The cosmic conspiracy.

Hi, this is my first topic, thanks for having me.
I am a Christian and therefore a Creationist, when i say Creationist I mean i believe God created the universe but i don't pertain to know how, why or when.
My question is this. If the visible universe is in the region of 80 billion light years across how is it possible for it to be only 13.7 billion years old? Wouldn't that mean that the wave like massless photons would have had to of traveled at nearly six times the speed of light for nearly 14 billion years? Also if photons are released as a result of reactions at the atomic level does this mean matter with quantifiable mass must also have made this incredibly fast and seemingly impossible journey?

Hi, i do love to debate but i think if science has an answer then please put it there.

Thanks guys both answers make sense.
If the universe is expanding at the speed of light does that mean the galaxies at opposites sides are moving away from each other at twice the speed of light?
I saw a diagram in the book 'Bang' by Patrick Moore and Brian May showing two galaxies that where 18 billion light years apart, the aim of the diagram was to show that an observer at either galaxy wouldn't be able to see the other because the light hasn't had time to bridge the gap. This is definitely a mind expanding subject.
Also is there an opposite to e=mc2? Does the fact that the loss of a little mass producing a vast amount of energy work the other way round? Because if the universe once contained only energy and was once smaller than the size of a pin prick then it is obvious somthing amazing has happened to produce such quantities of mass?
As you can tell i have a million questions any help in answering them would be great.

Cheers guys i consider my mind expanded for sure. I take it then we are on a flat plain and that the universe has no depth even though we are surrounded at all points by objects? This seems impossible to me although i could easily see that this is just my mind not yet fully grasping the idea of what expansion really means. Are we really in a four dimensional but flat universe? My mind is telling me that some of the objects must be expanding relative to each other as in going the same way.
If space is expanding and is at least 3 dimensional then the light wavelengths must be bending as well as stretching, if they bend any galaxy a sufficient distance away would be invisible as it would be over the horizon???
Haha i think i need to go do that homework someone mentioned earlier.

Right ive been doing some of my home work in regard matter being produced from energy. Quarks are the fundamental building blocks that make up protons and neutrons, im sure this is old news to you all but these quarks are held together by the strong nuclear force. Now when you try to pull quarks apart (they are always in twos or threes never single) the strong nuclear force gets increasingly more powerful the further the quarks are apart, until at a certain point the energy is so great that a further two or three quarks are produced. This is actual pure energy being converted into mass, amazing, especially when quarks make up protons and neutrons which form the nucleus of all atoms. So the building blocks for everything can come from nothing. Ha now i just need to do the electron side of my homework and i will practically be an atomic physicist.
Here is a hypothesis from that knowledge. At the start of the big bang there was a single 3 quark triplet and a single 2 quark twin? So the universe consists of these two groups when for what ever reason expansion starts along with the mysterious law breaking inflation period, could this early expansion and inflation been of strong enough force to pull these quarks sufficiently apart to cause an immense spewing forth of both energy and matter? As soon as one group 'reproduced' they would instantly do it again and keep doing it until the force of expansion dropped below the required level.
So instead of energy causing expansion, expansion caused energy.
Crazy i know but imagination is not lacking in this one ha.

Wow subbie you have blown my mind, i posted in the thread 'what is the creationists theory for the origin of light' in i said i thought the parable of the mustard seed was Jesus describing the big bang (my beliefs anyone is free to think what they want) Now you have just used the analogy of rising dough to describe the expansion of the universe. This reminded me that the very next parable to the mustard seed is Matthew 13:33 which is Jesus describing how the kingdom of heaven is like dough that rises. Love it ha.