13.8 thousand million years …
An interesting figure. Large enough to avoid independent checking. Precise enough (13.82 billion rather than 14.0 billion) to give a sense of accuracy, around 0.1 billion years greater than the age calculated just a few years previously.
By comparison, our galaxy is said to be 13.21 (by some, a different figure by others) billion years old. Our solar system, 4.5 billion. The Earth 4.4 billion (at least 4.374 billion, but maybe 4.54).
There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in existence at the moment. That is expected to rise to 200 billion as space telescope technology improves. (That many? Why not 150 billion? Why not 300 billion, or 400, or even more? Actually, another estimate is 2 trillion. Another is around 10 trillion.)
Whatever the current figures, they are not to be challenged (even if they are in conflict) outside astronomical circles.
If we look carefully, can we detect religious overtones within that “scientific circle”?
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Most galaxies are moving away from ours at a rate that is related to the distance from us. With some exceptions, the farther away they are, the faster they are receding. In all directions. The universe is therefore expanding. Therefore there must be undetectable “dark energy” pushing the galaxies apart. (What is the other explanation that requires no “dark energy”?)
But “dark energy” appears not to exist within galaxies. According to accepted gravitational and rotational formulas, galaxies need undetectable “dark matter” to hold them together. (If someone with a logical, enquiring mind (MoreCoffee comes to mind, in Pedrito’s mind) looked closely at those formulae as applied to galaxies, would that person detect the same logical flaw that Pedrito seems to have found?)
And why hasn’t the “dark matter” already squashed those galaxies that have little or no rotation and therefore have no centrifugal force to resist it? Does the detected apparent flaw in one of the formulae explain it all?
And if other galaxies are moving away from us predictably and uniformly in all directions, does that not mean that we are located at the point of the “Big Bang”? Where does astronomical science say the location of the “Big Bang” was? (Is the true explanation the same as that related to “dark matter” above?)
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Now, with respect to some of the comments made in this thread (and elsewhere): One thing that puzzles Pedrito is that the Bible states with definiteness that the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23a) That is why the death sentence was passed on humanity. (Genesis 2:17; 3:19) That is why people die. And, until rescue from death was provided by God via the arrival, death and resurrection of His Son (Romans 6:23b; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22), that death was eternal, without remedy. Thus the wages had been paid.
Now we find that because Jesus took all our sins upon Himself and paid for them by His unrequired (personally unnecessary) death (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 Timothy 2:3-4), every dead person will as a consequence get their lives back via resurrection (although some dispute that). And suddenly those people have to pay all over again for the sins that they have already paid for – sins that in fact have been transferred to (laid on) someone else, anyway.
Pedrito cannot help but wonder at this.
