In my book I explore some alternatives to solve the time-difference enigma. One of them is that the expansion of the universe created the “illusion of the expansion of time.” In fact, the expansion of the universe was recorded in the Tanach. In Tehillim (104:2) and many other biblical texts, the creation of heavens is described as an act distinct from the establishment of planet Earth. The extraordinary words used in Tehillim are “noteh shamayim kayri’a” – the Creator expanded and stretched heavens, the universe, like a flexible fabric.
The expansion of the universe necessarily affects our perception of the universe’s age. If we find, for example, that galaxy A is one billion light years away from a point of reference X, we would inevitably assert that it took this galaxy at least one billion years to move from that original point to the point where it is found now. However, when our basic assumption is that God created the universe and He generated the universe’s expansion at the first act of Creation, the 13.5 billion years scientists give as the age of the universe is not the time that elapsed since the moment of creation but the perception of time produced when the universe was created by God.
The recently discovered gravitational waves may be nothing but the echoes of God’s initial act of creation. Thanks to modern scientific progress we are getting closer to a better understanding of Bereishit. And, perhaps, to solving the science vs. religion time-difference enigma.
