Introduction
The relationship between the Islamic story of creation and the scientific ‘Big Bang’ theory presents two relatively similar concepts that seem to agree on certain occurrences about creation.
In the ‘big bang’ theory of creation, scientists believe that the universe keeps on expanding with time as a result of the big bang that took place 13-15 billion years ago (Smith & Worden, 2003).
Scientists argue that before the big bang, everything existed in concentrated tiny dense mass. However, this scientific theory does not explain the main source of the matter. Instead, it only states that a tremendous explosion caused the scattering of the particle into an expanding universe.
Scientists believe that even today the different galaxies are separating from one another and that a process known as red shift explains this occurrence.
Furthermore, the big bang theory; believe that the stars and planets were formed as a result of the cooling effect on the galaxy. This process led to the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago and eventually life began on earth.
One the other hand, the Islamic story of creation believes that a supreme God called Allah created the heavens in six days from nothing and that this God controls the universe and its existence.
Comparison
It is worth noting that the Islamic story of creation shares many concepts with the ‘big bang’ theory. Many scholars argue that the big bang theory does not bruise the Islamic beliefs; on the contrary, it has influenced the correlation between science and religion. However, this does not hold true for Christianity (Smith & Worden, 2003, p.7).
Various similarities exist between the scientific big bang theory and the Islamic story of creation. The Quran also asserted that Allah created the heavens and all that is between them in six days.
This translates to almost 50,000 years according to the Quran (Smith & Worden, 2003). It further allows the Islamic creation story significantly more congruence and less conflict with modern science and the ‘big bang’ theory.
These similarities show how the Islamic belief in the story of creation shares the same perceptions with the big bang theory. In addition to that, Islamic has embraced science in explaining some concepts of religion (Smith & Worden, 2003).
This has led to the formation of a science-religion relationship between the two principles. However, much as Islamic belief agrees with science, it expresses different views when science compromises Islamic religious values. An example is the issue of birth control that Islam does not agree with (Smith & Worden, 2003).
Conclusion
To summarize this argument, various evidences clearly shows that the Islamic story of creation shares similar concepts with the big bang theory and that Islam and science are not in contention. On the contrary, they relate to each other on different angles.
The similarity between the Islamic theory of creation and that of ‘big bang’ is just. They both corresponds with modern cosmology’s ‘big bang’ theory that at some point particles came together and then continued to gather.
In science, even the smallest particles-electrons and protons, or even smaller still, quarks-all have an energetic charge. This is true also of the Islamic views- there is constant and continuous energy in everything, absolutely everything.
Reference List
Smith, P., & Worden, D. (2003). Key beliefs, ultimate questions and life issues. Oxford: Heinemann Educational.