THE BIG BANG
How did the universe begin?
DAY 1: Creation of the earth and light
DAY 2: Creation of the earth's atmosphere
DAY 3: Creation of dry land and vegetation
DAY 4: Creation of the sun, moon, stars, and other heavenly bodies
DAY 5: Creation of birds and sea-dwelling animals
DAY 6: Creation of land-dwelling animals and mankind
“We have very good evidence that there was a Big Bang, so the universe as we know it almost certainly started some 14 billion years ago. But was that the absolute beginning, or was there something before it?” asks Alexander Vilenkin, a cosmologist at Tufts University near Boston. "It seems like the kind of question that can never be truly answered because every time someone proposes a solution, someone else can keep asking the annoying question: What happened before that?"
The following is from an article in Discover Magazine:
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The article goes on to say:
But now Vilenkin says he has convincing evidence in hand: The universe had a distinct beginning — though he can’t pinpoint the time. After 35 years of looking backward, he says, he’s found that before our universe there was nothing, nothing at all, not even time itself.
These excerpts summarize the views of many people who agree that the universe did indeed have a beginning, and they conclude it was by means of the big bang theory. Simply put, the theory says around 14 billion years ago there was a tiny hot point called a singularity. You can think of this point to be like a tiny bubble that was much smaller than the point of a pencil. Inside this point was everything in the universe. The theory says that one day this point suddenly exploded and the tiny point grew in size. It cooled, continued to grow and things started to evolve like planets, stars, and eventually life on earth.
However, there are others who think the universe has always existed. And then some think the universe did have a beginning, but they question some details of the big bang theory. Astrophysicist and author Ethan Siegel says this:
Instead [of a singularity exploding], the very early Universe underwent a period of time where all of the energy that would go into the matter and radiation present today was instead bound up in the fabric of space itself... What happened prior to inflation — or whether inflation was eternal to the past — is still an open question, but one thing is for certain: the Big Bang is not the beginning of the Universe!
As they refer to the big bang as the "most popular theory", National Geographic says this:
The big bang theory leaves several major questions unanswered. One is the original cause of the big bang itself. Several answers have been proposed to address this fundamental question, but none has been proven—and even adequately testing them has proven to be a formidable challenge.
The more you search, the more you will find varying opinions on the start of the universe. However, one thing is common between them all: none of these opinions can explain how the universe began. They have all made best guesses. So with this being the case, why is the following found in a public school Earth Science (2017-18) textbook?
How Did the Universe Form?
The Big Bang Theory...is the most widely accepted cosmological explanation of how the universe formed. According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe began about 13.8 billion years ago. Everything that is now in the universe existed as a single, hot, chaotic mass smaller than an atom. For as yet unknown reasons, this mass began to expand rapidly, rapidly cooling as it grew. All the matter and energy in the universe, and even space and time, resulted from this expansion. What came before the Big Bang? There is no way for scientists to know since there is no remaining evidence.
After providing some "evidence" for the big bang, the textbook goes on to say:
All four of these lines of evidence agree with each other, and together form the pillars of modern cosmology. Our estimate of the age of the universe has improved greatly just in the last two decades. From all this evidence, we have solved one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Solved a great mystery? As a review exercise at the end of the chapter, students are asked to summarize the big bang and list all the "evidence" that supports it. The textbook gives students no alternative as to how the universe began. They are only presented with one side of the story, and the authors do their best to present the theory as fact by saying the mystery has been solved.
As with evolution, the big bang is not observable. Therefore, it is based on assumptions. Scientists can't agree on the details, and they can't provide solid evidence for it. They can't give an explanation for what existed before the "explosion", and they can't explain how the "tiny point" came to be in the first place.
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One thing we can agree on is the universe did have a beginning.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void: and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light,'; and there was light" (Genesis 1:1-3 NKJV).
When God spoke these words, was there some type of explosion? Maybe there was. But one thing is for sure: it doesn't take long to look at the complexity of our universe today and see that we are not here by a random accident. We can look at creation and see a glimpse of our amazing Creator.
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If you have kids in the public school system, make sure they are offered the truth.
Steve Nadis, "What Came Before the Big Bang." Discover Magazine, October 10, 2013, http://discovermagazine.com/2013/september/13-starting-point.
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Ethan Siegel, "The Big Bang Wasn't The Beginning, After All." Forbes, September 21, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/09/21/the-big-bang-wasnt-the-beginning-after-all/#60a6d99455df .
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"Origins of the Universe," National Geographic , accessed February 7, 2018, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-of-the-universe.
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CK-12 Foundation, Earth Science (Online publication: CK-12 Foundation, 2017), 21-25. http://www.ck12.org/saythanks
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