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The Universe Begins
Introduction
No matter what your religious makeup is, from the most devout Christian to the most extreme Atheist, the origin of the universe is fascinating. I can't imagine being human, and not being interested in the stars, the earth, and just wondering how it all came to be.
Religions offer answers. Science continues to discover more and more, and is getting closer to offering an answer of it's own. The partial answer science is offering is, at best, not close to any religious belief that I have ever heard.
Despite this, I believe that God and science are still working together, even in the creation of the universe. I'll explain why using the latest and greatest scientific discoveries. It is going to challenge a lot of people's beliefs, but it is the greatest conversation piece I have ever known.
What Science is Saying so Far
From Hawking: I always thought Stephen Hawking was out to kill God. After all, his work is to find scientific reasons for everything. If he did that, there wouldn't be a lot of reason for God. However, I was very surprised to hear him say there may be a higher power. He doesn't seem to believe in one, but he doesn't rule out the possibility. He is, in my view, the leading authority of the universe, so most of the science that will follow is based on his work.
Big Bang part 1: The Big Bang theory is barely a theory. It happened. The way we learned this is amazing:
If you are standing by a road, and a white race car is going 200 mph along the path, can you imagine what it sounds like? You don't have to conduct an experiment to know that the pitch of the motor will rise as the car approaches, and fade as the car leaves. A much less known fact is that the color of the car changes as well.
Our eyes cannot see it, but the car approaches in a very light shade of blue, and speeds away in a very light shade of red. Crazy right?
So when astronomers started viewing galaxies far away it isn't surprising they didn't see it right away, but every galaxy ever found is a very definite, although a very slight, shade of red.
This concludes that every galaxy, everywhere, is moving away from ours. It's not a stretch then to realize that the farther back in time you go, the closer the galaxies would have been to each other. Take that back over 14 billion years, and it stands to reason that everything would be in about the exact same place.
Big Bang part 2 (matter/anti-matter): So, the entire universe began as a ball of stuff called matter and anti-matter. We all know the electron as a piece of matter, but there are positrons as well, the anti-matter element. Protons have anti-protons as well, and so on and so forth.
Anti-Matter
At some point, somehow (I believe God is at the root in some manner, although gravity could be the culprit here), at least one particle of matter met a particle of anti-matter. When that happens, it triggers a violent explosion of photons and radiation. One event triggers another, and the Big Bang comes into existence.
If you can imagine the entire universe compacted into a neat little ball, you have a better imagination than me, but then try to imagine this Big Bang, where everything, everywhere, began as radiation and light. In an explosion that might be equivalent to a grain of sand expanding to the size of Earth, in a trillionth of one second.
Here's another Godly question. There is supposed to be balance in the universe. Meaning that there is supposed to be an equal amount of matter and anti-matter. However, if there was, nothing would exist. When the Big Bang happened, about 1 in 1 billion pieces of matter escaped. These escape artists are what make up our universe now. So, the question is why? Why and how did matter outplay anti-matter?
However it happened, a LOT of electrons, neutrons, and protons survived, began to find each other, and created hydrogen gas.
The Beginning of Light: We already covered that the Big Bang was full of light and radiation, but that wasn't sustainable light. Sustainable light comes from stars, so let's look at how stars were born.
After the big bang, there was only hydrogen. What should have been a uniform spread of hydrogen too.
However, another Godly imperfection existed. Somehow, the hydrogen gas was not quite uniform. Just a few molecules were either out of place, or removed somehow. Due to this, seemingly minor imperfection, the hydrogen began to pull together. Over a VERY long time, massive amounts of hydrogen started getting really close together. Then they started to rub against each other. The rubbing began to cause heat, then it started to cause a lot of heat, so much, that fusion was born, and stars and sustainable light came into existence.
The Creation of Everything Else: Everything we can see, touch, hear, smell, or taste came from stars. How? Glad you asked.
A star begins as hydrogen, but the force of gravity caused the birth of a new element. The pressure within a new star basically crushes the inner hydrogen into a helium core. As the star ages, gravity creates more, like neon, oxygen and iron.
Eventually, the star dies. It does not happen peacefully. It collapses into itself and creates the rest of the elements in a supernova explosion. Eventually, these elements pulled together and created planets, asteroids, comets, and everything else.
