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The Big Bang Implies
a Beginning
What do these scientists
see in the universe that leads them to contemplate the existence
of God? First, the Big Bang implies a beginning, a creation event.
For centuries, since the time of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), scientists
held the view of a static, unchanging universe, governed by Newton's
law of gravity.
Albert
Einstein's theory of Relativity changed all that.
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Albert
Einstein
(1879-1955) |
Einstein's theories
implied that the universe was not static, but dynamic. Einstein,
himself was uncomfortable with the implication that the universe
had a beginning. He wrote, "This circumstance [of an expanding
Universe] irritates me," and in another letter... "To admit
such possibilities seems senseless." [Jastrow, God and the
Astronomers, p. 27-28] Despite Einstein's irritation, the implication
was inescapable. American astronomers Vesto M. Slipher (1913) and
Edwin Hubble (1929) in their studies of the galaxies, demonstrated
that the universe is in fact expanding. Hubble found that the galaxies
are receding - moving away from the earth - and the more distant
galaxies are receding more rapidly. This relationship - further,
faster - implied that at some time in the distant past all the planets,
stars and galaxies were concentrated in an infinitely dense, infinitely
hot fireball. The Big Bang theory of the universe was born. The
first supporting evidence was presented.
"...the
creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data
astronomy has produced..." ?Dr. Arno Penzias
Scholars immediately
recognized the profound theological implications of the Big Bang
theory. It implied a creation event. As Nobel-prize winner, Dr.
Arno Penzias expresses it:
"Astronomy
leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of
nothing..." Moreover, the idea of "the creation
of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy
has produced so far." [Cosmos,..., p. 79, 83]
A typical narrative
of the Big Bang begins like this:
"At a particular
instant roughly 15 billion years ago, all the matter and energy
we can observe, concentrated in a region smaller than a dime, began
to expand and cool at an incredibly rapid rate..." [The Evolution
of the Universe, P. James Peebles et. al.]
Such a big bang,
creation event raises the question: 'If the universe had a beginning
then what or who was the First Cause?' A few scientists were willing
to suggest answers. The British theorist Edward Milne concluded
a mathematical treatise on relativity by writing:
"As to
the first cause of the Universe, in the context of expansion, that
is left for the reader to insert, but our picture is incomplete
without Him." [Modern Cosmology ..., E. A. Milne].
Dr. Hugh Ross states
the implications more directly:
"If the
universe is 'exploding', there must have been a start and a Starter
to that explosion. ...The universe had a beginning
-- hence an Initiator, one who existed before and outside of the
universe..." [Cosmology's Holy Grail]
And again:
"All the
data accumulated in the twentieth century tells us that a transcendent
Creator must exist, for all the matter, energy, length, width and
height, and even time suddenly and simultaneously came into being
from some source beyond itself." [The Creator... p. 70]
Some scientists were
quick to see the correspondence between the Big Bang and the Genesis
account in the Bible. Dr. Robert Jastrow of the Goddard Space Institute
wrote:
"...the
astronomical evidence leads to a Biblical view of the origin of
the world.... the essential elements in the astronomical
and Biblical accounts of Genesis are the same:" [God and the
Astronomers, p. 14]
Princeton Astrophysicist,
professor Shoichi Yoshikawa also compares the Big Bang origin of
the universe with the Bible's account and concludes:
"I
see no contradiction with the description of the Old and New Testament
concerning the birth of the universe....I think that God originated
the universe and life." [Cosmos,... pp. 134-5]
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