The Big Bang And The Big Question: A universe without God?

Until the early twentieth century, astronomers holding three possible models of the universe:

1-The universe could be static.

According to this theory, although the mutual gravitational attractions can be kept together in the form of solar systems and galaxies, each of these groups-terrestrial stellar glide through space with its own path at random, unrelated to the course leading other groups of stars and planets.

The static model is compatible with atheists and believers. Such a universe could have been created by God at some point in history, but also could have existed forever without the need for God.

2-The universe may be wavering.

It may be a cosmic balloon alternately expanding and contracting. For a few billion years would inflate, expanding into a vacuum. But the gravitational pull of each star and planet pulling together, this expansion will eventually stop until the entire process is reversed and the ball back to himself. All existing eventually crash into the center of the universe, releasing enormous amounts of light and heat, exploding outward in all directions and all starting the upswing again.

Such a universe could also have been created by God, or could have existed forever without God.

3-Finally, the universe can be open.

The universe may be a cosmic balloon that never shrinks. If all the gravitational pull of the stars and planets could not stop the initial explosion, as in the oscillating model, the universe would be overflowing into nothingness forever. Eventually the stars would be exhausted and a curtain of frozen darkness would cover the whole of existence. Such a universe could never come back to life itself. Exist in a moment of history, and it would shine gloriously dark irrevocable.

The latter model proposes that before the explosion (single), all matter and energy in the universe were contained in a singularity, a small spot that was still in space forever until immediately before being detonated.

This model proposes a paradox: Objects at rest - as the initial singularity - remain in the same state, unless acting under an external force, then the starting point and containing all matter and energy, and nothing ( at least nothing natural) existed outside of this uniqueness what could have caused it to explode?

The simplest resolution of the paradox is that something supernatural was that the universe exists. The open model of the universe implies a supernatural creator - a God.

The Theory of Relativity

In 1916 Albert Einstein released the first draft of his general theory of relativity, and the scientific world was shocked greatly. It seemed that Einstein had revealed the deepest secrets of the universe. His equations also caused some problems - technical dilemmas, mathematical problems - but not the kind of things that would interest newspapers or popular scientific journals.

Two scientists noticed the errors. Later in 1917 the Danish astronomer Willem de Sitter, reviewed the theory of relativity and Einstein replied in detail, highlighting the problem and proposing a radical solution: general relativity could work only if the entire universe exploded, going in all directions, from a central point.

Einstein never responded to criticism Sitter. Then in 1922, the Soviet mathematician Alexander Friedmann independently came to the conclusion Sitter. If Einstein was right - Friedmann predicted - the universe should be expanding in all directions at high speed.

Meanwhile, the astronomer Vesto Slipher witnessed the explosive movement of the universe. Using the telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Slipher discovered that dozens of galaxies were actually spreading from a central point.

Between 1918 and 1922, Sitter, Friedmann, and Slipher independently shared their findings with Einstein, but he strangely resisted their solution - as if, in his mind, he had realized the theological implications of an exploding universe.

Even Einstein wrote a letter to Zeitschrift fur Physik, a renowned trade journal, calling Friedmann's suggestions "suspicious" and for the de Sitter, Einstein said: "This situation (of an expanding universe) irritates me." On another note, Einstein reassured one of his colleagues saying: "I have not fallen into the hands of priests" - a clear reference to de Sitter, Friedmann, and Slipher.

Hubble Discovery

In 1925, the American astronomer Edward Hubble gave the static model of the universe a big hit. Using up to that time the world's largest telescope, Hubble revealed that every galaxy within 6 x 1017 miles around the earth was receding.

Einstein stubbornly refused to acknowledge the work of Hubble. He continued teaching the static model for another five years until he went to Berlin to Pasadena to personally examine the evidence. At the conclusion of the trip, Einstein admitted, "The new Hubble observations ... make it appear that the general structure of the universe is not static."

Einstein died in 1955, changed its position somewhat but was not completely convinced that the universe was expanding.

