IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region.
The claim of divine authorship requires independent support. Quoting the Bible to establish the Bible’s authority merely takes us round in a circle. As Christopher Hitchens’s familiar principle reminds us, an assertion offered without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
When I and other critics argue that biblical cosmology bears little resemblance to the observable universe, however, we can point to evidence. We can compare what the texts describe with what astronomical observations reveal, and ask whether those descriptions display the knowledge we would expect of an omniscient creator.
Consider the ancient cosmology reflected in Genesis: an earthly realm beneath a firmament that separates the waters above from the waters below, with the sun, moon and stars set in that firmament. The familiar illustration of a flat earth beneath a solid dome reconstructs this ancient worldview; Genesis does not describe a planet orbiting a star in a galaxy. Its heavenly lights serve to illuminate the earth and mark days, seasons and years. Genesis 1:6–19
Elsewhere, the imagery becomes even more striking. Revelation describes stars falling to earth following the announcement of a great earthquake, while Daniel’s vision depicts a horn casting down and trampling some of the heavenly host and stars. These are apocalyptic visions, with symbolic meanings, so it would be misleading to present them as straightforward astronomical claims. Nevertheless, anyone who insists on reading such passages as literal descriptions of physical events has an obvious problem: real stars are not little lights that can fall onto the ground and be trodden underfoot. Revelation 6:12–14; Daniel 8:9–10.
Now compare that ancient picture with the James Webb Space Telescope’s image below. It shows the “Treasure Chest”, a cloud of gas and dust enclosing a young star cluster in the Carina Nebula, some 7,500 light-years away. The cluster contains an estimated 70 stars and is thought to be around 1.3 million years old. This is just one small region within our own galaxy. Webb’s infrared measurements, translated into visible colours, reveal the physical structures of a stellar nursery. ESA/Webb image and description
The question is not why ancient people lacked modern astronomical knowledge. That is entirely understandable. The question is why a supposedly omniscient author’s account should precisely reflect those human limitations. The evidence makes sense if these texts express the beliefs and imagination of the cultures that produced them. It is much harder to reconcile with the claim that they provide an inerrant scientific description dictated by the creator of the universe.
Compare the two images, then ask which account is supported by observation. Ancient people can be forgiven for misunderstanding the heavens. Those who insist that their understanding must take precedence over the evidence have rather more explaining to do.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.(Gen 1: 6-10)
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. (Gen 1: 16-17)
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. (Gen 1: 16-17)
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month takes us to a fantastical realm within our home galaxy, where piercing starlight and billowing winds sculpt dust clouds into inventive shapes. This scene is from the Carina Nebula, which lies just 7500 light-years away in the constellation Carina (the Keel).
Spanning roughly 260 light-years, the nebula is home to an incredible collection of objects, including the Cosmic Cliffs revealed in the first-ever Webb image release. The Carina Nebula is also the nearest high-mass star-forming region that allows astronomers to study the full range of star formation. This nebula houses some of the most massive stars in our galaxy as well as tens of thousands of protostars, offering a valuable opportunity to understand how stars shape their neighbourhoods.
The feature highlighted in today’s image, aptly called the Treasure Chest, looks right at home in this celestial sculpture garden. The Treasure Chest is what’s known as a cometary globule. A cometary globule is an isolated cloud of gas and dust with a dense, dark head and a sweeping tail. These clouds often somewhat resemble comets, but the Treasure Chest looks distinctly like a wooden chest with its lid wide open.
However, this chest doesn’t contain jewels or gold coins, but instead a compact cluster of young stars. These stars are responsible for the otherworldly glow coming from within the Treasure Chest, revealed by Webb’s sensitive Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Researchers estimate that the Treasure Chest’s cluster contains about 70 stars, the most massive of which is a rare O-type star roughly 19 times as massive as the Sun.
The star cluster is likely around 1.3 million years old, though earlier estimates found it to be as young as just 100 000 years old. Because of its youth, the cluster is still deeply embedded within the dusty clouds of the Treasure Chest. The individual stars in the cluster are wrapped up in dust as well; astronomers have found evidence that many of these stars are surrounded by circumstellar discs. Over time, the brilliant starlight from these young stars will dissipate the surrounding cloud and reveal the entire cluster.
The key to the Treasure Chest’s sculptural shape lies outside this image: just 39 light-years to the northwest, as measured on the sky, sits Eta Carinae, the most luminous object in the entire Carina Nebula. Eta Carinae is a star system containing at least two stars, one of which is 100 times as massive as the Sun. This star alone is about 5 million times as luminous as the Sun. Adding to this intense radiation is the nearby star cluster Trumpler 16, which also contains several extremely hot massive stars.
