EPISODE 2 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE / THE BIG BANG
EPISODE 2 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE / THE BIG BANG
The birth of modern science was followed by an era called the enlightenment. Philosophers ignored the Bible’s role in giving birth to modern science. They went away from experimental science and relied on their own speculations. An enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant declared that the universe was infinite and stable, not changing. We could not know if it had a beginning or always existed. He added that the laws governing the universe were sufficient to maintain it – God is not necessary. Then he concluded; with an unknown beginning there is time for life to originate spontaneously. His unscientific reasoning was accepted from the late 1700s to the 20th century.
It has become another example of false human reasoning, untested reasoning like the reasoning that paralyzed science in the Middle-Ages. It failed miserably in the face of 20th century science.
In 1929, Edwin Hubble’s telescope showed that galaxies were expanding rapidly. The discovery ignited excitement among astronomers. If the universe is expanding it can be retracted back to its beginning. Science could study the creation of the universe. Twenty-seven hundred years earlier the Bible recorded that the Creator spread out and is spreading out the heavens. The original statement in Hebrew uses two forms of the verb to emphasize that it continues to spread. Isaiah 40:22 Hubble’s telescope confirmed what the Bible had revealed.
Physicists knew that all materials are formed by protons and neutrons. In 1946 George Gamow calculated what would be required to fill the universe. If intensely hot protons and neutrons exploded out into space they would cool and bond together, forming the matter in the universe. Two thousand years ago the Bible stated that the visible would be made from the invisible. “What is seen was not made out of what is visible.” Hebrews 11:3 Protons and neutrons are definitely invisible.
Gamow had shown why an explosive beginning was necessary. In the 1950s an English biologist, Fred Hoyle, was fearful that science would limit the time in which life could begin spontaneously. Still supporting the philosopher Kant’s false conclusions, he mocked the evidence by calling it the ‘Big Bang.’
The search for the beginning continued. In 1965 Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working for Bell Laboratories, listening for sounds from outer space. They continued to hear static coming in from every direction and searched for an answer. They were rewarded with a Nobel Prize for discovering the radioactive background surrounding the universe - the explosion at the beginning of the universe. The first sentence of the Bible is “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” For the first time science was viewing that beginning.
Scientists throughout the 20th century were constructing a model of how the universe was formed. In 1992 the COBE satellite was launched. It was equipped to test the radioactive background and the components of the model. When it returned confirmation of the amazing accuracy of the model, the news exploded around the world. It was headlines in the London Times for five straight days. It filled the prime time television news in America. Steven Hawking called it “the most amazing discovery in his lifetime, if not in all time.” Others exclaimed it was like looking at the face of God. Science historians observed that for the first time in 100 years scientists were willing to consider the existence of a brilliant and powerful creator.
What led them to this conclusion? An explosion should have produced chaos. The laws that govern the universe had to be there at the beginning to produce the precise balances in the heavens and the fine-tuned conditions for complex life on earth. Laws do not evolve. Laws at the beginning require an intelligent creator.
Opponents of a connection between science and a Creator have threatened to sue universities for even allowing students to discuss such a possibility in the classroom.
The four major discoveries in the ‘Big Bang’ research had been identified in the scriptures. First, Hubble’s telescope viewed the expanding galaxies. The Bible stated the Creator is spreading out the heavens - present tense, is spreading out. Second, physicists knew that an explosion of protons, neutrons and electrons formed the universe’s mass. The Bible said that what is seen is made from the invisible. Third, the first sentence in the Bible refers to the beginning of the universe. Science confirmed the beginning when they discovered the radioactive background surrounding the universe. Fourth, the COBE satellite confirmed the scientific model. The laws require a Creator. That Creator has identified himself with the steps to the birth of modern science, and revealing insights not discovered by astronomers until the 20th century.
The Bible led man to the birth of modern science, in the Middle-Ages.
In the 20th century, modern science led man back to the Bible.