Dear Hilary,

Thanks for your quick response. It's a pleasure to make contact with you. My doubts do indeed have a spiritual root, like you, and we might come from different perspectives, although perhaps not quite so different as you imagine.

To pick out one outstanding sentence from your reply, “the layers of BBT corrections are a result of the assumption that the BBT is correct”. That is a powerful insight.

I'm also a Christian, although a somewhat unconventional (some would say heretical) one. Whenever I write about Christianity on Medium, the more polite Christians merely disagree with me. I also receive some abuse from the less polite, dogmatic ones.

I also had a profound, life-changing experience which did involve a Christian church, although not the risen Jesus. Without knowing the details of yours, I'm guessing that I would say that you had a vision of the risen Jesus, rather than an encounter with him. Only you can say, however.

Regarding the Big Bang, it's interesting that another prominent Christian on Medium, Gerald R. Baron, sees it as evidence of God's creation of the universe, ex nihilo so to speak, on the basis of Genesis 1. Various published Christian authors say something similar. It will be interesting therefore to see what you have to say on the issue, for example, how there was a beginning to the Universe, if not the Big Bang.

I've just read one of your articles, and have responded with a link to one of mine about light in Genesis 1.

If you haven't already done this, it would be interesting to know how the English translation of Genesis 1, and thus our understanding of the cosmology, would be different if we understood the original Hebrew and Greek. You seem qualified to do this.

Like you, I believe that Genesis 1, despite its brevity, is incredibly profound. The problem, as I perceive it, is that most Christians don't understand it.