Jesus and the dinosaurs

As a Christian scientist, there are questions I do not have answers to and often do not understand. A source of many questions is the scale of the universe in contrast to the particulars of our faith. The universe is large and old, reflective of the power of our God, but our faith hangs on an event that happened only about 2,000 years ago on the margins of the Roman Empire.

Looking into the past

Our universe appears to be at least 13 billion years old and stretches across many, many light-years. The new, more powerful telescopes, both on Earth and in space, have given us a better understanding of the history and scale of our creation. We have seen beautiful pictures from the Hubble and James Watson space telescopes. Because the distances are large and the speed of light is fixed, it takes a long time for the light from far-off stars and galaxies to reach us. We look further into the past the more distant we look. In the last ten years, we have also determined that there are planets around many stars, and some appear to be of a size and scale that would support life.

When scientists look at life on Earth, we also see a long and complex story. Humans only appear in the last, shortest time period on Earth. Dinosaurs were the dominant life form for over 166 million years, only to be exterminated when an asteroid slammed into the Earth 66 million years ago, permitting the rise of mammals and, ultimately, humans. The first evidence of modern humans comes from 200,000 years ago. While some Christians may not accept this description, there is an almost universal scientific consensus that this is what we see when we look at the details found on our planet.

Everything changed

Yet as Christians, we hold fast to a particular moment, when our Lord, the son of God, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem around 2,000 years ago. He was both fully human and fully God. After his incarnation, he walked this Earth for approximately 33 years before being crucified, descending into hell, and then rising on Easter Sunday. He now sits in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father. In his life, death and resurrection, Jesus unites us with the Creator of the Universe. We believe this particular life radically changed everything for all of us here on Earth and for the whole creation. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son . . .” (Jn. 3:16).

How do I connect the size, age and complexity of the universe and the rich history of life on Earth with the particular, unique and recent event of the Creator coming into the creation? I don’t yet have an answer to this question, but I note that Christmas says God came to us, not that we came to God. For this, I can only be thankful, in faith and trust, for God’s love and the gift of the Christ child.