I can honestly say that in the five years that I spent studying science in secondary school, I hadn’t learnt as much about the universe as I have just by watching the ten minute film “The Powers of 10” by the office of Charles and Ray Eames.

This film totally blew me away; it really gave me a different perspective of how I view the world. It made me feel really, really small, but at the same time really, really big. Before this I had never even thought about the universe outside of our solar system, or never thought about anything smaller than an atom. How ignorant was I! I have always wondered how scientists would calculate the size of something as big as a universe. After some research I found out that two factors are taken into consideration according to the BBC website: the age of stars and the expansion of the universe since (following the theory of the Big Bang of course).

As a Christian who unlike most others believes in evolution, this film has also made me think about the big bang. Most other faiths and religions that believe in a higher being that has created them, teach their followers that God has created the earth in 7 days. According to the website Universe today.com, scientists believe that the universe is around 13.73 Billion years old. In my opinion, who is to say that our calendar is what God was thinking about when he told us humans about the creation of the universe? Even from here to one of the closest planets, lets say Mars, the amount that a year lasts is more than 365.25 days. Which would prove my point of the insignificance of our modern calendar compared to the creation of the universe.

Who is to say that maybe the Big Bang wasn’t started by God?

These are my views, inspired by this wonderful film.

Bibliography

O’Neill, I. (2008, March 28). 13.73 Billion Years – The Most Precise Measurement of the Age of the Universe Yet. Retrieved May 2010, from Universe Today: http://www.universetoday.com/2008/03/28/1373-billion-years-the-most-accurate-measurement-of-the-age-of-the-universe-yet/

Whitehouse, D. (2004, May 28). BBC News. Retrieved may 2010, from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3753115.stm