The Marriage Between Science and God

The universe began 14 billion years ago in an event called the Big Bang. Everything in existence went from smaller than an electron to 93 billion light-years in less than a picosecond.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. It took six days. On the seventh, He rested. At first, there was only the void. Darkness moved across the face of the water. God created the Earth and many plants and crawling things. He shaped man and woman from clay and breathed life into their nostrils.

Different but the same? It's not like I really know what a billion light-years means or universe or picosecond. I nod and say sure, yeah, that makes sense. But in my heart of hearts, I'm taking it on faith.

My society tells me a billion makes sense so I say okay. I believe whatever scientists tell me. I believe what Science tells me. We're walking a very fine line here, friend. How about we just say God and Science got married?

We were all there. It was a huge celebration, even bigger than Bilbo's one hundred and eleventh birthday. All the animals came two by two, and every human on Earth was there too. We all filed across the land, up the mountain and down into a bowl, a natural amphitheater where, in front of a trillion pairs of eyes, feelers, and other various forms of sensors, God and Science were betrothed by Old Man Snake.

The sun shone. Birds sang. The mountain meadow smelled of pine and fresh flowers. A babbling brook laughed on the mountainside and, for an instant, everyone felt it – a perfect union in the air.

Altogether we walked that razor's edge up to the top of the mountain where, riding a zephyr high over the rainbow, the two young lovers retired to the matrimonial bed. Then the party really kicked off. The babbling brook became champagne and a nearby glacier brought glasses. The entire human race and all of the animals got high in the moonlight. We danced, laughed, sang, and cried. Great bonds were forged out of steel.

The next day at sun-up, everything was asleep. Even the brook, happiest of all, was snoring gently, a party hat pulled low over her eyes. Oh, it was wonderful when the two became one. Since then, life's been a dream.