Question Greetings, I've been pissing off my scientist friends and delighting creationists with the notion that both contemporary cosmology and Christianity share a fundamental ontology - first there was nothing and then there was everything. The Big Bang is a story of miraculous creation. Therefore, both have equivalent epistemological status - either both are the Truth, or both are just good stories. I am particularly interested in arguments against. Cheers, Chris Alexander, NC

Accepted:
June 28, 2010

Comments

What fun!

But there are disanalogies -- the Christian view doesn't quite hold there ever was nothing, for there always was God -- and also I don't think it's exactly accurate to describe the Big Bang as 'first there was nothing then there was something' (it's rather: everything in the universe can be traced backwards to a singularity/explosion but nothing can be said about what if anything preceded that moment) -- but more importantly I would take issue with your claim that they have equivalent 'epistemological status' (if you m ean that in any technical sense): for scientists believe in the Big Bang as a result of a tremendous amount of empirical evidence while religious belief in divine creation is based on no such thing. So even IF both were versions of 'first nothing, then something,' the reasons for believing in them are extremely, profoundly, and fundamentally different -- hence they differ in epistemological status.

hope that's useful --

best,

Andrew Pessin