Another interesting observation is that large dead stars (around 20 times the size of our sun) can create super-massive black holes and that, at the center of every galaxy, there is one of these incredibly large black holes pulling all of our stars and planets into their eventual demise. What an amazing place we are a very small part of.
Higgs Boson: On July 4, 2012, something called the Higgs boson was discovered to be real. Maybe. This particle has been theorized and dubbed "the God particle" because it is believed to be the reason why mass can be created at all. So, some scientists believe it creates mass, not God. I find this to be presumptuous at best. Even if this is the reason why mass exists in current form, it doesn't explain where it all came from. God is not very close to being disproved, at least not to me. What do you think?
What the Bible Says
Genesis, Chapter 1: It's pretty much the whole story above written in 5 verses.
1 - In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 - 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.
3 - And God said, “Let there be
light”; and there was light.
4 - And God saw the light, that it
was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 - And God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
day.
I'm not a great student of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, but what I seem to understand from Bible followers is that this version of God never cared about anything else once He created the earth. We are His chosen people. I find this very strange. If He really is the creator so many believe he is, and the Bible really is the definitive source for how everything came to be, he sure is ignoring a lot of His work.
Our galaxy is estimated at about 200-400 billion stars. The estimates as to the number of galaxies go from 100-500 billion. I'm going with 200 billion of each, because a lot of things in this universe are symmetrical, and I think it is a fairly conservative number. If each plays host to 8 planets (I miss Pluto) like ours, How many planets did God make, that He is ignoring?
I'm going to type it out so we can really appreciate it:
320,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 minus 1.
I didn't know how to say that number. It is 320 sextillion (minus Earth) planets that God apparently pays no mind to. I'm sorry, I'm not going to buy it. Not that I'm God, but I would find some other cool places to check out and play with as well. These 5 verses really resemble man's vanity, which is hardly God-like.
I do think it is funny because I don't know why we have to believe we are the only ones God is monitoring. Seems like that wouldn't be very fair to our God.
One final note. I've come to understand the Jewish calendar supposedly started on day 1 of creation. Apparently Adam and Eve came up with that idea quickly, or maybe it was with the help of God, I don't know. The point is that on September 18, 2012, according to this calendar, the earth is about to turn 5,773 years old.
Um, nope. That isn't right.
Is This What God Did for Earth?
One final note. I've come to understand the Jewish calendar supposedly started on day 1 of creation. Apparently Adam and Eve came up with that idea quickly, or maybe it was with the help of God, I don't know. The point is that on September 18, 2012, according to this calendar, the earth is about to turn 5,773 years old.
Um, nope. That isn't right.
Conclusion
If you believe absolutely in the Bible, the beginning of the universe is simple. There's a lot to be said for that. It's not impossible, but it does fly in the face of everything we've been observing in our short time here. It certainly isn't a conclusion I would ever draw, but it is a very difficult thing to argue against, since no one was around to witness it.
The far more plausible thing, at least if you believe in God at all, is that He is somehow responsible for creating this pre-Big-Bang ball of everything. His interventions may have come in the form of unbalancing things that appear to be against uniformity and allowed this universe to exist at all. I don't see how science could ever explain some of the things that absolutely, and very bizarrely had to exist in order for anything to be the way it is. It is insanely coincidental and probably the main reason why I believe God and science couldn't really exist without each other.
For the Atheists out there, fear not. It would be impractical not to consider the possibility that everything is just here. There is no reason. Nothing created it, it just was. I find that impossible to consider, but hey, I've been wrong before.
In the end, your individual answer to the question, "How did the universe begin?" might be your most telling sign as to what you actually believe. I can't recommend highly enough for you to take some time, reflect a little on what I've said here, maybe do more research on your own, maybe have conversations with your closest friends and learn exactly what you believe. I'd wager that, no matter who you talk to, you will all have slightly different opinions, and that is why I don't think any religion, ever, can be for everyone.
The worst thing I think you can do for yourself, as it relates to this issue, is to just believe someone else's view and take it as your own. This is a critical question and you might learn a lot about your beliefs by answering it.
Whatever your answer is, feel free to share!
