Wonder and the Big Questions: Another Way to Read the Evidence: Practice Problem Solutions

1. Any three of: redshift of distant galaxies; the 2.725 K microwave background; about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium in the oldest gas; the motion of galaxies suggests unseen mass; the expansion appears to be accelerating; we see light from galaxies billions of light-years away.

2. Reading One accepts the standard model's 13.8-billion-year history and the Earth's age of about 4.5 billion years, and sees God as the Creator working over that time. Reading Two takes Genesis 1 as six ordinary days a few thousand years ago, with the universe made complete and mature.

3. How we can see light from galaxies billions of light-years away in a universe only thousands of years old. It matters because it is the most serious scientific challenge to a young universe; several proposals exist and none is regarded as settled.

4. Any two of: the universe had a beginning; it is orderly and knowable; the constants are finely tuned; science cannot answer every question; creation reveals God.

5. Because you cannot fairly evaluate or discuss a view you do not understand, and truth does not need to avoid the data.

6. Measured things are direct observations (such as redshifts); inferred things are conclusions from a model (such as an age), which depend on assumptions that should be stated and tested.

7. That the creation shows God's power and divine nature clearly, so that people can see something of Him by looking at what He made.