Even if the "big bang" theory is true...?

Question

..and the evolution theory is true, isn't it the same thing? Even if we do evolve, it's still creation, isn't it? What I never understood about the big bang theory is that it supposedly started with something the size of a pin, but even THAT had to come from somewhere. Logically, I don't see how the "big bang" could exist without a beginning. Is there anyone who could explain this? Isn't there still room for God in this theory..not that I'm looking for one, but there just seems to be a missing piece.

Answer 1

No it isn't the same thing. Biological evolution has almost nothing to do with the big bang.  The big bang was about 13,.7 billion years ago, the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago,  That makes the Earth one third the age of the Universe.  By the time Earth was forming, things had settled down quite a lot.  The only connection is that the Universe eventually became a place where life could begin on Earth vand possibly other planets.  It was not until AFTER life had begun that biological evolution began.

The big bang started with an expansion of space-time.  It expanded very rapidly for a tiny fraction of a second and then slowed down, but  it continued to expand.  After a few minutes, matter began to form in it, 'condensing' like dew from the energy content of space-time.  Theoretical calculations indicate that the Universe had 73% hydrogen, 25% helium and about 2% lithium.  

This proportion is the approximate mixture still found today because things like carbon, oxygen, silicon and iron though common on Earth are scarce through the Universe.  Big bang also predicted that the Universe would be filled with microwave radiation corresponding to a temperature of 2 to 5 degrees above absolute zero.  That was worked out about 1948.  In 1964 this radiation was accidentally found and shown to correspond to the theoretical calculation.  In the middle 1990s infra-red satellites measured this radiation over all directions and the average corresponds to a temperature of just over 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.  The match to theory is exact.  

Since there was no time before the big bang, or at least our physics of relativity does not allow us to make clear calculations at the very earliest fraction of a second, it is meaningless from the point of view of physics to talk about 'before' or where the thing came 'from'.  'From ' implies a 'before' and it may be that there was no 'before' or none that we can know, which amouints to the same thing for practical purposes.

The idea of a big bang does not exclude the possibility of a god, but it does not need one either.  In reality the big bang is more consistent with Genesis than alternate theories that suggest that the Universe is already infinitely old.  But the formation of the Universe is just a set of  natural processes, no different in kind to salt dissolving in water.If you wish to believe that a god set off the big bang, most scientists would be happy to say that you might be right, many might think the same themselves.

Biological evolution does not exclude the possibility of a god, but it does not need one either.  Biological evolution is just a set of natural processes too.

The popular idea of 'eternity' is 'forever' but it could also mean some kind of existence where time either does not exist or runs differently from what we know.  It is conceivable that a creator of the Universe may inhabit such a realm.

Answer 2

Science is neutral on the subject. One can always include God in the equation. Since that part of the story is based on faith and not on reason, there is nothing that scientists can really say about it- positive or negative (ADDED: other than Occam's Razor, which specifically avoids any extraneous complication with no reason). The only real problem arises when those that have faith try to dictate how science works based on dogma.

Answer 3

If you want to believe there was a God before there was a big bang, then there's nothing stopping you.  Science doesn't say anything about God at all.  But sometimes, science finds natural explanations for things that were previously mysterious and attributed to God.  As long as religious people do not hinder the teaching or progress of science, then they are welcome to believe God created the universe if that's what they want.

Answer 4

From a science point of view, the Universe could easily have had no time before the Big Bang event, so perhaps there is no "before".  And there wasn't anything particularly complicated about the Universe when it started.  It's also possible that the beginning of the Universe was inevitable.

Whereas God, an omnipotent, omniscient being, is quite complex.  The idea that God sprang up, or existed forever without prior cause seems even less plausible.

For life, the evidence that it sprang up on it's own is looking more and more likely.  The elements that life depends on are the most common in the Universe.  Water is very common.  And even amino acids form naturally in space, on planets or in the lab from chemicals that are abundant everywhere, and with processes that are common.

Though science would like to know how the Universe or life got started, these great theories currently primarily deal with how the Universe or life changed into their current forms.  As more and more is understood, expect the details to challenge the details of your faith.  The world is easily demonstrably not flat. It's easy to demonstrate that Evolution works.  So if your faith is based on the details of an old book, expect your faith to be shaken, not stirred. Even if science one day proves that God exists, scientists will want to know how God did it.  You will too, the better to praise God's name.

