Lesson 3- The Big Bang Flashcards
(36 cards)
Evolution
The theory that all life has evolved from the process of natural selection.
The Big Bang:
The theory that the world was created by an explosion of gas.
Cosmology
The study of the cosmos/universe.
Cosmogony
Explanations of the beginnings of the cosmos/universe
Who came up with the idea of the Big Bang?
Pioneered by George Lemaitre, a theoretical physicist and Catholic priest.
What actually is the Big Bang?
-The universe continues to expand: galaxies are moving away from one another, and the further away they are, the faster they move apart.
-The speed of expansion makes it possible to work out the age of the universe.
-about 13.8 billion years ago, there was a sudden burst of energy that marked the creation of time, space, matter and energy.
-Galaxies are moving away from Earth and from one another.
-This suggests that the galaxies were originally closer together and are now flying apart.
-the distance of a galaxy from Earth can be calculated by working out how fast it is moving away.
Who supported theory of big bang?
It is supported by the Lambda-CDM ‘standard model’ of Big Bang cosmology.
What is the impact of the Big Bang on Christians?
-The impact of the Big Bang amongst the Christian community has been mixed.
-For most Christians, the Big Bang theory suggests that the universe had a beginning, and that this was how God created the universe.
-The theory of an expanding universe was first proposed by a Belgian physicist and Roman Catholic priest, Georges Lamaître.
Evidence that there was a beginning
-Genesis 1:3 – God creates light – this could be a metaphor for the light-stream from the Big Bang.
-Something which has a beginning naturally seems to require something to begin it (all events are caused).
-Links with the Causation Argument and the idea of a First Cause.
-Reasonable claim to connect with Aquinas’ Third Way – good inductive argument.
Fine tuning arguments
-In order to produce intelligent life, the ‘cosmological constants’ all have to be correct to an impossibly narrow configuration.
-The fact that we are here therefore suggests that something (perhaps God?) has fine-tuned constants, since the odds of their being correct purely by chance are about 10,180 against.
-If this is the only universe, then God must have made it.
Catholic Church
-The official position of the Catholic Church was given in 1951, when Pope Pius XII declared that the Big Bang theory did not conflict with the Catholic idea of creation.
-Catholics would argue that the Big Bang was caused by the will of God.
-There is also no shortage of scientists who accept God as the cause of the Big Bang.
“The Big Bang cries out for a divine explanation. It forces the conclusion that nature had a define beginning.” Francis Collins, 1993
Pope Francis
Pope Francis has further cemented the Catholic position that creation required God but that this does not contradict the scientific assertions of the Big Bang
He said - when we read about creation in genesis we run the risk of imagining god was a magician with a magic wand able to do everything but that isn’t true
What are fundamental Christians?
-There are certain Christians who think that the Bible should be interpreted literally.
-They think that the creation stories happened exactly in the way they were written down in Genesis. This worldview is called Creationism.
-This is different to the Catholic viewpoint we have been learning about.
-Catholic Christians would look at the Genesis creation accounts as symbolic. They are meant to give a reason for creation, not to explain how it was done.
Main creationist beliefs…
-The Bible is the word of God and so must be totally accurate (right).
-God has given humans His truth through the Bible.
-Humans have no right to prefer their own interpretations to the actual words of God.
-Therefore, the Bible is read and interpreted literally (as it was written) and is not altered.
Big band and deism…
-Deism was a popular Christian response to the Big Bang Theory.
-It is the belief that a deity (God!) ‘set things off’ and then left the universe to work according to the laws he created it with.
-However, he does not have any further influence / involvement with it.
What was deism similar to?
-similar to Aristotle’s idea of the ‘Prime Mover’, who was utterly disinterested in the world.
-this contradicts key Christian beliefs about God as actively concerned for his creation – the Bible depicts God being actively involved with his world, for example the incarnation of Jesus Christ!
-Synoptic link: Religious language – could this lead to the death of God by a thousand qualifications? Why worship a God who isn’t interested at all?!
God and divine intervention?
-The main point about the Big Bang theory, from the Christian point of view, is that it seems to provide undeniable evidence that there was a beginning of the universe.
