This will help us choose
a cosmic clock that relates Genesis time to
earthly time.

God, as the transcendent creator of the universe,
must have a perspective that encompasses the
entire universe, so we need the cosmic clock to
do the same.

The cosmic clock must start
ticking at the beginning of Day 1.
We can ignore it once Adam
appears on Day 6, when Genesis
switches to an earthly perspective.
The cosmic clock must be able to
relate differences in the passage of
time at different moments in the
history of the universe.

Five requirements for the cosmic clock
1.  Must uniformly encompass the universe
in its entirety.
2.  Must start ticking at the beginning of
Genesis Day 1.
3.  Must relate differences in the passage of
time at different moments in the history
of the universe.
Does such a thing exist?
3

Yes! We’ve already encountered it: the
leftover radiation from the big bang. This is
the cosmic background radiation. It’s also
called the cosmic microwave background
(CMB), since it’s in the microwave part of
the electromagnetic spectrum.

The CMB is the only light that has existed
since the beginning of the universe. It is
measurable, it is very uniform, and it
pervades the entire universe. It is the
perfect cosmic clock.

The stretching
of space
Remember: it is only the stretching of space that affects the
cosmic clock.
The stretching of space as
the universe expands
stretches out the flow of
time. The more the
universe expands, the
more the ticks of the
cosmic clock slow down
relative to earlier times
when the universe was not
as stretched out.
The stretching
of space

Space stretches as the universe expands,
pulling things away from each other.

Light waves also stretch as the universe
expands…
…causing the cosmic clock to tick slower.

This has been observed with distant exploding
stars. A supernova going off when the universe
was half its present age appears to take twice as
long to fade as a contemporary supernova.

It appears to take twice as long to fade, because
the expansion of the universe has stretched the
light from the supernova by a factor of two by the
time it reaches us.

0.000
0.100
0.200
0.300
0.400
0.500
0.600
0.700
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0
time (days)
brightness
0 20 40 60 80 100
The change in brightness of a
nearby supernova over the
course of several days.
The change in brightness of a
supernova several billion light-
years away takes noticeably
longer.

So, what does this stretching of
space and time mean for our
cosmic clock?

At the instant the big bang
occurred, the entire universe
was packed into a tiny speck
of space.
That speck expanded in an enormous
burst of energy. The stretching of space
stretched the energy left over from the
big bang— the cosmic microwave
background.

These cosmic light waves traveling through
space since the big bang have been stretched by
the same amount that the universe has stretched
since the beginning.

This means time has been stretched by the same
amount that space has been stretched.

Consider what happened every time the
universe doubled in scale...

…the distance between waves crests
of light—and hence the duration
between the ticks of the cosmic clock
—also doubled.

When the universe doubled in size, time
slowed down by a factor of 2.
When the universe quadrupled in size,
time slowed down by a factor of 4.

When the universe increased in scale
by a million, time slowed down by a
factor of 1,000,000. You get the idea.

We’re now ready to understand
how the six days of creation
contain “all the secrets and
ages of the universe.”
100

We just need to know by how much
the universe—and therefore time—
has stretched since the beginning
until now.
But to know how much time has
stretched, we need to know when
time began.

A peculiar property of time is that it is experienced only by
things that have mass.
Einstein’s special theory of relativity tells us that anything
traveling at the speed of light experiences no time at all.
Such things exist in an eternal state of “now.” Light thus
experiences no time.
Anything with mass, on the other
hand, can never travel at the
speed of light, so it always
experiences time.

Contrary to common misconception,
matter was not created with the big
bang. Space, time, and energy (in the
form of light) came into existence
immediately with the big bang.
Matter formed soon after according to
Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2,
which says that matter and energy are
interchangeable.

But just after the big bang,
the universe was so hot that
matter could just as easily
turn back to energy.
Once the universe expanded and
cooled enough for matter to remain—
a condition referred to as “quark
confinement”—time grabbed hold.

Quarks are fundamental particles—the basic building blocks of
matter. This means that, unlike particles such as protons and
neutrons, they can’t be broken down into smaller pieces. Quarks
were the first particles to be made from the energy of the big
bang. They comprise, among other things, the protons and
neutrons that all ordinary matter is made of.
proton
quarks

Let’s relate this to what Genesis says.