The far more plausible thing, at least if you believe in God at all, is that He is somehow responsible for creating this pre-Big-Bang ball of everything. His interventions may have come in the form of unbalancing things that appear to be against uniformity and allowed this universe to exist at all. I don't see how science could ever explain some of the things that absolutely, and very bizarrely had to exist in order for anything to be the way it is. It is insanely coincidental and probably the main reason why I believe God and science couldn't really exist without each other.
For the Atheists out there, fear not. It would be impractical not to consider the possibility that everything is just here. There is no reason. Nothing created it, it just was. I find that impossible to consider, but hey, I've been wrong before.
In the end, your individual answer to the question, "How did the universe begin?" might be your most telling sign as to what you actually believe. I can't recommend highly enough for you to take some time, reflect a little on what I've said here, maybe do more research on your own, maybe have conversations with your closest friends and learn exactly what you believe. I'd wager that, no matter who you talk to, you will all have slightly different opinions, and that is why I don't think any religion, ever, can be for everyone.
The worst thing I think you can do for yourself, as it relates to this issue, is to just believe someone else's view and take it as your own. This is a critical question and you might learn a lot about your beliefs by answering it.
Whatever your answer is, feel free to share!
The big bang theory implies that the universe had a beginning. It is logical to conclude that the universe will also have an end, since everything else we know has a beginning and an end. UNLESS...the expanding universe is part of a cycle. It has been theorized that the universe will expand to its limit, and then it will start to contract until it meets the ultimate contraction as the "ball of stuff" that again will initiate the big bang explosion. If the universe has a beginning, then there must be a creator (God). If the universe is in cycle, this theory may or may not include the concept of a god.
ReplyDeleteI have always admired Steven Hawking and have read his books. The reconciliation of science and God is indeed quite challenging. In my opinion, it boils down to one basic question: Did God create the universe based on scientific laws and principles, or does He choose to sometimes intervene and modify His creation (i.e., does He perform miracles)?
This is a great comment because it reflects what most people seem to believe is true. That the universe will one day return to that singular mass. The universe is made of mass, which means it has a center of gravity. Since space does not offer resistance, the ONLY logical conclusion is that everything will be pulled back together eventually.
DeleteAs we have seen in the post above, this universe does not always agree with logic. There is supposed to be an equal amount of anti-matter and matter (there isn’t), the big bang should have resulted in a uniform dispersion of gas (it didn’t), and the universe should be gradually decelerating (it’s not).
In 1998, the Hubble telescope found a supernova that wasn’t just moving away from us, but was actually moving away from us FASTER than it used to be. This is going to be the subject of another post titled either “Dark Matter” or “Dark Energy,” but the question above jumps the gun from what I was planning, and we will talk about it a little here.
At the point of the Big Bang, everything was accelerating due to the explosion. However, very shortly after any explosion, particles should at the very least, stop accelerating. Then, it would make sense that the universe’s center of mass would, very slowly, cause the particles to decelerate and begin their return to their origin.
The apparent fact that things are currently accelerating has actually caused scientists to invent some things called dark energy and dark matter, which would explain why this is happening. It has really thrown us for a loop and has blown up a very strong theory.
Not far from where I live, they have a team of researchers that are actually trying to detect a particle of dark matter on Earth. I think that is a waste of time and money, because this matter should be repulsive to cause universal acceleration but, again, I will address this later on.
For an overview of the Fermilab project to detect dark matter, go here:
http://ppd.fnal.gov/experiments/cdms/
I also did a little extra digging, and here is a good National Geographic article as well. I should have been on this research team because I've been laughing at dark matter since I heard what it was and how we just invented it (much how many atheists believe God was just invented to explain the inexplicable):
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/120215-dark-energy-antimatter-physics-alternate-space-science/
Finally, the idea of God creating a universe that obeys scientific laws with or without intervention is a great topic for discussion as well. It is partially (the largest part) the basis for this blog. Each post will include how God may or may not intervene in daily life, major problems, major cures, science, and so on, as well as addressing the more major religions and how they view the same issues with an all-powerful and all-controlling God or gods. There are an amazing number of viewpoints and topics to discuss!
