Month: January 2019

THE BIG BANG, SPACE-TIME AND CREATION

Is your God too small?   It’s probably safe to say ‘yes’. We all have some picture in our mind of God, but for a human being to understand God it’s a bit like a bacterium trying to understand a human. It may know and experience that human, and even have an intimate relationship with him, but it can only experience a tiny aspect of that human, perhaps the surface of just one cell. But a human is made up of about 70 – 100 trillion cells, and what is more, a human is much more than the mere collection of cells.  A bacterium could never understand the biological complexity, the emotions, the thoughts, the creativity, the soul, or the spirit of a human. So too, God is so much bigger than us, there is no way we could ever hope to come even close to grasping his true nature. 

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

If you go outside on a dark, moonless night, far from the lights of civilization, and look at the night sky you will be astounded by the number of stars in the sky. King David wrote:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Psalm 19:1

The Milky Way

Yet David, like us, could see only about 4500 stars. With binoculars we might see about 100,000 and with a 3-inch telescope about 5 million (1). Yet even with the best telescopes on Earth our view of the Universe is limited by the distortions and scattering of light caused by the Earth’s atmosphere. It wasn’t until the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in  1990, started sending us high definition images of deep space that we understood that our view up until then had been very limited. In fact, there are far more stars out there than we imagined. Not only that, but we found that many of the ‘stars’ we can see are not stars at all but whole galaxies.

So how many stars are there? Astronomers now believe that our galaxy, the Milky Way, alone contains somewhere between 200-400 billion stars.

It is impossible for us to imagine a number that big. Most of us can picture a hundred or even a thousand, but after that our comprehension gets a bit fuzzy. We cannot even imagine 1 million – which is 1,000,000 – much less a number like a billion .

How much is a billion? It’s a problem this word. In British English it means a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10¹²) but in American English it means only a thousand million ( 1,000, 000,000 or 10⁹). Taking even the smaller American billion, it would take about 31 earth years to count to 1 billion if you counted non-stop at the rate of 1 count per second. It’s impossible for us to really grasp the magnitude of this number. What about a trillion? Again there is a difference between English and American English. An English trillion is a million million million or 10¹⁸ and an American trillion is a million  million or 10¹².  I am using the American system in this discussion. To count to a trillion would take 31,000 years at the rate of one count per second.

Scientists believe that there are something like 200 billion galaxies in the Universe.  So how many stars are there? Assuming that our galaxy is an average-sized galaxy, that would put the numberof stars at something like 40,000 billion. If we wanted to count the stars, it would take us around 1.3 million years counting at the rate of 1 count per second, with no stops!

Deep Space

A photo of one tiny sector of space – each point of light is not a star but a galaxy made up of billions of stars. http://cdn.thewire.com/media/img/upload/wire/2014/06/03/14_151_hubble_2/lead_large.jpg

According to the BBC Documentary, The Planets, an average handful of sand holds around a million sand grains. If this is so, then the number of stars in the Universe is greater than all the sand grains on all the beaches in the world.  Is your mind boggled yet?

If not, then try and get your head around this:  physicists now believe that the visible matter, the stars, planets, galaxies and ‘dust’ in the Universe makes up less than 5 % of the Universe. They tell us that most of the Universe is so-called dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%). Dark matter is matter which does not give off electromagnetic radiation, such as light, x-rays, or radio waves etc (2).

 This is based on measurements and calculations which indicate that the visible matter alone is insufficient to account for the gravitational pull of the matter within galaxies. Evidence to support the existence of dark matter is found in the lensing of light, the distortion of light as it passes through regions in space containing dark matter. The arc shown is a result of gravitational lensing thought to be caused by dark matter.

https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA18794/PIA18794~orig.jpg

Scientists do not yet know what dark matter is but we do know it does not give off electromagnetic radiation in any form, and interacts with ‘regular’ matter only by means of gravity.  Dark energy is even more of a mystery but its existence is considered to provide an explanation for the observations that the expansion of the universe is occurring at an accelerating rate, rather than the deceleration expected after the Big Bang.

So just how big is the Universe?  The observable universe is a sphere 92 billion light years in diameter but the universe is probably much bigger than that. How big it really is we will never know because it is expanding at a rate faster than the speed of light, so the light coming from distant stars can never ever reach us. We don’t even know if the Universe is spherical, flat or hollow like a ball.  For an explanation see:

The Observable Universe

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/ethansiegel/files/2015/06/DE-ruinous.jpg

It is apparent that the Universe is so big that we have no adequate words to describe it, and it is quite impossible for our brains to grasp its enormity.  If the Universe is so huge, how “big” must God be? Of course that is a nonsense question since God lies outside of the four dimensional world, the world defined by length, width, height and time, the so-called space-time continuum of our universe. Thus it is literally true that God is infinite and without size.