The Sound of the Big Bang

Ten years later, in 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were calibrating a super-sensitive microwave detector at Bell Labs in New Jersey. No matter where the two scientists noted, the instrument always sounded the same type of sound - regular, with three degrees Kelvin (3K). The two laboratory employees read a paper on general relativity, a student of Alexander Friedmann. The study predicted that the residues of the most recent explosion of the universe should be detectable in a weak microwave or so with "5 degrees Kelvin."

The two scientists realized that they had discovered the echo of the biggest explosion in history: the "Big Bang". For this discovery, Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize.

The discovery of the "3k" ruled the static model of the universe. Only two models: one that worked with God and one who did it without his presence.

The final point to address was: Did the early universe has exploded countless times (the oscillating model) or only one (the current model)?

The researchers knew that this could be treated by determining the average density of the universe. If the universe contained the equivalent of a hydrogen atom in a space of 10 cubic feet, then the gravitational attraction between the particles would be strong enough to stop and return the expansion. Eventually, there would be a "big implosion" (big crunch) that lead to another big bang (then another big bang, etc.).. If, on the contrary, the universe contained less than this density, then the explosive force of big bang, all the forces exceed gravitational and scatter everything forever.

The Panic and Its Resolution

Interestingly, the death of the static model inspired panic in many quarters of the scientific world. Mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers joined forces to prove the eternity of the universe.

Dr. Robert Jastrow, arguably the best time astrophysicist and director of the National Aeronautics Goddard, Management and Space Studies, was appointed head of the research project. For fifteen years Jastrow and his team tried to demonstrate the validity of the oscillating model, but the data showed different results.

In 1978 Jastrow released the final report for NASA, impressing the audience with the announcement that the open model was probably correct. On 25 June the same year, Jastrow wrote about his discoveries in the New York Times:

"This is a development by other strange, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible:" In the beginning God created heaven and earth ...". For the scientist who has lived his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; was about to conquer the highest point, and while pushing to reach the final rock, he was received by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. "

Dr. James Trefil, a physicist at the University of Virginia, independently confirmed Jastrow's discovery in 1983. Doctors John Barrow, an astronomer at the University of Sussex, and Frank Tipler, a mathematician and physicist at Tulane University, published similar results in 1986.

Genesis Confirmed

At the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in 1990, Professor John Mather of the University of Columbia, an astrophysicist who served as a member of NASA Goddard, presented "the greatest proof" of the existence of an open universe.

According to Boston Globe reporter covering the conference, Professor Mather was greeted with great applause, prompting the chairman of the meeting, Dr. Geoffrey Burbridge to comment: "It seems very clear that the public is in favor of Genesis - at least the first verse seems to have been confirmed. "

In 1998, Dr. Ruth Daly, Erick Guerra and Lin Wan of Princeton University, announced to the American Astronomical Society: "We can say with 97.5% certainty that the universe will expand forever."

Later that year, Dr. Allan Sandage, a renowned astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institute team of Washington, was quoted in The New Republic Time saying: "The big bang is best understood as a miracle triggered by some kind of power transcendental ".

The Newsweek columnist George Will began his column in the November 9, 1998 with the following title: "Soon, the American Civil Liberties Union or some similar group of litigants secular, will file a lawsuit against NASA, blaming that the Hubble Space Telescope unconstitutionally gives comfort to the religious. "

Permission To Believe

That same year, Newsweek reported an unexpected turn in the opinion of the "ever passionate agnostic": "Forty percent of American scientists now believe in a personal God - not necessarily an ineffable power present in the world, but a deity to whom you pray. "

Clearly there are mathematicians, physicists, astronomers and cosmologists who prefer not to believe in God. For a variety of reasons, prefer to believe that new natural laws will be discovered or that new evidence will appear and reverse the current model of an open universe and created.

For many in the scientific community, the evidence is persuasive. For others, modern cosmology offers permission to believe.

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