Ryan : if I remember correctly, the Buddhist creation story is somewhat parallel to the big bang. Expansion and contraction. I think there are other religions with similarly cyclical creation stories. Your post really sets religion in opposition to the big bang but that is only true of a small set of religions. What are your thoughts about the confluence of some religions and creation theories? Coincidence?
ReplyDeleteAmen! (Pun intended) In a very, very short and sweet theory. I have accepted that God always was and always will be. (100% faith based). From there I believe that at some period of time, which we are still trying to determine when, the earth was created (big bang or other) essentially by God. From there on, God's work takes place daily, however, I don't believe that every minute detail is of God's interest.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have many theories on this subject, both scientific and theological...one must ask the question..."who" created the first particle or spec of energy that caused/created the big bang. Simple science would tell us that at some point in time there was nothing. At a time after that point in time, there was something. Since I went crazy on the last post I will keep it short here!
ReplyDeleteThe next question is invariably, "Who or what created the thing that created the first spec?"
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the major religions, I really don't know a lot about most of them. I know a few things, but it is great that you bring this up, because I didn't know the Buddhist belief until now. You've made me do some research, thanks!
ReplyDeleteA lot of what I believe about religion is predicated on the assumption that all of them were created by man. This would mean that all religious views would have been limited by the brains of the people who created them. Further, if any one religion was made by the higher power or powers, it would have no flaws. I've yet to find one that is even close.
What I found on the Buddhist viewpoint would be closer to what we think we know, but it isn't really a Big Bang apologist. What I've found says this, from budsas.org:
"In the eyes of the Buddha, the world is nothing but Samsara -- the cycle of repeated births and deaths. To Him, the beginning of the world and the end of the world is within this Samsara. Since elements and energies are relative and inter-dependent, it is meaningless to single out anything as the beginning. Whatever speculation we make regarding the origin of the world, there is no absolute truth in our notion.
'Infinite is the sky, infinite is the number of beings,
Infinite are the worlds in the vast universe,
Infinite in wisdom the Buddha teaches these,
Infinite are the virtues of Him who teaches these.' - (Sri Ramachandra)"
It is a really cool view, and one that supports my thought that no one has a clue what actually happened. We will end up believing what we believe, but the idea that we are going to find the absolute answer is probably nothing more than wishful thinking.
The quote from Sri Ramachandra is probably incorrect, but there really isn't any telling if there is a finite number of anything is there? If there is infinite anything, something must be eternally creating, further supporting the idea of God. There could be infinite universes, just really, really far away from ours. It is impossible for us, or at least me, to imagine infinite anything, but since I believe this universe was created, it would oppose my argument to not believe it was possible.
In the end, I just don't know, so I turn over to what I believe. Either way, this stuff is just too fun to think about!
With regard to the confluence of some religions and creation theories, I think anyone could get pretty close to the right answer if they were thinking about it all in the right way. The people who created religions were smart, so I don't think it unreasonable that they would have some theories that get really close to what we later discover to be true.
I wouldn't say coincidental, but probably more along the lines of solid educated guesses from careful observation of the world as they knew it turning out to be pretty close to the more advanced observations of today. As far as I know, however, no religion is really spot on with science. That would make it all too easy.
Ok. So one more question. What is the difference between religion and science in your view? You stipulate that religion is man made, but isn't science as well?
ReplyDeleteGreat question.
DeleteTo me, religion is the practice of how you believe. Not just what you believe, but a structured system to explain everything, including God and science. It explains the intangible as well as tangible. I obviously believe science and religion go hand in hand, hence the title of the blog.
Science is man made too, but it is the study of tangible things. Ultimately this means it is trying to give concrete answers, and I don't think religion can really do that.
For example, hydrogen is a proton and an electron. Science has concluded that. The only man made element is how we define it, not what it is.
Religion is more complicated. It not only has to attempt to define what something is, like God, but what it means. There is only one true answer to, does God exist? If the answer is no, then religion is more about how we should live on Earth without a higher power. If the answer is yes, we have to wonder what he wants us to do.
I don't know how much sense that makes to anyone. I could just say that science is black and white once we find the answer, but religion is every shade of grey.
All this would go out the window of course, if God tells us what to do. That, however, does not happen in my religion. So, for me, religion will never yield a concrete answer, but science always will (eventually).