Franktalk wrote:DrW,
Do you believe in relativity of space and time? Einstein laid out a connection between space and time that has been tested many ways and always so far comes out as he predicted. So depending on your frame of reference time can be different from one observer to another. If you believe this then why all of the arguing about time in Genesis. You seem to allow time changes in science but don't allow for time frame changes in scripture. Is it possible that Genesis should be looked at through the lens of science? Time frame issues are fun to examine. Have you ever looked into the white hole cosmology? It is just a different approach to the expanding universe.
The bottom line is it seems to me that you want to play around with time in science but not allow time to be played with in Genesis. If indeed God made the universe I would think He has a pretty good understanding of space and time. Just Maybe God is telling us something in Genesis about that very issue.
Franktalk,
With regard to your question about "relativity of time and space" please see my post above ( Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:43 pm ).
Keeping in mind that most scientists (including Einstein) considered Genesis to be a myth born of superstition, let's consider whether relativity could be used to rationally interpret the period of time involved in the "six days of creation" in Genesis in light of what we know about the age of the Earth. Before I go over this for you, I would say that someone with even a basic background in science should be able to work this out for themselves, so I am not sure why you are asking me, but I will take your question as sincere.
As I pointed out, time dilation, or the slowing of time for a near light speed traveler as observed by a (relatively) stationary observer, requires that extremely high relative velocities be involved. Since we are talking about the Earth, and no part of the Earth could move at near the speed of light relative to another part, relativistic time dilation would not seem to apply to the observations of the human authors of Genesis.
If one then claims that Genesis was somehow written by God, or from God's perspective, and that the "days of creation" were according to the reckoning of time according to God, then God would have had to have been traveling at (very) near the speed of light away from his creation while he was creating it.
As I have pointed on the MADBoard in relation to superluminal travel by the angel Moroni or God and Jesus Christ traveling from Kolob to appear to Joseph Smith, the energies required for a human sized mass to achieve near light speed (let's say 99.99% of the speed of light for example) are extremely high.
I suppose it is theoretically possible to calculate the speed that God would have to achieve while traveling away from his creation (as he was creating i)t in order to make the six days of creation by God's reckoning be 4.5 billion years on Earth by Earth clock reckoning. Since I don't have enough places on my cell phone calculator for the number of 9's required, all I will say in that regard is that the Mormon anthropomorphic God would have had to have near infinite energy at his disposal, and would have had to use it all to achieve such speeds.
According to relativity, travel of a object with mass at the speed of light would require infinite energy, and the speed required to achieve such a time dilation for a body with mass would be only be possible in theory.
And to what avail? By the time the Earth was ready for humankind, relativistic God would have been well on his way to the observed outer limits of the universe, and would have had a really hard time communicating with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when it came time to give them their walking papers. This is because the universal speed limit (c) also applies to the transfer of information.
I have posted this explanation, with the math, on the old MADB in response to questions about answering prayers from Kolob, and could probably find it for a re-post here, if you like.