The Creation Narrative
Beginnings of the Universe and Life
according to modern science
David C. Bossard
19thpsalm.org
1
THE PLAN
Preliminaries
First Creation: The First Fifteen Minutes
The Elements
Milky Way Galaxy, Solar System and Earth
Second Creation: First Life – Prokaryotes (Bacteria)
Preparation of the Earth for Advanced Life
Third Creation: Eukaryotes
Fourth Creation: Animals and Plants
[End of presentation – Website done to here]
Fifth Creation: Humans
2
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
 To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
3
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
-- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
 To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science
The "God Hypothesis"
"I have no need for that hypothesis"
LaPlace, regarding the Stability of Planetary Orbits*
4
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
-- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
-- To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science
 To Counterbalance this with the findings of Science Itself.
“I must confess that I was at first startled and alarmed by
rumours of changes and discoveries which, I was told, were to
overturn at once the science of geology as hitherto received,
and all the evidences which had been drawn from it in favour
of revealed religion… God with us, in the world of science
henceforth to be no more!”
Lydia Miller, 1869*
… She concluded the evidences are
still there but "removed into a more
distant and dimmer region.”
5
PRELIMINARIES
SHARP POINTS
"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a
super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with
chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces
worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one
calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to
put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Fred Hoyle, 1980
6
BEGINNING OF THE CREATION NARRATIVE – The First Genesis
THE FIRST GENESIS
LET THERE BE LIGHT: THE BIG BANG
Age of the Universe: 13.73 ± 0.12 Billion years
-- NASA WMAP project (2010)
-- EESA Planck Mission (2012)
-- Sloan Digital Sky Survey
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
7
CREATION NARRATIVE
COSMIC INFLATION AND THE COSMIC BRAKE
"The more I examine the universe and the details of its
architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe
in some sense must have known we were coming.”
Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe*
Barrow & Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle.
Primordial density at a billionth of a second:
447,225,917,218,507,401,284,016± 0.2 gm/cc
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
8
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER
• Annihilation of antimatter
• At 1 second:
Creation of Protons and Neutrons (half-life 15 minutes)
• at 100 seconds:
Creation of Deuterium by binary collision:
• Up to 15 minutes (as the universe cools further):
Creation of Helium, Lithium and a bit of Beryllium
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
Atomic numbers 1 to 4
9
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER cont’d
Why didn’t heavier elements form at this time?
 The Lithium Barrier
- no stable elements with P+N = 5 or 8.
Can’t get past
the barrier with
binary collisions of
lighter elements.
10
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS
The First Nine Billion Years
"It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of
life; one might as well think of the origin of matter."
Charles Darwin, letter 1863.*
• The B2FH paper (1956)†
 Described the origin of all elements.
-- It has proved accurate in the 60+ years since
11
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d)
Monkeying with Physics
 Hydrogen Burning and Long-lived Stars (e.g. the Sun)
Only H-burning lasts billions of years
- Necessary for Advanced life
12
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d)
Monkeying with Physics
 Helium Burning and the “impossible” triple collision
Fred Hoyle’s ingenious prediction
 Carbon Burning and the Brake on Oxygen Formation
David C. Bossard
Chapter 4
13
CREATION NARRATIVE
A “Habitable” Solar System and Earth
Galactic Habitable Zone
Milky Way
David C. Bossard
Chapter 5
Solar System Habitable Zone
14
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 Step 1: Oxidize the Reducing (acidic) early environment
Time Needed: 2 Billion year
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
Banded Iron ore
iron oxide (Fe2O3) = dark; silica (SiO2) = light
15
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
Step 2: Build an Ozone Layer to Shield from Cosmic Rays
-Essential for life on Land and in Air
- Time Needed: 3.6± Billion years
(1.6 By after Atmospheric Oxygen Stabilized)
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
16
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 Step 3: Prepare Organic Wastes worldwide
- Most important: “Fixed” Nitrogen
- Time Needed: 3+ Billion years
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
17
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
Summary time budget for building a hospital environment:
Total time: ± 4 Billion years (BY)
± 0.5 BY from earth formation to the first Bacteria
– Cooled earth, oceans.
± 2.0 BY more to first Eukaryotes (Oxygen based)
– Oxygen atmosphere ready
± 1.5 BY more to first ocean animals
– Waste food (nitrogen) in place
± 0.2 BY more to first land plants and animals
– Ozone filter in place
18
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 The Oxygen atmosphere is the result of life.
 The available Nitrogen to support life is the result of life!
“The existence of large amounts of oxygen in a planet's
atmosphere would be a strong indicator of life.”
NASA
19