The space shuttle Discovery launched on this day in 1990. While we probably remember little about this day or even the event, the mere mention of the cargo aboard Discovery causes us to remember clearly the significance of the mission. Discovery was carrying something that weighed 24,490 pounds, cost $1.5 billion, and it was going to be left in space for the past 33 years – and has an end-of-mission date set at 2030-2040.
It’s the Hubble Telescope.
“The Hubble mission has cost approximately $16 billion (adjusted for inflation to 2021 dollars) since its official start in 1977.”1 “Hubble is 43.5 feet wide with a maximum diameter of 14 feet… Hubble orbits about 340 miles above Earth, on a path inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator. Its average speed is 17,000 mph, and it takes 95 minutes to complete one orbit. Hubble transmits about 120 gigabytes of science data every week. That would be roughly 3,600 feet of books on a shelf. The collection of pictures and data is stored on magneto-optical disks.
“The telescope’s primary mirror is 94.5 inches wide and weighs 1,825 pound. Its secondary mirror is 12 inches (0.3 m) wide and weighs 27.4 pounds. Astronauts have serviced Hubble five times, on missions that launched in December 1993, February 1997, December 1999, February 2002 and May 2009.”2
The discoveries and images made by Hubble have led scientists and even theologians to errant conclusions, the worst being that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. I often reference Got Questions Ministries (GQM) but my righteous anger has been activated when I read that they believe such discoveries substantiate creation VIA Big Bang. “The only possibility for our existence is the existence of an eternal Being who created everything and “flipped the switch” in the instant of the Big Bang/creation. In that moment, time, space, and matter were all created.”3
Many of the things GQM writes are top-notch answers. However, everything said by any human author, teacher, or preacher must be vetted in the Word of God. What GQM is teaching is heresy and ranks side by side with theistic evolution.
These theories say that God used the mechanics of Big Bang to create the universe. 
My Bible says that “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Then, eight different times in the creation account, the Bible says, “And God said…” The moment God said, creation sprung instantly into perfect maturity. Big Bang and theistic evolution require things to evolve into maturity.
Hubble has detected that the universe is expanding. Again, this is used to verify humanistic versions of creation. However, the Scripture makes it very clear that God is the one causing the expansion.
Isaiah 40:21-22 asks, “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? (22) It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in…” It would seem that people have always struggled with grasping the intricacies of the universe. God always sets them straight and puts the credit squarely upon Himself.
For centuries, there has been a battle between science and the Bible. There are those who take positions like GQM, trying to make the two sides compatible. When I read the creation account, I read about something that is miraculous. Creation wasn’t some big cosmic science experiment. If it was, it could be duplicated in a laboratory. Therefore, you CANNOT reconcile aspects of science that speak contrary to the Bible. There’s no reason to even try.
Just accept the Bible, folks! I know – it doesn’t jive with what scientists have to say. But I would rather side with the Creator of the universe who was there at the time than with a bunch of white-coated scientists pontificating as if they were there!
Now, THAT makes good sense!
1https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/overview/faqs
2https://www.space.com/15892-hubble-space-telescope.html
3https://www.gotquestions.org/universe-expanding.html
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