Origin of the universe

¶ … Universe

Big Bang Theory

The Universe "exploded" into being from nothingness 10-15 billion years ago. There existed only a very small, incredibly dense mass that contained all the material in the universe. About 13.7 billion years ago, in a horrendous explosion and fireball, it "burst" and the material began to expand outward into empty space, and is still expanding outward today. This matter cooled over time. Millions of years later, as the matter separated, galaxies and stars were born.

As far as scientists and astronomers can tell, the Universe is still expanding today and the heavenly bodies are thus moving farther away and farther apart. Observations from the Hubble space telescope seem to corroborate the totality of the Universe's move outward and that is considered proof of the Big Bang Theory.

Physical laws as we know them did not exist prior to the big bang. There were enormous amounts of energy, in the form of what we now call photons which became quarks, and then the quarks formed neutrons and protons. In a process called nucleosynthesis, hydrogen, helium and lithium nuclei formed (Shestople).

Though widely accepted currently as the accurate theory of the formation of the universe, there are many who disagree for various reasons. Arguments such as where this intense mass came from that exploded if the big bang was the beginning of the universe, do confound scientists whether they admit it or not. How did it explode is another question? The explanation is that the same physical laws didn't apply and we don't understand what they might have been. There are many other issues with this theory that are continually being resolved by "adjustments" to the theory, according to experts.

Creation Theory

There exist many creation beliefs -- some religious. With many of these, the god or gods create the universe or some part of it out of existing material. However, the Christian, Jewish and Islam belief is that their Creator made the universe out of nothingness. In the first verse of the Christian Bible, God creates the entire universe and everything in it in seven days. The Jewish belief is very similar in that everything was created from nothing. Most fundamental Christians believe that, by seven days, the Bible indicates seven 24-hour days. Other views differ and suggest that the terminology in the Bible is symbolic of longer periods of time. In the fundamental belief, God's creation included the more complex forms of life such as man, fish, plant, and animal.

The Big Bang theory is the scientific theory of creation if one can look at it in that way. "Everything from nothingness" applies except that this theory does not propose the existence of a superior being or the creation of complex life organisms as part of it.

Creation due to natural causes is another creation theory. Some believe that the laws of physics applied to naturally formed material in the existing space continuum and, as with man, later, it was an evolutionary process that formed the elements, galaxies and the universe itself.

The one thing that the Christian belief in God's creation of the universe does not account for is evolution since the animals, plants and man were formed as complex life forms. Scientists scoff at this view of creation due to the totality of evidence they believe exists for evolution.

However fundamentalists would argue that there is not one shred of evidence for anything but microevolution -- that is, organisms adopting within a species. But nowhere in history do we see one species evolving into another. Why not? They ask, if evolution is an ongoing process.

(Ross)

Intelligent Design Theory

The Intelligent Design Theory says that intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex, information-rich structures of biology and that these causes are empirically detectable. Certain biological features defy the standard Darwinian random-chance explanation, because they appear to have been designed. Since design demands an intelligent designer, the appearance of design is cited as evidence for a designer (What is the Intelligent Design Theory).

The idea is that certain things in the universe and the various life forms are better explained by the presence of creation by an intelligent source, and that it is not just a random, "throw-it-against-the-wall process such as natural selection. It is, in a sense, a rationale for the existence of God, or some superior design element but it avoids clarifying what or who that might be. The concept of intelligent design was brought forth by a group of scientific researchers, philosophers and other scholars as well as creationists. This theory says that we are able to examine natural objects and determine if they are here by chance, natural law, intelligent design, or a combination -- for example, the organized and amazing volume of information contained in DNA.