On July 12, NASA released images from the James Webb Space Telescope on its Twitter pages. The images showed a beautiful kaleidoscopic image of a vast and awe-inspiring universe. As the data begins to pour in from the telescope, apologist Ken Ham wrote a post detailing how the data reveals that the big bang, “didn’t happen.” Ham is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis (AiG), a Christian apologetics ministry that offers up evidence of a literal six-day creation, young earth, and the existence of God. The ministry also operates The Creation Museum, which offers evidence of a young Earth of approximately 6000 years old, and The Ark Encounter, a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark. Both attractions are found in the Cincinnati/ Kentucky area.

“The idea that the universe began with a big bang is firmly entrenched in the minds of millions of Americans. But the so-called ‘science’ isn’t nearly as settled as most people are led to believe. Many scientists—even atheistic, naturalistic ones—know there are big problems with the idea. And the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope haven’t helped those who cling to the big bang,” Ham wrote in his post. The big bang theory posits that the universe came into being and expanded from a single point, and that the universe continues to stretch and expand from that point. The theory first gained traction in 1927 through an astronomer named Georges Lemaître and has been the predominant scientific model for describing how the universe began. According to Ham, that theory stands in stark contrast with the creation of the universe from God, with Genesis 1:1 saying, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

Ham cited an article by Eric J. Lerner, author of the book, “The Big Bang Never Happened.”  Unlike Ham, Lerner is a secular scientist who has had many qualms with the big bang theory throughout the years. In citing the data from the James Webb Space Telescope, Lerner wrote, “To everyone who sees them, the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images of the cosmos are beautifully awe-inspiring. But to most professional astronomers and cosmologists, they are also extremely surprising—not at all what was predicted by theory. In the flood of technical astronomical papers published online since July 12, the authors report again and again that the images show surprisingly many galaxies, galaxies that are surprisingly smooth, surprisingly small and surprisingly old.  Lots of surprises, and not necessarily pleasant ones. One paper’s title begins with the candid exclamation: ‘Panic!’” Lerner describes how if the big bang theory is correct, it should form a sort of optical illusion, stating, “If the universe is expanding, a strange optical illusion must exist. Galaxies (or any other objects) in expanding space do not continue to look smaller and smaller with increasing distance. Beyond a certain point, they start looking larger and larger.” The images from the James Webb Space Telescope, however, show galaxies in the distance getting smaller and smaller, not bigger.

Being secular, Lerner seeks to find an alternative to the big bang theory through a naturalistic lens. Ham, however, points out that the data doesn’t show a big bang because, “We have an eyewitness account of creation that says God spoke the universe into existence.” He ended his post writing, “As you look at the images from the James Webb Space Telescope, be in awe of the incredible beauty, wonder, and order of the heavens. But don’t stop there. Turn in praise to the One who created all of that and sums it up with the simple phrase, ‘he made the stars also’ (Genesis 1:16b, NKJV).”