Diminutive Squeak

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." -Carl Sagan, Cosmos

This article attempts to straddle the line between apologetics and polemics, so I am going to do my best not to fall too far into one field or the other.  Having discussed the End of the universe last week, I thought it appropriate to consider its Beginning this week.

The main topic I am entertaining this week is the Big Bang theory and its significance in religion and apologetics.  This theory has garnered quite a lot of attention over the past several decades.  This is in part because it seems to fit with what we understand about the nature of the universe, but also because many people have understood it as being contradictory to the prevailing religious notion of a divine creation.

The treatment of this theory by Western culture has been misguided and sensationalistic, and it has resulted in a significant misunderstanding of the theory and its applications.  This has led to contentious and bigoted debating, and far too many people have been hurt in one way or another in the midst of the fray.

Back to Basics

First, let me get something out of the way: my purpose in writing this post is not to defend or attack the theory itself—I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject for that.  What I am attempting to do is to clear up some divisive misconceptions which seem to have crept into the wider public understanding of this theory.  No matter what your opinion is of the correctness of this hypothesis, I believe we can all agree that it is important to define your terms before conducting any informed discourse.

So what exactly does the Big Bang theory postulate?  At its core, the theory simply states that originally, all matter and energy in the universe were concentrated into an infinitesimally small point of space.  Now, I believe that it is somewhat unfair to call the point small, since the entire universe was contained within its bounds.  Really, it was as large as a section of space could be....  At any rate, eventually some mechanism (there are competing theories as to what) caused the matter and energy within that small point to begin expanding and spinning away from the center.  This trend of expansion, redistribution, and motion has continued to the present day, and it theoretically will continue for the foreseeable future.

This theory has been useful in explaining the expansion of the universe (and the corresponding redshift which has been documented).  It has also helped to account for the motions of celestial bodies and the supposed chemical composition of stars and other astronomical entities.  These traits and more suggest that the theory may be useful in describing the development of the universe.  That being said, I wish to point out what I consider to be a distressing misnomer.  The Big Bang was neither big nor a bang!  As I explained above, the universe was as "small" as it could possibly be (certainly much smaller than its present state).  And since there was no air or other fluid medium surrounding the universe, it could not have made any audible sound.  Hence the title of this blog post.

Think Inside the Box

The main point I wish to make today is that modern society has derived a significance from the Big Bang theory which was never there to begin with.  What I have heard so many people assert (or at least imply) is that this theory somehow contradicts the idea of an intelligent Creator.  For some reason, the concept that the universe began as a small point has led even some of the more perceptive members of society to believe that this theory constitutes proof against God.  It does not.

To begin with, this theory does not presume to describe the origin of the universe.  It mentions nothing about how matter got here in the first place, only what happened to it sometime after it arrived.  The Big Bang theory is a theory about the development of the universe, and ascribing any more meaning to it than this is simply unfair.  To be honest, it doesn't even like being described as an origin theory.  Scientific theories are only happy (or useful) within a very rigid set of boundaries.  When applied to anything but the maturing of the universe, this theory takes on water very quickly.

Big Bang Creationism

In that case, can any ideas be drawn from the Big Bang theory about a Creator?  Yes they can, but perhaps not in the way you might expect.  This theory gives rise to the idea of an "age" of the universe: the amount of time since the Big Bang happened.  I believe that if the theory is correct, then this is indeed a reasonable term, because the Big Bang serves as proof that the universe is not infinitely old.  This proof has a very simple explanation.

To understand it, one must first understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  This scientific law states that isolated systems tend toward thermodynamic equilibrium—that is, an equal distribution of the energy, or the state of maximum entropy (disorder) for the system.  Once this state is reached, it is impossible to make anything happen, because action requires an imbalance of energy.  Without getting in too deep, what many scientists believe to be the outcome of this theory is that all the energy in the universe will be evenly distributed and thus useless.  This has been dubbed the "Heat death of the universe," and it has a very compelling case in its favor.

Now, let's grant that the universe is infinitely old and that some "natural" impetus caused the Big Bang.  If this were the case, given any probability at all of its occurrence (and there had to be some probability), the Big Bang would have had an infinite number of chances to start, and would have started infinitely long ago.  This means that by now (infinitely many years later), the heat death of the universe would have already occurred.  If the Big Bang theory and the Second Law of Thermodynamics are both correct, and if the universe were infinitely old, this would be the case.  Given the fact that it is obviously not the current state of affairs, two options present themselves.

First, the universe could operate in a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.  This would allow the universe to be infinitely old, but not completely defunct.  Indeed, this model was advocated by Einstein and others, but it has proven too problematic for the general scientific community, and has since been abandoned.  A handful of other theories have replaced it, but most fail to pass certain tests of common sense and all of them seem for now to be pure conjecture.  The only other logical conclusion I can draw is that some willful object either created the universe at a set point in the past or kept the Big Bang from happening until a given moment.  Both cases must admit the likelihood of an intelligent Creator!  Now, I understand that many people will be loath to accept this line of reasoning, but I certainly believe it has merit.  Most of the objections I can imagine to this reasoning stem from a misunderstanding of infinity (a topic I hope to cover in a later post).

Cosmic Scripture

I would be remiss if I did not include some biblical text in my post today.  What I have decided to do is to include some of the Bible's references to astronomical phenomena.  The earliest (and perhaps easiest) scripture on the subject is Genesis 1:1, wherein we are told that "God created the heavens and the earth."  David is inspired by the stars: "When I consider your heavens,/ the work of your fingers,/ the moon and the stars,/ which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them,/ human beings that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4)  Isaiah says that God marked off the universe with the "breadth of his hand." (40:12)  God Himself gives asks the following of Job:

"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?" (Job 38:31-33)

All of the names in the section above refer to celestial entities.  Clearly the Bible indicates that God created the universe, and He is responsible for the laws that govern it.  If there was a Big Bang, it happened because God planned it out.  And if the universe has an age (and most likely it does), God was there at the Beginning.

My challenge for you this week is to think seriously and logically about the world around you.  If God made this universe (and I am convinced that He did), there should be evidence to indicate this, and nothing to contradict it.  The Big Bang theory certainly has nothing to say about the matter.  Cultivate the wisdom to separate people's opinions from real scientific theory, and don't be afraid to question what you think and believe.  Science and faith are complementary, never contradictory.