God's word says that this universe is bounded. He said that it is expanded between the waters above and below. Genesis describes a creation that is Earth-centered, which is what the current unworkable unbounded universe model is intended to reject. An Earth-centered universe is full of purpose, and full of the glory of it's creator, and subject to his laws; that is what the unbounded folly is imagined to refute.
The thing that I find most amusing is that even in their silly and impossible unbounded universe, when General Relativity is applied, it becomes obvious that the appearance of great age is an illusion caused by the expansion that they all recognize. In other words, they are being most unscientific in relying on that illusion, simply because allowing for passage of billions of years makes an accidental origin of life seem less impossible for those desiring it.
Thank you for your reply, Editor-Surveyor.
On the other hand, perhaps God's creation needs to be "unbounded" in order to express and fulfill all the splendor he designed into it from the Beginning, in the course of time. The current scientific cosmological model suggests that the universe is not only unbounded, but finite; it does not run on into infinity, but will have an End, the timing of which only the Father knows: God is not finite; but His Creation is.
As to the waters above and below, this could be a reference to universal fields that God intends as the context, or matrix, or supporting structures, in which the Creation unfolds....
It seems to me that God's purpose in creating is not limited to Earth, but extends to the entire universe. If there were no stars, then the elements on which the physical universe, and ultimately life, depend, could not have been "manufactured." Stars are the manufacturing plants of most of the elements that comprise complex matter. Without stars there could be no Earth. Without our own Sun, life on Earth would be impossible.
Yet whether the universe be bounded or unbounded, it is clear to me that God regards man as the focal point of the Divine Plan. He made the universe for Life, by means of Light; and man is the point of the exercise.
The astonishing ingenuity of God in the execution of His divine plan seems to me to be beyond the ability of humans to fully comprehend. But we can see what He has accomplished, and can have some imperfect sense of how He went about doing it. That is because the created, physical universe is not the "all that there is," but Spirit is mixed into it through and through.
To God goes all glory for the entire universal creation, not just Earth.
IMHO, FWIW.
Time is relevant to human flesh.. the human spirit may be beyond time.. as may be all Spirit.. A seven day work week may be an object lesson and a metaphor at the same time.. And years may be a temporal place marker.. The bindings of the universe may beyond humans to conceive of.. while they are still limited by human brains..