-Origin Beliefs
-The Big Bang Theory
-Universe Concepts
-...and Playing Nice
Together
Wisdom from Kenneth Miller
Summarizing The Point of Today
The point is to
UNDERSTAND
the scientific
theories and the
evidence for them
Good luck
deciding what to
believe in
This is not “Religion vs.
Science”
I believe in
a creator,
not in the
big bang
I believe in
the big
bang, not a
creator
Wrong words! These people don’t understand the
difference between religion and science!
Religion
Something you
may choose to
believe in
Not falsifiable /
not testable
Science
Something to
understand, not
believe in
Must be falsifiable
/ testable &
repeatable
This is not “Religion vs.
Science”
I believe in
a creator,
not in the
big bang
I believe in
the big
bang, not a
creator
These people imply that science is something to
either believe or not believe
There’s Lots of Possible Perspectives
Well informed
Have a cultural belief and understand science
Not have a cultural belief and understand science
Have a cultural belief and not understand science
Not have a cultural belief and not understand science
Others...?
Not Well Informed
Why we teach, not preach
Separation of church and state...
We teach you to understand science
We teach you that there are cultural beliefs
We don’t preach to you which one to believe, if any.
Creation Myths
Different cultures all over the world have different
stories describing how the world began
These stories are called “creation myths”, but the
word “myth” simply refers to story, it is not meant to
imply false.
We’re going to share a few here. Be respectful.
You might think one story sounds silly, but it may be
the cultural underpinnings of the person sitting next
to you.... maybe they’re thinking this about your
family’s beliefs. Mockery is strickly forbidden.
Tlingit:
Raven and the Sun
Judeo-Christian: 7 Days
Hopi- The infinite creates the finite, created a God to
create the universes
Aztec: One God looked
over the darkness-->
birthed 4 other gods-->
created Earth
Iroquois: Island floating in sky, where sky people lived,
hole in the island, creatures below...
Zulu
The Ancient One, known as Unkulunkulu, is the Zulu
creator. He came from the reeds and from them he
brought forth the people and the cattle. He created
everything that is: mountains, streams, snakes, etc.
He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire,
and how to grow food.
Greek: Titan
goddess, bride
of Zeus
Others?....
What Similarities and
Creation ex nihilo in whichDo
the creation
is through
the
Differences
You
See?
thought, word, dream or bodily secretions of a divine being
•
•
Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or
amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a
primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops
into a terrestrial world
•
Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a
series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the
present world
•
Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being
•
Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity
such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing into form
from chaos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth
Religious/Cultural Beliefs &
Science Are Very Different Things
Science must be falsifiable, testable,
repeatable
Faith based beliefs are not, hence the faith
THIS DOES NOT MEAN ONE IS BETTER
THAN THE OTHER, they are simply totally
different ways of trying to understand our world
Scientists Are Skeptics, (but this does
not mean atheists)...
•
Kepler (Protestant): had vision of God as the designer of a rational
cosmos
◦
Platonist: the divine order could be expressed in mathematical terms
(Bowler & Morus, p. 351)
•
Newton: Cosmos as a divine construct (Bowler & Morus, p. 350)
•
Jesuits: active in many areas of science, including astronomy (though
they favored the old cosmology)
•
Buffon: days of creation correspond to geological epochs
•
Robert Boyle: “conceded that it was in the study of living things that we
see the clearest evidence of the creator’s handiwork” (Bowler & Morus,
p. 353)
•
Jocelyn Bell (Quaker): Discovered pulsars while working at radio
What Does the Word “Theory”
Really Mean?
LOTS of words have very different meanings in
everyday life than they do in the context of
science (theory, law, fact...)
As such, they are often misused and
misunderstood
-Mock Congress Example-
Theory
Current explanation, subject to
peer review, based on
overwhelming amounts of
evidence, which may still change
someday as evidence changes
So There’s Lots of Theories, Right?
One at the end of every science
experiment???
No! This has
been misused
and
misunderstood.
What Theories Exist in
Modern Science?
Theory of Gravity
Theory of Evolution
Big Bang Theory
Heliocentric Theory
...a few more, but
that’s it!
The Big Bang Theory
28.3 The expanding universe
 Edwin Hubble
discovered that the
farther away a galaxy
was, the faster it was
moving away from
Earth.
 This concept came to
be known as the
expanding universe.
28.3 The Big Bang theory
 The theory that the universe was expanding
implies the universe must have been smaller
in the past than it is today.
 It implies that the universe must have had a
beginning.
 Astronomers today believe the universe
exploded outward from a single point.
 This idea is known as the Big Bang theory.
28.3 The Big Bang theory
 The Big Bang theory says the universe
began as a huge explosion between 10
billion and 20 billion years ago.
 According to this theory, all matter and
energy started in a space smaller than
the nucleus of an atom.
28.3 Evidence for the Big Bang theory
 In the 1960s, Arno Penzias
and Robert Wilson were
trying to measure
electromagnetic waves
given off by the Milky Way.
 The “noise” these scientists
found was the cosmic
microwave background
radiation predicted by the
Big Bang theory.
28.3 Evidence for the Big Bang theory
 The proportion of hydrogen to helium is
consistent with the physics of the Big Bang.
 If the universe were significantly older, there
would be more heavy elements present compared
with hydrogen and helium.
(Fun) Intro to Evidence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn35SB1_NYI
STOP HERE FOR DAY 2
Supporting Evidence
Leftover Radiation (Background Cosmic
Radiation)
Galaxies Are Moving Farther Apart, Distant
Ones are Older, Show Greater Red Shifts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCkADmNdNo
Understand Red Shift: The
Doppler Effect (Sound Version)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ogq9_doppler-shift_people
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/961110/doppler_effect/
or
Understand Red Shift: The
Doppler Effect (Light Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9F5pN5tlI
Astrophysicists Are
Funny
Motionless
A
B
C
D
Which is the
farthest/fastest?
Science= testable, repeatable
Large
Hadron
Collider
Universe
Concepts
Open vs.
Closed
Open Universe
Everything
continues
racing
outward
Eventually
stars die
off
Closed Universe
All matter
eventually
pulled back
together
Recurring
Big Bangs
Wisdom from Kenneth Miller
Summarizing The Point of Today
The point is to
UNDERSTAND
the scientific
theories and the
evidence for them
Good luck
deciding what to
believe in
Further Reading for
Those Interested
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/282/5396/1985.full
Further Reading for
Those Interested
A large part of this book is about
why creationism isn’t science.
Don’t misunderstand this and think
it’s anti religion, it’s not. It’s simply
about the difference between
science and religion. Miller is both
a famous biologist AND a very
religious person.
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-GodScientists-Evolution/dp/0060930497
Let’s Try Some
Spectroscopy
diffraction grating
=plastic with thousands
of lines in it, functions
like a ton of prisms!
(look at some spectral
outputs, after Helium,
play remaining slides,
then look at some more)
Helium
How would it look if it was
moving fast away from you?
exit slideshow and move the bar!
So: we can see the light fingerprint of
elements like this on Earth, and when we
look into space, we can recognize the
same light fingerprint patterns, but the
farther & faster away the star or galaxy is,
the greater the red shift!
Stationary Helium
Light Source
Helium moving
away super fast
showing red shift
infrared