Page 312 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 22 GENESIS CREATION STORY AND RECENT COSMOLOGICAL FINDINGS—…
CHAPTER 22 GENESIS CREATION STORY AND RECENT COSMOLOGICAL FINDINGS—… 291

the creation flash, the lights went out, because there were no stars or any other
bright objects—they had not yet formed. This long night is known as the cos-
mic dark ages, when no stars existed. The present universe is mostly ionized, and
astronomers generally agree that this re-ionization occurred at the end of the dark

ages, between 12.5 and 13 billion years ago, when the first large-scale structures
(galaxies, galaxy clusters) were forming.” Note that the rough estimate given by
NASA is consistent with the more precise estimates quoted by Wright earlier.
“Dark Ages” are also described in a relatively recent web-page at http://asia.
spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=20827 (source: National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan, press release from September, 2006). According to this

source, as the dark ages came to conclusion, first large-scale structures appeared
in the universe. This happened as a result of the re-ionization of the universe, and
“In this case, most of the re-ionization would have taken place earlier than 12.88
billion years ago”.
Kaku (2005, 11) estimates the ages of oldest stars as 12 billon years.
Given the conflicting values reported in most recent publications, it is hard to

arrive at a value that seems to be acceptable to all. We therefore opted to relate to
the two numbers reported in Wright’s account (and quoted earlier), which deliver
dating ages of actual observable large-scale structures. Averaging these numbers,
we obtain a value of 11.8 Gyr (average of 11.5 and 12.1).
Therefore:

Y 2 = 13.7 – 11.8 = 1.9 Gyr

(The most updated current age of the universe, from the big bang, is 13.7 ± 0.2
Gyr)

Comments
The value of Y 2, as defi ned here, is currently a subject of intensive research effort,
attempting to identify a timeline for the formation of first large-scale structures in

the universe. It is therefore open to debate, and requires special attention in the
pursuing statistical analysis. Deleting this observation from the analysis, however,
would not fundamentally alter the conclusions obtained. As related earlier, an
additional analysis, excluding this observation and another, is conducted in sec-
tion 22.4.2.

Biblical Value (X2)

Genesis story of creation does not relate specifically to the formation of stars

or galaxies (obviously the latter were unknown in biblical times), but rather to