01/02/2026
I just answered a question on Quora. Since it is not possible to share individual answers, I have copied and pasted the question and answer here.
Q: Why does the Bible say the universe and Earth were created in 7 days if the universe is 13 billion years old and the Earth is 4.5 billion years old?
A: This is a very interesting question considering that the math is off to begin with. I am a Minister of all Faiths, and would like to scientifically break this down within religion.
Pure scientific findings consistently point to only one conclusion: the universe had a singular start, an explosion, where everything we know--the universe, time, space, scientific laws we observe--all had a beginning. If you have ever wanted to believe in God, but certainly did not want to do so in contradiction of known scientific facts, science provides you reason to believe that God exists and powerfully created all things.
It is logical to conclude that God, who is from the beginning, eternal and outside of time, CREATED time. God who is present everywhere and cannot be confined to space, created space. God who is spiritual, non-physical and outside of matter is the source of our universe and all that is. This is the message blatantly repeated throughout all religion.
All discovery is limited by our own perceptions. Religion is filled with poetry and metaphorical language and though I am sure that there is no hidden pattern or clues hidden in it for a higher truth than the knowledge of science about our universe, I am sure that much of the religious language is not to be taken and interpreted literally, it should be within its context, translated and understood.
For something to be created it has to have a beginning. Since everything falls in the measuring tape of time, matter can not be produced from nothing since that would cancel the scientific fact and the atheist’s belief.
Genesis 1:1–5
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
Order of Ages 1:2 - 3
“Because God doth all things according to his infinite Wisdom, therefore there is no indifference of Will in him; and therefore, in all things he doth, he is a necessary Agent, and yet also the most free Agent. Therefore he did necessarily create the Worlds, and that not by constraint from any foreign Agent, but from the Determination of his internal Goodness and Wisdom.”
THE FORBIDDEN RELIGION Chapter 3: TIME IS EVIL
“The bible doesn’t say so, but time started with the Big Bang. At the very start of creation when god said “Let there be light”, these four words could not have been spoken if time hadn’t existed. Time was created by the creator god when he created light. The first great explosion and expansion could not have existed without time. Time and space were created together and are thus inseparable. Time is the breath of the creator god. And all his creation, the expansion of the universe, the evolution of species, the gradual development of his plan, could not occur without time.”
First point.
What is a “Day”?
Considering we are reading this from a human perspective, we think of a day as 24 hours.
Seeing as how Genesis says that the Earth and the Heavens were “created in 6 days”, from a human’s perspective, that makes no literal, figurative, or logical sense. Considering that humans are not in the picture yet, everything is from God’s perspective.
Surah 22:47
"…a day relative to your God is equivalent to a thousand years of your count."
2 Peter 3:8
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
At this point, we have “6 days” that are equivalent to roughly 6,000 years in human time. That’s a bit more of a stretch, but it still makes more sense than 6 literal 24-hour periods. However, I would like to point out that even 6,000 years also seems off…you know? But if we take the idea of 1,000 years to us being a day to God, how would God see the universe in time?
Second point.
How IS the age of the universe “calculated”?
To do so, astronomers rely on red shift to calculate the speeds and distance of the furthest galaxies and quasars. These distances give us indications to the age of the universe. The most distant quasars, which have velocities of some 240,000 km/sec. (80% the speed of light), are at distances of up to 14 billion light years (a light year being the distance travelled by light in one year). When we look into depth of space, we are actually looking back far into the past. When we look at that distant quasar, we are not seeing it as it is now, but as it was “14 billion years ago”.
The calculation of the age of the universe during the last 70 years or so has fluctuated between 10 and 20 billion years.
It is interesting to know that the age of the universe has been mentioned between the Quran and the Bible.
Technically, God only actually created the first day. After that, the original Hebrew states the Elohim created everything else under the command of God.
Genesis 1:26
“Then the Elohim said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
The Elohim would travel from wherever Heaven is, to here, to create. One would imagine that would take a long time!
Surah 70:4
"the angels and the spirit ascend unto Him in a day, the measure of which was fifty thousand years."
This verse refers to the ascent of angels and the spirit back to heaven after settling all matters of life in the universe. The verse clearly said a day that "was" and not a day that "is", which clearly indicates that that day was in the past (50,000 years ago).
With a few simple equations:
If 1 day (for God) = 1000 years (for man)
1 year (for God) = 1000 x 365 (for man)
= 365,000 years
50,000 years (for God) = 365,000 x 50,000 (for man)
= 18.25 billion years!
The 50,000 years mentioned in Surah 70:4 are meant to be of God's years and not of man. This is no different than Genesis 1:1–5 in referring to the “days” of creation. This is because man was not mentioned at all in that verse, and more importantly because the subject of the verse (creation of the universe) is obviously a matter executed by God and not by man and, so, its description must also be as related to God and not to man.