With Webb, astronomers have carried out an observing programme (#5408; PI: Reiter) dedicated to studying how young stars in the Carina Nebula collect gas from their surroundings and expel it through outflows.
[Image Description: A region of space filled with bright stars and clouds of gas. In the centre, the densest clouds form the shape of a chest with its lid open. The chest appears to glow from within. At its base it breaks apart into long pillars of thick gas. Many of the gas clouds in the background are dark orange globules, while others form large, pale hazes. A few brightly shining stars lie in the foreground, the biggest and brightest in front of the chest’s lid.]
Spanning roughly 260 light-years, the nebula is home to an incredible collection of objects, including the Cosmic Cliffs revealed in the first-ever Webb image release. The Carina Nebula is also the nearest high-mass star-forming region that allows astronomers to study the full range of star formation. This nebula houses some of the most massive stars in our galaxy as well as tens of thousands of protostars, offering a valuable opportunity to understand how stars shape their neighbourhoods.
The feature highlighted in today’s image, aptly called the Treasure Chest, looks right at home in this celestial sculpture garden. The Treasure Chest is what’s known as a cometary globule. A cometary globule is an isolated cloud of gas and dust with a dense, dark head and a sweeping tail. These clouds often somewhat resemble comets, but the Treasure Chest looks distinctly like a wooden chest with its lid wide open.
However, this chest doesn’t contain jewels or gold coins, but instead a compact cluster of young stars. These stars are responsible for the otherworldly glow coming from within the Treasure Chest, revealed by Webb’s sensitive Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Researchers estimate that the Treasure Chest’s cluster contains about 70 stars, the most massive of which is a rare O-type star roughly 19 times as massive as the Sun.
The star cluster is likely around 1.3 million years old, though earlier estimates found it to be as young as just 100 000 years old. Because of its youth, the cluster is still deeply embedded within the dusty clouds of the Treasure Chest. The individual stars in the cluster are wrapped up in dust as well; astronomers have found evidence that many of these stars are surrounded by circumstellar discs. Over time, the brilliant starlight from these young stars will dissipate the surrounding cloud and reveal the entire cluster.
The key to the Treasure Chest’s sculptural shape lies outside this image: just 39 light-years to the northwest, as measured on the sky, sits Eta Carinae, the most luminous object in the entire Carina Nebula. Eta Carinae is a star system containing at least two stars, one of which is 100 times as massive as the Sun. This star alone is about 5 million times as luminous as the Sun. Adding to this intense radiation is the nearby star cluster Trumpler 16, which also contains several extremely hot massive stars.
With Webb, astronomers have carried out an observing programme (#5408; PI: Reiter) dedicated to studying how young stars in the Carina Nebula collect gas from their surroundings and expel it through outflows.
[Image Description: A region of space filled with bright stars and clouds of gas. In the centre, the densest clouds form the shape of a chest with its lid open. The chest appears to glow from within. At its base it breaks apart into long pillars of thick gas. Many of the gas clouds in the background are dark orange globules, while others form large, pale hazes. A few brightly shining stars lie in the foreground, the biggest and brightest in front of the chest’s lid.]
CREDIT: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter. CC BY 4.0 INT
The contrast could hardly be clearer. The biblical picture reflects the limited knowledge of people trying to make sense of the sky with the unaided eye. Webb reveals a universe of immense distances, evolving stars and intricate clouds of gas and dust — a reality whose complexity and history were unknown to the authors of Genesis. Their ignorance is understandable; the insistence that their account represents unsurpassable divine knowledge is not.
Nor can biblical literalism be rescued simply by suggesting that an omnipotent god arranged the universe to look different from the account it supposedly dictated. That would replace an evidential problem with a theological one: a creator whose works systematically mislead us about its creation. Once deception becomes the explanation for contrary evidence, there is no observation that could ever test the claim.
Science advances because its explanations remain answerable to evidence. When observations expose a mistake, the explanation must change. Biblical literalism reverses that relationship, requiring reality to conform to a conclusion declared in advance. The achievements of astronomy show what becomes possible when we allow the universe to inform our understanding.
The heavens offer no evidence of a solid firmament separating cosmic waters. They reveal a universe far more expansive and dynamic than the biblical authors imagined. We can appreciate their writings as products of human history without mistaking them for an astronomy textbook. An ancient account does not become accurate merely because someone declares its author infallible.
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