In the mean time, your faith doesn't have to depend on the details of these stories.  They are analogies. All analogies break down, eventually.  If they didn't, they wouldn't be analogies - they'd be the thing you're talking about. So the Noah story, with the great flood, is clearly wrong in detail.  Rainbows did not magically start while humans were alive, but clearly have always existed.  The little water drops can't help but form retroreflectors, breaking up white light into colors.  But this story has interesting and valuable moral and other lessons to teach you, and you don't need miracles to believe them. And literal interpretation of the Bible is dangerous.  It leads to conclusions like "the murder of children is OK", and so on.

Answer 5

>Even if the "big bang" theory is true...

>..and the evolution theory is true, isn't it the same thing?

No. The Big Bang and evolution are two independent theories. Both of them are supported by large amounts of evidence, but either one (or both) could still conceivably be false.

>Isn't there still room for God in this theory..

Technically yes, but there is essentially no evidence that God actually exists. It is much more likely that the Big Bang was merely set off (either naturally or artificially, but not by God) by an event in some higher universe.

Answer 6

Not really, the object could have been hurtling through space for ions, perhaps, meeting and colliding with another similar speck, which is not impossible if they both have always been there.

To create, one must destruct first and the big bang was a total destruction which led to many ever changing, evolving worlds.

The god theory is the hard one to swallow, who or what created him and what logic is there in saying he was around forever?

The big bang makes a lot more sense to me than god.

Answer 7

can God exist in science?

Of course!

there's a catch.

If you want God to exist, then you need to open up your beliefs to DISPROOF.  In science, when we come across a held belief that doesn't hold up, we discard it.

So, talking snakes?  out

Talking Burning Bushes?  out.

virgin births?  out.

(are you getting the drift?)

Answer 8

Just trust in the Bible sweetheart.

Answer 9

These are only theories. God is reality.

Answer 10

e = mc2, energy becomes matter or something (sorry terminology isn't so great)

So its not nothing its energy became something, non physical to physical.

You know an atomic bomb, is that not supposed to be when a atom is split and converted back into energy? so the reverse of the big bang?

And yes god can still come into this, but the question where did god come from will always follow and have no answer to that too unless god came out of no where too.

Thats the thing philosophers and astronomers argue about their entire lives never to find an answer.

Answer 11

If you truly understand quantum mechanics then you will know that the Big Bang theory requires a creator by fiat. Think of the universe in reverse until it's small enough to be completely described by quantum mechanics alone. In order for the universe to start unfolding into what we see now, our universe's specific wave function had to be brought into existence as a certain possibility out of an infinite number of other possible wave functions that had to collapse or at least decohere. At this fuzzy nanoscopic beginning, this required a 'Prime Observer' to enable this and set the expansion of the universe into motion and those initial conditions became the very facets of physical law. What we refer to as this finely tuned 'reality'. This need for an 'observer' comes from the basic quantum mechanical concept known as Shrodinger's Cat. Also, we must remember that the universe is being said to have come from nowhere which implies an act of 'creation'. This expansion of the universe is also alluded to 11 times in the Bible: Job 9:8 ; Psalm 104:2 ; Isaiah 40:22 ; Isaiah 42:5 ; Isaiah 44:24 ; Isaiah 45:12 ; Isaiah 48:13 ; Isaiah 51:13 ; Jeremiah 10:12 ; Jeremiah 51:15 ; Zechariah 12:1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6d...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_functi...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoherence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang

The Bible also alludes to the soon coming Big Rip:

Revelation 6:14 ; Isaiah 34:4 ; 2 Peter 3:10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_rip

Answer 12

There aren't true as explained now, but God is real.

Answer 13

You have always have to ask this question: Why this special god? There are many religions in the universe and all will claim to be the right one.

And the Big Bang can really happen out of anything - because we don't know what was before. It can be a god, a fluctuation or played by Tom Cruise. We can't tell, but we also can't tell that a special theory must be right because it can't be wrong. That is not science.

We can't even tell for sure, that the Big Bang happened inside a pin sized object - we only know that the universe we see today, was only that large in the beginning. What is outside our horizon, is unknown to us.  

Answer 14

http://video.rationalresponders.com/vide...

http://video.rationalresponders.com/vide...

http://www.rationalresponders.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJxrM6Qp...

Answer 15

It is true that the Big Bang Theory does not explain what created the original "stuff" of the universe.  This is a question of ultimate creation, but if you answer the question with: 'God created the universe", then you still do not answer the question of creation, because my next question would be, "who created God?'

So scientists and theologians have the same problem, and there is no answer which we yet have to this very big question.  We are only people, we do not have all the answers.  But with time and science, many questions are answered, maybe someday that one will be, and maybe not.

Oh, and evolution has to do with biology, not cosmology.