http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329472602-117780,00.html
Trying to explain the origin of the universe is an odd endeavour. The Big Bang could be 14 billion years ago. How would anyone know? How can one understand 14 billion years or 986 billion years as anything but a hypothesis, a speculative figure formulated through the best mathematical resources available? The anthropomorphic Christian fundamentalist account, the 5000 year universe centred on the life of man, provides comfort; we have dominion over a world that is contingent on our existence. The main difference is that science is often open to debate about the particulars as well as the theories that produce them. Fundamentalism holds the particulars, the most minute minutia as True, period. But it has been shown again and again, the universe has existed long before we have. We have no dominion, only the opportunity to screw it all up. And, well, oh so many have tried so mightily to do that.