Genesis 1:1-2 says:
In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.
Now the earth was formless
and empty…

Nahmanides comments
that Genesis 1:1-2 means
the universe was initially
filled with “the prime
matter of the heavens and
all it would contain and the
prime matter of the earth
and all that it would
contain.”
Even though Nahmanides
wrote this statement over
700 years ago, using
nothing but his knowledge
of scripture, it could have
come from a modern
physics textbook.
108

Physicists have identified
quarks as the first form of
matter and the fundamental
building blocks of all ordinary
matter. In other words, they
are the “prime matter.”
The cosmic clock therefore
starts ticking at the moment
that prime matter is created,
the moment of quark
confinement.

The universe has expanded by a factor of about
one trillion since quark confinement.
The frequency of light traveling through the universe
since that time—the cosmic microwave background—
has been stretched by the same amount. That means
the cosmic clock ticks a trillion times slower today
than at the beginning of Genesis Day 1.

So, what does all this mean for the age
of the universe?

14 billion years ÷ 1 trillion ≈ 6 days

Actually, 14 billion years divided by one trillion equals 5.1 days.
The cosmic clock should stop ticking with the creation of Adam
about halfway through Day 6, so it should be about 5.5 days
total. The math involved in relating universal time to earthly time
is more complicated than the simple division operation above,
because the rate of expansion of the universe has not been
strictly constant. When corrected for acceleration in the rate of
expansion, the result works out to almost exactly 5.5 days.
(There is also some discrepancy that results from not knowing
the precise age of the universe in Earth years.)

That is a rather amazing claim by
itself. But our ultimate goal is to map
cosmic time onto the Genesis
account of creation. To do this, we
first need to brush up on some math.

As the universe expanded after the big bang, its scale
and the ticks of the cosmic clock were becoming ever
closer to those of the present time.
Working from the simple assumption that the universe
has expanded at an approximately constant rate, each
doubling of the scale of the universe took twice as long
as the one before it.

This is expressed as an exponential
relationship:
A = Ao e-kt
This is a variation of the well-known
compound interest formula.

Let’s apply this formula to Genesis and
cosmic time.

Genesis
Day
Start of Day
(years ago)
End of Day
(years ago)
Duration
(years)
1 14.1 billion 7.0 billion 7.1 billion
4 1.6 billion 680 million 890 million
5 680 million 230 million 450 million
6 230 million ~ 6,000 230 million
Genesis time and Earth time
(including accelerated expansion):

1 2 3 4 5 6
This is a visualization of the duration of the
Genesis days in relation to each other. Each day
is approximately half as long as the one before
it.

1 2 3 4 5 6
7.0 10.70 12.5 13.4
13.9
14.1
The numbers on top represent the end-of-day
age of the universe in billions of years.

This takes care of the seeming problem
between the biblical timeline for the universe
and the scientific one. The universe and all life
on Earth was created and developed in six days,
but solely from God’s point of view. This is fully
compatible with the scientifically determined
age of the universe of billions of years from our
earthly perspective.
Problem
1

Now that we have a timeline, let’s
compare what Genesis and science say
happen on each of the days.

Day One: Genesis 1:1-5
The Bible says: God creates the
universe; God separates light
from dark.
Science says: The big bang marks
the creation of the universe; light
breaks free as neutral atoms form;
galaxies start to form.

Day Two: Genesis 1:6-8
The Bible says: The heavenly
firmament forms.
Science says: The disk of the Milky
Way galaxy forms; the Sun, a disk
star, forms.

Day Three: Genesis 1:9-13
The Bible says: Oceans and dry
land appear; the first life, plants
appear; Kabbalah holds that this
is only the start of plant-life, which
develops further during the
following days.
Science says: The Earth has
cooled and liquid water appears
3.8 billion years ago followed
almost immediately by the first
forms of life; bacteria and
photosynthetic algae.