The LORD challenged Job thus,

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38: 4-7

As if the existence of dark matter and dark energy were not enough, one of the most fascinating discoveries of modern physics is the existence of antimatter. Antimatter is made up of antiparticles that have mass like normal particles, but opposite charge and magnetic moment. Normal protons for example have a positive charge but antiprotons have a negative charge, and positrons, the antiparticle of a negatively charged electron, have a positive charge.

Matter and Antimatter

http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/images/bigbang_antimatter.jpg

In the first moments after the Big Bang it is believed that only energy existed. As the universe cooled some of that energy became matter. In the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang antimatter and matter particles were popping in and out of existence at high speed. Antimatter and matter particles always come into existence together, and when they collide they annihilate each other releasing vast quantities of energy. If this is so, how can matter exist at all? Yet matter exists even though it is thought that only 1 out of every billion particles created by the Big Bang still survives. Not only that, nearly all the Universe today is made up of normal matter. Antimatter exists but it is rare. How can this be? For every ten billion particles of antimatter created since the Big Bang,  ten billion and one particles of normal matter were created, and it is this tiny asymmetry that makes the existence of our Universe possible. Scientists do not yet have an explanation for this asymmetry.

The Asymmetry of Matter and Antimatter

https://d22izw7byeupn1.cloudfront.net/journals/PHYSICS/synopses/images/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.061302

If all this sounds like science fiction you should know that we are already using antimatter in a variety of practical technologies. Perhaps the most well-known is in PET scans, in which positrons (the anti- electron) are injected into the brain. The positrons are destroyed when they encounter normal electrons and these tiny explosions emit gamma rays which can be detected to give a very accurate electronic image of the tissues of the brain, and other body parts.

A PET scan image used to diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease

http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/styles/landscape_breakpoints_theme_uoe_mobile_1x/public/imports/fileManager/NiS_PET_scan.jpg?itok=xfgt0uMJ

Christian and Jewish theologians have long claimed that God made the World out of nothing. Physics seems to be confirming that claim. This reminds me of the story of the debate between an atheist and a Christian pastor.  The atheist stated that he could not believe in a God that made everything out of nothing, upon which the pastor replied, “It would take me much more faith to believe that nothing made everything out of nothing”!

There are many ways in which the universe is fine-tuned for existence. The asymmetry between matter and antimatter is just one example. However there are many more.

The essential features of our Universe are determined by a few fundamental numbers, such as The Universal Gravitational Constant, the Speed of Light, Absolute Zero (the lowest possible temperature) and pi ( the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter).  If any of these were even a tiny bit different then the Universe as we know it could not exist.

Similarly, four fundamental forces govern our Universe, the electromagnetic force, gravity, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. If any of these were stronger or weaker than they are, the Universe as we know it  could not exist. For example the strong nuclear force is just strong enough to hold the nuclei of atoms together against the repulsive electrostatic force, but not strong enough to cause the collapse of protons into each other. The weak nuclear force is just the right strength to allow stars (such as our sun) to ignite and burn. Gravity, the weakest force of all, is just the right amount to hold us onto the surface of the Earth without pulling us through the rocks.

The Four Fundamental Forces of the Universe

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-esuZcTtTHnE/VRCe33hjqkI/AAAAAAAAKgI/iyuy8VnSqnk/s1600/4Forces.JPG

Most scientists today recognize that the Universe is clearly fine-tuned for its existence and for the existence of life.  Stephen Hawking, in his book “A Briefer History of Time”, said this,

“Whatever your point of view, the remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.”

In reference to the delicate balance between the rate of expansion of the Universe and the forces pulling it towards collapse, Stephen Hawking also said this,” It would be very difficult to explain it in just this way, except as an act of God, who intended to create beings like us.”

Those who do not believe in a creator god postulate the existence of many parallel universes, the so-called Multiverse Theory. According to this theory there exist an infinite number of possible universes and this one just happens to be the one in which the conditions are just right for life to exist. It still begs the question – where did all these universes come from and who made them? Furthermore it is not a scientific theory and never can be, since we can never observe any of these possible universes and therefore can never prove, nor disprove, their existence. The alternative to the Multiverse Theory is the theory of a Creator God, who consciously and precisely designed our Universe for Life. Of course you can still pose the question – who made God or where did He come from? You can go on arguing this question for ever.  At some point we just have to make a choice to believe in God or not. Faith in God depends on God’s personal revelation of himself to each us in a way we can somehow grasp his existence. To believe or not to believe are both equivalent steps of faith.

In scientific philosophy there is a concept known as Occam’s Razor, formulated by a 14^th Century logician, the Franciscan friar William of Ockham (a town in Surrey, England). Occam’s Razor, stated in plain English, says that “when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better” (3).

It seems to me that the theory of a Creator God is a simpler theory than the Multiverse Theory, and therefore is more likely to be correct.