-In Genesis 1:3, the first thing that God creates is light, and many Christians see this as a metaphor for the light-stream from the Big Bang.
-Something which has a beginning naturally seems to require something to begin it, since as far as we can tell from physics, all events are caused.
-If the universe was caused, then there must have been a First Cause (Aquinas states God is the uncaused first cause’ and the prime mover).
The ‘fine-tuning’ argument for the Big Bang:
-This suggests to Christians that God caused it to happen.
-In order to produce intelligent life, the ‘cosmological constants’ (such as the stickiness of gravity, the expansion rate of the universe, and the production of RNA, DNA and proteins) all have to be correct to an impossibly narrow configuration.
-The fact that we are here, therefore, suggests that God has fine-tuned the constants. In other words, if this is the only universe, then God must have made it.
Multi-verse Theory:
-The multiverse theory proposes the existence of an enormous number of universes, each with its own set of physical laws.
-Statistically, some universes would have cosmological constants aligning in a way conducive to life.
-This challenges the ‘fine-tuning’ argument, suggesting that the appearance of design in our universe might be a statistical outcome rather than evidence of purposeful tuning.
-With so many universes, it’s not that surprising that one of them turned out just right by luck.” So, the appearance of design in our universe might not be because someone set things up on purpose, but rather it’s like winning a lottery in a sea of possibilities.
-This idea suggests an alternative explanation, saying our universe’s features could be more about chance in a big group of universes than God planning it all out.
Catholic Church views
-The official position of the Catholic Church was given in 1951, when Pope Pius XII declared that the Big Bang theory did not conflict with the Catholic idea of creation.
-Clearly, an atheist would say that the Big Bang was uncaused or self-caused, whereas Christians (such as Catholics) would argue that it was caused by the will of God.
-There is no shortage of scientists who accept God as the cause of the Big Bang
Here is a comment from Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute since 1993:
The Big Bang cries out for a divine explanation. It forces the conclusion that nature had a defined beginning. I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.
Creationist views?
-Those Christians who reject scientific accounts of the origins of the universe are called creationists.
-Creationist explanations appeal to their own brand of science, which basically refers to the statements in the Bible.
-When these conflict with the findings of modern science, the latter are seen as false, and the Bible is alleged to be the ‘true’ science.
-‘Intelligent design’ claims to be properly scientific, but its many critics reject that claim.
-There are two main types of creationist explanations: that of six-day (young earth) creationists, and that of ‘progressive’ (old earth) creationists.
Six-day (young earth) Creationism:
-Although scientific evidence shows that the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years, and that of the earth is around 4.5 billion years, Young Earth Creationism holds that the earth was created by God between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago.
-This belief follows a literal reading of Genesis in which God created the earth in six 24-hour days.
-All humans descend from Adam and Eve; there was no death before the ‘Fall’, and species were created, ‘as seen’, by God, and not produced through the evolution of species.
-This view is held by a large number of people, particularly in the USA, where it is taught in some evangelical churches.
-There is no scientific evidence for Young Earth Creationist views. Since the Genesis narratives of Creation and Flood have a clear dependence on some features of their earlier Babylonian counterparts, it is difficult to see the force of Creationist views beyond the level of simple belief, which some are content to have.
What are some examples of young earth christianinty
-This interpretation is defended for example by Henry Morris, who wrote a series of books in the twentieth century promoting what he called creation science.
-another example, Ken Ham (an Australian-born fundamentalist Christian living in the USA) dates Noah’s Flood at 2348 BC, argues that the ark carried enough species for biodiversity; that dinosaurs co-existed with genetically modern humans, that radiometric and other scientific methods of dating the earth are wrong; and that the only evidence that counts is that of the one who was there - God.
Old Earth Creationism:
-Progressive (old earth) Creationism takes a different approach.
-It acknowledges scientific findings that estimate the Earth’s age at around 4.5 billion years and the universe’s age at about 13.8 billion years.
-Interpretation of ‘Day’ in Genesis: Instead of interpreting the ‘days’ in Genesis as literal 24-hour periods, advocates of this view suggest that ‘day’ (Hebrew: yom) could mean more like a ‘creative epoch.’
-This implies that God had distinct periods of creative activity followed by long periods of stability (where everything stayed the same).
