Concerning the Bible contradicting the Big Bang, for those who believe in an exegetic interpretation of the bible, they are completely contradictory.
In
Exodus 20:11(God speaking):
"For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
The word used for
made in Hebrew is
or `asah {aw-saw'}.
Now down in
Exodus 25:31 where God is telling Moses in what manner the sanctuary and related items should be made, he says:
"And thou shalt make a candlestick [of] pure gold: [of] beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same."
Once again, the Hebrew word for
made is `asah.
So very clearly, in Exodus 25:31, God is telling Moses in what fashion he(Moses) is to construct the candlestick.
To suggest that `asah as used in Exodus 20:11 is somehow a different word than as used in Exodus 35:31 is pure eisegesis.
In essence, in Exodus 20:11 God is claiming to have
made everything in six days(which are the 24 hour kind), and rested on the seventh.
And when he told Moses to make the candlestick, he used the same word.
So either God made
everything or the Big Bang did, not both.
I apologize if I came across a little forceful, but I feel rather strongly about this sort of thing.
Sources:
www.blueletterbible.orgI'm still not certain I see the contradiction; God made the universe, and the Big Bang was his method, would be a simple reconciliation of the two. So long as God is still ultimately responsible for the creation of the universe, what would be the problem? He still made the universe, but did so through a means thoroughly incomprehensible to us. The process, to him, would be the same as the construction of a candlestick, to us.
As regards the issue of 24 hour days, however, I am forced to refer to Catholic doctrine, which states that the bible and science can never be in contradiction; any apparent contradictions are a result of insufficient understanding of the bible, or an insufficient understanding of the pertinent science. As the science (in my opinion) is quite clear that the stages outlined in Genesis took longer than a single day each(even if God created life in a single day, the natural processes that would need to take place to form the Earth would have taken millions of years), then references to a seven day creation of the universe must in turn refer to something else. What do they refer to? Well, my understanding of the bible is flawed, so I'm not terribly certain. Some say that the translation is flawed; others say the translation are completely accurate, but they were still intended as metaphorical ages; some say something completely different. I've largely left the argument to others, as the passages cited relate little to morals (beyond keeping the Sabbath holy), and my uneducated perspective would likely harm the understanding of others more than it would help.
Summarizing the above; if God caused the Big Bang, wouldn't he still have made the universe, in a very literal sense?
Mildly related addition to the above, does it matter terribly much? A flawed understanding of creation isn't going to damn me to hell, correct? This is a sincere inquiry - while I can understand why evolution/creationism arguments get heated, I've never understood why some old earth/young earth arguments have gotten heated.
My own apologies if I don't seem to be taking this seriously; on discussions that I haven't had in the past, I tend to tread lightly. You're not being too forceful in the least, though :) . So long as it's a polite discussion, a forceful stance from an informed person is likely to be thorough and well sourced - and thus, informative.