That said, we should not, as Bible believers be afraid of the possibility of the existence of other, or indeed, parallel universes. The Bible speaks of a plurality of worlds. For example in Hebrews 1:1-2 it says this;

 “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” (my emphasis)

Christian and Jewish theologians have long recognized the existence of worlds outside our Universe, worlds we call heavens.  The Hebrew word for heaven, shamayim, is always plural, though this construct can also refer to a unity with many changing facets. We know of the spirit world of angels and the hellish world of demons, which exist outside of matter, but which can interact with our world. Paul knew a man, thought by many to have been Paul himself, who was caught up into the third heaven:

 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. ³ And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴ how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

Jewish tradition recognizes seven heavens, and the Jewish mystical text “The Zohar” recognizes 390 heavens. Other traditions also recognize multiple heavens (4).

The ‘holy grail’ of physics today is to try and reach a ‘Theory of Everything’, to define the most fundamental principles of the Universe. The more physicists discover, the weirder and more mysterious the Universe becomes. For example a large number of scientific observations have lead physicists to the realization that ‘empty space’, that volume between and within the particles of matter, is not empty at all but contains an infinite quantity of energy which forms a kind of scaffold on which the universe exists.  What is this mysterious energy, this fabric of space on which the universe is stretched? This flummoxed physicists but it should not disconcert those who accept the existence of God. The Bible teaches us that not only did God create the Universe but he upholds it, and in Him all things have their being. 

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Colossians 1: 16-17 (my emphasis)

…though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being

Acts 17:27-28 (my emphasis)

In Genesis 1:6-8 we can read how God created the firmament, which divided the waters above from the waters below and he called it Heaven. I have always wondered what this ‘firmament’ is. The Hebrew word rendered ‘firmament’ here is ‘rakia’ which has the same root as our modern Hebrew word ‘reka’, meaning background. Perhaps this mysterious ‘firmament’ is this ‘fabric of space’, which defines our Universe and separates it from whatever is out there beyond our Universe, Heaven.   

Another recent discovery that has shocked the scientific world is the realization that the Universe is expanding and is doing so at an accelerating rate. Until this discovery it was thought that the rate of expansion would slow down under the influence of gravity, the result of the attraction of all particles of matter to each other. However the discovery that objects in the universe are pulling away from each other at an increasingly rapid pace, and faster than the speed of light, requires explanation. Scientists now believe that space is not empty but filled by something they call dark energy, which provides the energy to stretch out the fabric of space, even creating more space (5). It is as if space itself is being stretched out. One can picture the universe as being like a piece of stretchy fabric with the galaxies sewn onto it. When the fabric is stretched the galaxies are pulled apart. This discovery should not surprise those who read the Bible, for it says,

Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:

Isaiah 42:5 (my emphasis)

It is he who made the earth by his power,
    who established the world by his wisdom,
    and by his understanding stretched out the heavens

Jeremiah 10:12 (my emphasis)

Perhaps these passages are not as metaphorical as we have thought. They may in fact be quite literal!

Another fascinating discovery is that fundamental particles remain somehow connected and can influence each other even when separated by enormous distances. This is called the Entanglement Theory.  Experiments have been done in the Hadron Collider in Switzerland in which two nuclei are collided at speeds approaching the speed of light. This causes the nuclei to disintegrate into pairs of the fundamental particles which make them up. The particles thus formed fly off in different directions. Each of these particles has a characteristic called spin. The spin of one particle of the pair is opposite to that of the other. Curiously it has been discovered that when the spin of one particle is altered, it causes the spin of the other particle to also alter its spin so that it is always spinning in the opposite direction, even though that particle is far distant, even across the other side of the universe. This means there is some type of interconnectivity, or ‘entanglement’ between these particles, and the communication between them takes place instantaneously, much, much faster than the speed of light. It would appear therefore that this interconnection, or ‘entanglement’ is taking place in some ‘place’ outside of our time-space defined universe, in other words, outside of time, in the timeless dimension. Thus science seems to be indicating that there is something out there, other dimensions in fact, that lie beyond our time-space universe. Perhaps this is what we humans call eternity (lit: outside of time) or the spirit world.

Whatever the truth, one thing is clear. We must expand our understanding of God. He is so very far from being that elderly gentleman with the long white beard, sitting above us on a throne in heaven, that many of us persist in believing in. As we discover more and more of our universe, are amazed at its complexity and simplicity, its hugeness and precision, and awed by its beauty, it will speak to us more and more of the awful awesomeness of our God. Science can never prove God, but in our day, it is uncovering more and more evidence of His existence and speaking to us more and more of his nature. How much more is the wonder of his incarnation into our universe as a frail human baby? How much more is the wonder of his death and resurrection? How much easier it is to believe in His miracles? How much more awesome is the idea that such a big God, who created the vastness of the universe and all that is in it, knows me by name, and has known me from my inception?

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

Psalm 8: 3-4

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.

 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways….

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

Psalm 139: 1-3, 13-16

References

1. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/how-many-stars-night-sky-09172014/#sthash.YrjnnwV2.dpuf
2.  http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/
3. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/occam.html
   
4. http://www.compellingtruth.org/seven-heavens.html