Day Four: Genesis 1:14-19
The Bible says: The Sun, Moon,
and stars become visible in
heavens.
Science says: Earth’s atmosphere
becomes transparent when
photosynthesis produces an
oxygen-rich atmosphere. Once
Earth's atmosphere is transparent,
the Sun, Moon, and other celestial
objects are visible from the
surface of the Earth.

Day 4 is often seen as a problem, because Genesis
appears to claim that plants were growing before the
Sun was made. However, Jewish scholarly tradition
holds that the Sun was made on Day 2 with the other
stars in the firmament, and provided light to the Earth’s
surface as soon as the Earth formed.
In terms of the science, the Sun finally became fully
visible from the Earth’s surface on Day 4, along with
other stars in the sky and the Moon, after the Great
Oxidation Event (GOE) caused the Earth’s atmosphere
to become transparent.

This eliminates the problem of plants
growing on Earth before the Sun
appears. The Sun is made before plants,
but becomes apparent later.
Problem
2

Day Five: Genesis 1:20-23
The Bible says: The first animal life
swarms abundantly in waters;
followed by reptiles and winged
animals.
Science says: The first
multicellular animals suddenly
appear, the waters swarm with
animal life having the basic body
plans of all future animals, and
winged insects appear.

Day Six: Genesis 1:24-31
The Bible says: The appearance of
land animals; mammals; and
humankind.
Science says: A massive extinction
destroys 90% of life. The land is
repopulated by mammals;
hominids appear, followed by
humans.

Day 6 is often confusing to readers who assume that
“human” and “hominid” are synonymous. However, contrary
to popular misconception, the Bible has no problem with
the fossil records of early humankind.
The ancient biblical commentators accepted the existence
of hominids, who were physically identical to Adam and his
sons but lacked one all-important feature: the human soul.
These hominids possessed the animal spirit (nefesh in
Hebrew) but not the human soul (neshama).
The great biblical commentator, Maimonides, called these
beings “mere animals in human shape and form.” [The
Guide for the Perplexed, Part II: Chapter VII]

In the original Hebrew language, Genesis 2:7 says “... and the
adam became to a living soul."
Nahmanides argues that the grammatically superfluous “to” is an
important clue: God chose a pre-existing hominid and endowed it
with a neshama—“communicating spirit” in Hebrew—to make it
fully human.
This implies that humans are distinguished from the hominid
animals by their ability to communicate spiritually with their
Creator.
In other words, it doesn’t matter if human bodies are biologically
related to those of cavemen or apes. The part of us that is in the
image of God is the spiritual, not the physical.

There is no problem with the biblical
claim that Adam was the first human.
He was. But the Bible also has no
problem with pre-Adam hominids who
existed many years before Adam.
Problem
3

1 2 3 4 5 6
7.0 10.70 12.5 13.4
13.9
14.1
Now we can add key events to the visual
timeline.

1 2 3 4 5 6
7.0 10.70 12.5 13.4
13.9
14.1
Sun and
Earth form
Big bang
Milky Way
begins to
form
First plant
life
GOE
Sun, Moon,
stars appear
Now we can add key events to the visual
timeline.
First human
ancestors

As powerful as all this is, none of it
proves God’s existence.
It does, however, show
two important things.

U
Six days is
ridiculous.
Billions of
years is
heretical.
1.  It disproves the claim that science and the
Bible are irreconcilably at odds.

2.  It shows that Genesis is the most tremendous
record of the natural history of the universe
ever written.

Genesis 1 makes at least 26 scientifically testable
statements about the origins of the universe and the
emergence of life.
All 26 are compatible with modern science and in the
correct order.
This amazing feat was accomplished 2,500 years before
the dawn of modern science.
For more discussion of this, go to sixdayscience.com.

It has taken many centuries for science to catch up to the
wisdom of the Bible. Science is still catching up. We may
not currently understand the basis for everything in
scripture, but the truth of Genesis should support our faith
in the written word of God.

When I consider your heavens,
       the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
       which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
       the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
       and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
       you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds,
       and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
       and the fish of the sea,
       all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth!
The Astronomer’s Psalm (Psalm 8:3-9)

The Six Days of Genesis

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The Six Days of Genesis