Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
The Big Bang Theory (not the TV Show), Cosmogony and Faith
JOHN 1: 1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made
that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
INTRODUCTION
The Big Bang Theory is the predominate scientific view on how our universe came into being.
There are competing views, both scientifically based and faith based, but none hold a candle to
the level of acceptance that the Big Bang Theory has, overall.
We will not be looking into issues with the Big Bang Theory as a whole. Rather, we will be
focusing on the theory and how it interacts with the two primary worldviews that shape the
majority of the scientists that study cosmogony (the beginning of the universe):
a) Materialism
b) Deism / Theism
Deism and Theism (which I’ll abbreviate to just Theism for brevity) when taken in the context of
Cosmogony, is the belief that there was an intelligence (or intelligences) behind the formation of
the universe. This suggests that the universe has a purpose (though it may not be possible for us
to understand that purpose) and can lead to such things as ethics, morality and religious belief.
Christianity (as well as most of the major religions) falls into this category.
Theistic Cosmogony does lead to some questions:
1.
If the universe needed a Creator, who created the Creator?
2. If we can theorize a universe without the need for a Creator, assuming one adds another
variable into the equation and violates Occam’s razor.
Materialism, in the context of Cosmogony, is the idea that material stuff (whether in the form of
matter, energy, or more exotic substances like subatomic particles, dark energy or dark matter) is
all that there is. If one cannot observe it directly (or theorize its existence using math based on
existing matter) it doesn’t exist, or at least does not matter.
Cosmological Materialism can also lead to some potential problems:
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
1. We can follow causal chains backwards (each effect coming from a cause, and that cause
being an effect of a previous cause, etc.). If there is no first cause, it suggests an infinite
chain. Science strongly suggests the universe is not infinite.
2. There are many, many physical laws at work in the universe (gravity, electro-magnetism,
etc.) that help make life on Earth possible. If any of these laws were minutely different,
life as we know it could not exist. The odds of these laws coming into being randomly
are astronomically small (but not zero).
Discuss:
What do you think the underlying reasons are for both materialists and theists to argue that The
Big Bang Theory is incompatible with a belief in a Creator God?
HISTORY
Plato and Aristotle
“…there must be an immortal, unchanging being, ultimately responsible for all
wholeness and orderliness in the sensible world" Aristotle, Book 12, Metaphysics
Basically, Aristotle (and other philosophers of his time) postulated that there was a final cause. If
you looked at all motion in the universe, every object that moves gets its motion from something.
Or, every effect has a cause. If you follow this causal chain backwards, you must get to a point
where there is a First Cause, or an Unmoved Mover: a cause without an effect, a mover that is
not itself moved.
Thomas Aquinas
“…whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another. If that by which it is put in motion
be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another
again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and,
consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are
put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is put in motion by the hand.
Therefore, it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone
understands to be God.” The Unmoved Mover, Quinque viæ
Aquinas took Aristotle’s view of the unmoved mover and simply postulated that this referred to
the Christian God. It fit within the medieval cosmological mindset of God’s creation of the
universe as told in Genesis.
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
Robert Grosseteste
In 1225, he wrote a piece called “On Light”, in which he described the universe’s birth using
explosion imagery and attempted to describe the heavens and Earth using one set of physical
laws. Nature 507,161–163
Edgar Allen Poe
Though at the time it was construed as simply a literary work, Poe’s Eureka: A Prose Poem
suggested that the universe expanded and contracted from a single primordial particle. “Divine
Volition” is what fractures the particle, causing it to fill all known space with atoms. These
clump together to make the cosmos. At some future point, the “Divine Volition” will cease to
push matter apart, at which point gravity will cause it to smoosh back into the primordial
particle.
Albert Einstein
Einstein’s contributions to the physics are far too numerous to represent here, but a significant
one in terms of cosmogony is the idea that the universe is always in flux. Einstein’s theory of
General Relativity states that it’s never in stasis or constant. It’s either expanding or contracting.
Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble
Lemaître posited an expanding model of the universe to explain redshift (the Doppler effect of
the faster an object moves away from the earth, the more the light it gives off moves towards the
infrared side of the spectrum). Hubble provided the observational foundation supporting
Lemaître’s model. The two men differed in explanations though: Lemaître was in favor of the
Big Bang to start everything, Hubble liked the “Steady State” theory of the universe (which is
mostly discounted now).
THE BIG BANG THEORY (or, a VERY brief history of everything)
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
The Big Bang Theory states that 12-14 billion years ago, all matter and energy in the universe
was found in a singularity: an infinitesimally small point. This singularity suddenly expanded
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
and within less than a millisecond had filled the known universe with all the energy and matter
that is in existence.
