Part 2: The Big Bang (The Cosmos and How it Got Here)
By and large we boomers no longer feel assured that we are invincible. Nor do we seek to elevate our status among peers by being the first to espouse the wacky "truths" of the latest cult religion to hit the scene. For most of us, those days are gone. Many of us are genuinely seeking redemption and Truth--and for good reason!
So let's seek out Truth, and let's start our investigation from a purely scientific perspective.
There is a time honored expression: "Talk is cheap, but it takes money to buy good whiskey." When referring to the cosmos and how it got here, talk is cheap, but it takes unfathomable amounts of energy and hydrogen to make just one star, let alone an entire universe populated with galaxies, galactic clusters, super clusters, etc., etc. So where did all this energy/mass come from? Was it always here? If that's the case the universe is by definition eternal, infinite, and without beginning or end.
Scientific evidence, however, paints a very different picture. So does scripture.
The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) virtually validated the Big Bang model of a sudden and unimaginably awesome genesis of the universe. Therefore, like all things that have a beginning, our universe seems doomed to have an ending. Think that can't happen? Most of us already know that stars are born and stars die. Professional and amateur astronomers alike view both "stellar nurseries", in which newly forming stars (protostars) are developing, and old stars in their death throes (novae and supernovae). The laws of thermodynamics suggest that our universe may well be headed towards maximum entropy and, hence, a "heat death". But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the way which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).
Astronomers have known for years that our universe is expanding ("stretching" is now the prefered word).
A universe that is eternal, infinite, and without beginning or end simply would have always existed everywhere in all directions. It certainly would not be expanding. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion (Jeremiah 10:12).
A universe that is eternal, infinite, and without beginning or end simply would have always existed everywhere in all directions. It certainly would not be expanding. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion (Jeremiah 10:12).
The Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy tells us that the total amount of mass and energy in the universe is constant, that mass and energy are equivalent (just different forms of the same thing), and that neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed (only converted from one form or level to another) within our space-time, energy-mass, gravity-inertia world that we call the universe (or the cosmos).
In summary:
- Our universe/cosmos is finite and has not always existed
- Our universe had a sudden and awesome genesis
- Our universe is stretching/expanding, and becoming increasingly less energetic
- Within our universe neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed, only converted
Given the evidence that our universe has not always existed, how did it get here? Where did all this energy/mass come from? A cosmic accident? No, there simply could not have been a cosmic accident prior to the existence of anything cosmic--and nothing plus nothing equals nothing--so what are we to make of this? This author believes that an awesome supernatural event spawned our finite universe as a manifestation of that which is eternal. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth (Psalm 33:6).
Author, Germaine Charles Lockwood asks, "What is the origin of the energy-material universe?" He goes on to answer his question with this assertion: "It has not always been here... There must be a first cause that has existed forever, or there would be nothing in existence now. You cannot get something from nothing. There must then be a self-existent eternal first cause."
Dr. Hugh Ross, an eminent astrophysicist, Biblical scholar, and prolific author, eloquently addresses the philosophical aspects of Creation by asserting that, by definition, "Time is that dimension in which cause and effect phenomena take place...If time's beginning is concurrent with the beginning of the universe, as the space-time theorem says, then the cause of the universe must be some entity operating in a time dimension completely independent of, and preexistent to the time dimension of the cosmos. "This conclusion is powerfully important to our understanding of who God is and who or what God isn't. It tells us that the creator is transcendent, operating beyond the dimensional limits of the universe. It tells us that God is not the universe itself, nor is God contained within the universe." Note: Dr. Ross asserts that the Bible is the only scientifically accurate religious text when interpreted contextually.
Scientists from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy have discovered strong evidence that the early universe would have behaved like a hot liquid. In THE Beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1). And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters (Genesis 1:6). And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: And it was so (Genesis 1:7). And God called the firmament Heaven (Genesis 1:8).
The genesis of our space-time, energy-material, gravity-inertia world was not random, accidental, or haphazard by any means. Research in the field of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) not only serves to support the validity of a self-existent first cause that is an entity operating in a time dimension completely independent of, and preexistent to, the time dimension of the cosmos. But it also illuminates a creation model that is stupefyingly immaculate in its precise sequencing regarding the manufacturing of the building blocks that are essential for the creation of this universe and, at least for one favored planet and its inhabitants, ripe for life. Studying BBN is enough to make one take Matthew 10:30 literally: But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (Genesis 1:14)
See Is God Dead? Part 1
Coming soon in the Is God Dead Series: He Programs Life for the Times (Debunking Darwin)
