Dr.
Gerald Schroeder is a former professor of
nuclear physics at
MIT and member of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission[?]. He is the author of
Genesis and the Big Bang (Bantam Books
1990, ISBN0553354132), and the recently-published
The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom (
1997, ISBN076790303X).
In his article "What Would Newton Do?" (http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9811/johnson.html) Phillip E. Johnson writes:
- Schroeder starts by noting that the generations of humans starting with Adam adds up to 5757 years. The biblical "clock" for this purpose starts after the initial six days, a mysterious preliminary period which ancient commentators said contains "all the secrets and ages of the universe." Before Adam, and especially before the creation of the earth, the Bible speaks of time from the viewpoint of the universe as a whole, which Schroeder interprets to mean at the moment of "quark confinement," when stable matter formed from energy early in the first second of the big bang.
- Relativity theory teaches that time passes much more slowly in conditions of great gravitational pressure than it does on earth. Using these familiar principles, Schroeder calculates that a period of six days under the conditions of quark confinement, when the universe was approximately a million million times smaller and hotter than it is today, is equal to fifteen billion years of earth time. Genesis and modern physics are reconciled.
Schroeder's article (which includes a layman's explanation of his calculations) is "The Age of the Universe." (http://www.geraldschroeder.com/age.html)
http://www.geraldschroeder.com/