Various eras occurred (some lasting hundreds of millions of years, some lasting a tiny fraction of
a second) and during these eras, the standard physical laws of the universe started to apply (the
four fundamental laws are: strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetism, and gravity).
As these laws started to apply to matter, and over the intervening billions of years, stars were
formed and exploded and from them, the heavier elements were created.
Several generations of stars formed and exploded, and from one of the later generations of star
dust, the Sun and the Solar System formed. The Sun and outer planets formed first, with the
inner planets forming last. Most of the hydrogen in the Solar System coalesced into the Sun,
with the remainder in the outer planets. The majority of the heavier elements coalesced into the
inner planets, including Earth.
The moon was created, either from residual dust that didn’t coalesce into earth, or from a large
impact on earth that dislodged a great deal of material.
The Big Bang Theory provides the most suitable answer currently for a number of questions that
have plagued scientists. A few of the more important questions it provides a sufficient answer
for are:
1. Why are Hydrogen and Helium so predominant in our universe?
2. Why does it appear all distant objects are moving away from us?
3. What is the origin of the background microwave radiation that permeates the universe
(1% of the snow on old timey TVs)?
Since then, the universe has continued to expand, and as it expands, it has been cooling down.
The two theories that are most predominant about the future of the universe are that it continues
to expand and cool forever (Heat Death) or that at some point, it will stop expanding and start
contracting, eventually returning to the singularity state (Big Crunch).
Some Questions that arise:
How did the Big Bang start then? Was there time before the Big Bang?
The answers to these questions are not discoverable via science at this point; rather they are
currently metaphysical questions, which inevitably are strongly informed by our worldview.
Thus a theist will posit theistic answers (God started the Big Bang and is beyond time, therefore
not affected by a potential non-existence of time before the Big Bang) and a materialist will posit
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The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
materialist answers (ex: without time it’s impossible to use time constrained statements like
cause and effect).
An important thing to remember is there are materialists who will attempt to use science to
answer metaphysical questions that are fundamentally beyond the grasp of science, just as there
are theists who will use metaphysics (philosophy, religion, etc) to attempt to answer scientific
questions. You need to use the right tool for the job (science for science questions and religion
and / or philosophy for metaphysical questions)
Discuss:
Is the Big Bang Theory more, less, or equally problematic in its interaction with matters of faith
than evolution? Why or why not?
THE FINELY TUNED UNIVERSE
One argument for the need for a Creator, is how finely tuned the universe is. Here are just a few
of the incredibly specific set of circumstances that scientists (both Materialist and Theist) agree
had to happen, from the Big Bang Theory down to today, for life as we know it to exist:
1. Stephen Hawking’s flatness problem: If there was a” … reduction of the rate of
expansion by one part in 1012 at the time when the temperature of the Universe was 1010
K would have resulted in the Universe's starting to re-collapse when its radius was only
1/3000 of the present value and the temperature was still 10,000 K.” M. S. Longair, "The
Anisotropy of the Universe at Large Times,"
2. The Strong Nuclear Force: Calculations indicate that if the strong nuclear force, the force
that binds protons and neutrons together in an atom, had been stronger or weaker by as
little as 5%, life would be impossible. (Leslie, 1989, pp. 4, 35; Barrow and Tipler, p.
322.)
3. Video clip of Ard Louis: The discovery of anti-matter being necessary for having very
fast objects and very small objects interact, which is necessary for understanding atomic
and subatomic particles
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The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
4. Calculations show that if gravity had been stronger or weaker by 1 part in 1040 , then lifesustaining stars like the sun could not exist. Stronger and stars would all be short lived
super giants. Weaker and stars would all be small long lived stars. This would make life
as we know it impossible because heavy elements are created in super giants and small
stars (like the sun) burn long enough for life to develop. Davies, 1984, p. 242.
5. Video Clip of Polkinghorne: The resonance energy of carbon being necessary for
explaining how an abundance of helium atoms can come together and form carbon,
which is necessary for life as we know it.
6. If Jupiter and to a lesser extent, the other outer planets hadn’t existed, it’s quite possible
the Earth would be struck more often by potentially world ending impacts. Deborah
Byrd, 2015
7. The Earth sits in a narrow, habitable region around the sun. A little closer to the sun and
no water freezes, a little farther away and too much water freezes. Harris and Silverman,
Are we not the only Earth out there?
8. The existence of a sizable, solitary moon stabilized weather patterns and helped disperse
heat around the globe. Without it, there would likely be a much smaller band of habitable
area on the globe. Bruce Dorminey, Without the Moon, would there be Life on Earth?
