Thursday, September 10, 2015

Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 1)



THE BIG BANG THEORY OF CREATION

The “Big Bang” theory has come to exist in our generation as the predominate theory for the creation of the universe.  The first direct scientific evidence for the Big Bang dates back to 1916 when Albert Einstein noted that his equations of general relativity predicted an expanding universe, as opposed to the prevailing theory of a steady state universe.  Even Einstein did not initially accept the implications of his equation, so he introduced a “cosmological constant”, a fudge factor, to prevent his equation from converging to a finite beginning of the universe.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble observed that the velocities of galaxies result from a general expansion of the universe.  In 1946, George Gamow calculated that nothing less than the universe expanding from a near infinitely hot condition could account for the present abundance of elements.  In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson observed the background radiation predicted as a remnant from the energy at the origin of the universe that was not converted to matter.  At present, the Big Bang is the “Standard Model”, the generally accepted theory for the creation of the universe. The Big Bang theory, and many of its supporting details, were described in Genesis over 3500 years ago, long before science theorized and modern technology demonstrated.  In the words of Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D (MIT), an Orthodox Jewish physicist and author of Genesis and the Big Bang,  


“It is remarkable that the theistic description, which was developed millennia before, and therefore in isolation from the current scientific description, so closely matches the broad perception of current cosmology and paleontology.  It is not that theology responded to modern scientific discovers.  Theology presents a fixed view of the universe.  Science, through its progressively improved understanding of the world, has come to agree with theology.” [1]

“In 1992, science historian Frederic Burnham commented that belief in God is ‘more respectable today’ among scientist than at any time in the last hundred years.” [2]

(Gen 1:1), “In the beginning…”  The book of Genesis goes out on a limb to postulate a radical idea; the universe had a beginning and a finite age.  “No other ‘holy book’ makes such a claim on its own.  The concept appears elsewhere only in those books that borrow from the Bible, such as the Quran and the Mormon writings.” [3]

Scripture took this position over 3500 years ago, long before the advent of modern technology capable of supporting or countering this position.  One thousand years later, Aristotle and the Greek held universe to be eternal without beginning and end.  At the beginning of the 20th century, the position of most scientists mirrored that of the Greeks; the universe had no beginning, but eternally existed in a steady state condition.  Forces that could be observed in the universe, such as gravitational and electromagnetic forces, were constant and could be used to explain the past and predict the future.

By the beginning of the 21th century, most scientists have come to accept the “Standard Model”, which supports a beginning and a finite age of the universe.  Under the Standard Model, the universe did not adhere to the observed laws of the universe at the very beginning, for some infinitely small amount of time, perhaps 1 x 10-35 seconds.  After this initial period of time, the current observable laws of the universe came into effect.  

More to come - Scott

[1] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 160
[2] Navigating Genesis, Dr. Hugh Ross, 2014 Edition, page 17
[3] Navigating Genesis, Dr. Hugh Ross, 2014 Edition, page 27

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