2009
The accuracy needed for each one of these physical laws alone is astronomical. When you
combine them all together to get the universe we have, you start to see the odds of this happening
by chance dwindle to an almost unbelievably small number.
Oxford Mathematician Roger Penrose stated ““Try to imagine phase space… of
the entire universe. Each point in this phase space represents a different possible way that the
universe might have started off. We are to picture the Creator, armed with a ‘pin’ — which is to
be placed at some point in phase space… Each different positioning of the pin provides a
different universe. Now the accuracy that is needed for the Creator’s aim depends on the entropy
of the universe that is thereby created. It would be relatively ‘easy’ to produce a high entropy
universe, since then there would be a large volume of the phase space available for the pin to hit.
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The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
But in order to start off the universe in a state of low entropy — so that there will indeed be a
second law of thermodynamics — the Creator must aim for a much tinier volume of the phase
space. How tiny would this region be, in order that a universe closely resembling the one in
which we actually live would be the result?” Lenox, page 70
Lenox states the Penrose’s calculated accuracy needed to be “…accurate to 1 part in 10 to the
power of 10 to the power or 123, that is 1 followed by 10 to the 123rd power zeros.” Or, as
Penrose puts it himself, a number so large that” … it would be impossible to write out in the
usual decimal way, because even if you were able to put a zero on every particle in the universe,
there would not even be enough particles to do the job.”
Discuss:
What does the idea of a Finely Tuned Universe do to your idea of the nature of God? Does it
reinforce, shake or do nothing to it?
Counter arguments to the Finely Tuned Universe
There are a number of arguments that suggest that the Finely Tuned Universe is not in need of a
creator. Most, if not all, of these arguments are metaphysical, not scientific, in nature. We will
be looking at two of the most commonly seen ones. They cannot be proven via science and the
statements of scientists and philosophers stating confidence that science will find a way to
explain these arguments (or prove them false and replace them with something better) are as
much statements of faith as a Christian’s in the belief of a Creator God.
1. If the universe didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be around to observe it, so obviously this is the
way it is, regardless of odds (The Anthropic Principle)
William Lane Craig states that this is a fundamentally unsatisfying answer:
"Suppose you are dragged before a firing squad consisting of 100 marksmen. You hear the
command to fire and the crashing roar of the rifles. You then realize you are still alive, and that
not a single bullet found its mark. How are you to react to this rather unlikely event?
If we applied a sort of [anthropic principle] to the firing squad scenario, we could state the
following: 'Of course you do not observe that you are dead, because if you were dead, you would
not be able to observe that fact!' However, this does not stop you from being amazed and
surprised by the fact that you did survive against overwhelming odds. Moreover, you would try
to deduce the reason for this unlikely event, which was too improbable to happen by chance.
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
Surely, the best explanation is that there was some plan among the marksmen to miss you on
purpose.
In other words, you are probably alive for a very definite reason, not because of some random,
unlikely, freak accident. So we should conclude the same with the cosmos. It is natural for us to
ask why we escaped the firing squad. Because it is so unlikely that this amazing universe with its
precariously balanced constants could have come about by sheer accident, it is likely that there
was some purpose in mind, before or during its creation. And the mind in question belongs to
God." Barrow and Tipler on the Anthropic Principle vs. Divine Design
2. The multiverse theory
!
There are a multitude of competing theories about the possible nature of a multiverse. They
range from various spots in our universe that have effectively split off the formed different
universes with different physical laws to infinite universes being split off every second as
different particle interactions lead to different outcomes.
This is a satisfying materialist theory to solve the Finely Tuned Universe problem because now
that you have an infinite number of universes to pick from, we can simply say that we won the
lottery pick and happen to reside in one of the lucky few universes to be friendly to existence of
life.
The counter to this argument from a theistic perspective though, is that it doesn’t preclude a
creator God. The belief in a God who created an infinite number of universes in a multiverse is
no more difficult than a belief in a God who created an almost infinite number of galaxies and
stars in our universe.
Week 8
The Big Bang Theory and the origins of the Universe
THOUGHTS IN CONCLUSION
Whether one postulates a Creator (theism) or no Creator (materialism), the differences in
arguments have nothing to do with Science. Rather, they are arguments from competing
worldviews: worldviews that are fundamentally incompatible. Both worldviews take their first
steps into the world based on faith and view the facts accumulated about the world based on
those early foundational steps.
Thus, a materialist is going to view the truths of science through the lens of materialism. They
are going to see it as logical and inevitable that the truths of science lead one to a disbelief in a
Creator. And they will hold to these beliefs as fervently as any devout religious person.
Fortunately, it is not our place to change hearts.
Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved
us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
It is our place to show the love, grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ to all, that they may see
him through us, including in our intellectual endeavors.