The Sacred Cosmos:
Christian Faith and the
Challenge of Naturalism
2. Origins: Creation and the Big Bang
Sunday, January 10, 2010
10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor
Presenter: David Monyak
Primary
Reference

The Sacred
Cosmos: Christian
Faith and the
Challenge of
Naturalism,
Terrence L. Nichols,
Brazos Press, 2003.
(Reissued Jan 2009
by Wipf and Stock)
Primary
Reference

The Sacred
Cosmos: Christian
Faith and the
Challenge of
Naturalism,
Terrence L. Nichols,
Brazos Press, 2003.
(Reissued Jan 2009
by Wipf and Stock)
Dr. Terrence Nichols
is Professor of
Theology at the
University of St.
Thomas, St. Paul
Academic History
Ph.D. - Marquette University
B.A. - University of
Minnesota
The Sacred Cosmos
Christian Faith and the Challenge of
Naturalism

Jan 3. God and Nature
 Jan
10: Origins: Creation and Big
Bang



Jan 24: Evolution: The Journey into God
Jan 31: Human Nature: Embodied Self and
Transcendent Soul, Part 1
Feb 7: Human Nature: Embodied Self and
Transcendent Soul, Part 2. Conclusion: A Sacred
Cosmos
Almighty and everlasting God, you
made the universe with all its
marvelous order, its atoms, worlds,
and galaxies, and the infinite
complexity of living creatures: Grant
that, as we probe the mysteries of
your creation, we may come to know
you more truly, and more surely
fulfill our role in your eternal
purpose; in the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord.
For Knowledge of God’s Creation, Book of Common Prayer, p. 827
This Week:
2. Origins: Creation
and the Big Bang
Introduction
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism

“The cosmos is all that ever was, is, or
shall be.”
With these words, Carl Sagan in the popular
Cosmos television series, proclaimed
naturalism: the view that the natural world is
all that exists, echoing the “opposing”
Christian doxology:
“Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, as it was, is, and ever shall be,
world without end ...”
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism

Naturalism is the philosophical theory about
reality that declares:
nature is all that exists,
 there is no reality that is greater than and
independent of nature,
 there cannot be any hope of an afterlife, nor any
means to really transcend our natural condition.

Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism


Nichols believes Naturalism is probably the
most serious challenge facing Western
Christianity.
A recent survey in Scientific American
revealed:

90 percent of the members of the National
Academy of Sciences consider themselves
agnostics or atheists.

Among biologists: 95 percent.
Introduction
Can Naturalism Explain the World?


How well can Naturalism actually explain the world
and humanity?
Over the next few weeks, we will consider naturalistic
and Christian explanations for:



the origin of the universe (today)
evolution (Jan 24)
human nature (Jan 31).
Introduction
Where Did the Universe Come From?



“Where did the universe come from?”
Traditionally, the answer was: God created the
universe.
More recently, the answer sometimes is the
“Big Bang,” as if the Big Bang had replaced
God
Introduction
Where Did the Universe Come From?


The “Big Bang” describes the evolution of the
universe from about the first 10-43 seconds on,
but gives no explanation for what actually
caused the initial explosion.
However, some naturalists have put forth
highly speculative theories claiming to show
the universe, in effect, created itself and
requires no further explanation.
10-43 seconds = 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds
Introduction
Where Did the Universe Come From?

Today we:
Explore what the Big Bang theory says
 Look at the various theories of origins
 Consider why the universe seems so finely “tuned”
to produce life (the “Anthropic Principle”)
 Show that naturalism has no ultimate explanation
for the origin and existence of the universe,
 but that theism can provide a rational and satisfying
answer to this ultimate question.

The “Big Bang”:
Historical Background
Big Bang: Historical Background
Old Views


The “Big Bang” theory is
recent, only going back to
about 1930.
Before then, the most
prevalent scientific view was
that the universe had always
existed:


Aristotle’s View
Thomas Aquinas suggested
human reason could not prove
that the universe was either
eternal or created.

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
That the universe had been
created by God could be known
only through revelation.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Old Views



Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
Newtonian mechanics
seemed to imply a static,
unchanging universe.
During the nineteenth
century, this Newtonian
static view was gradually
replaced with the idea of a
universe that had evolved
from previous states;
however the universe was
still usually thought of as
having always existed.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Einstein’s New Theory of Gravity


Albert Einstein
(1879 – 1955)
In the Early 20th century Albert
Einstein proposed a new theory of
gravity, the General Theory of
Relativity, which replaced
Newton’s old theory of gravity.
His theory implied the universe
should be expanding or contracting,
and Einstein, who favored a static,
eternal universe, added a term – the
“Cosmological Constant” – to the
theory to keep the universe static,
perfectly “balanced” between
expansion and contraction.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Einstein’s New Theory of Gravity

Georges Lemaître (1894 – 1966)
In 1927, the young
Belgian astronomer and
Catholic Priest Georges
Lemaitre used Einstein’s
General Theory of
Relativity to propose the
universe should be
expanding, and suggested
the universe had begun
from the explosion of a
giant “Primordial Atom”
Big Bang: Historical Background
Einstein’s New Theory of Gravity
Georges Lemaître (1894 – 1966) and
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Einstein, still favoring a static universe, reportedly told Lemaitre
“Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable.”
Big Bang: Historical Background
An Expanding Universe

Great Nebula in Andromeda, Messier 31
Meanwhile, in
1923 Edwin
Hubble had
shown the
Great Nebula
in Andromeda
was in fact an
external
galaxy,
another
“island
universe” like
our own Milky
Way galaxy.
Big Bang: Historical Background
An Expanding Universe
Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory

In 1929 Hubble published definitive evidence the universe was
expanding: external galaxies were receding from us with a velocity
that increased with their distance from us (“The Hubble Law”)
Big Bang: Historical Background
An Expanding Universe
Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory
The “matrix” of space itself is expanding, causing the distance between the “raisins”
(galaxies) within it to increase
Big Bang: Historical Background
An Expanding Universe

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
Einstein, who could have
predicted the expansion
of the universe from his
General Theory of
Relativity, was later to
call his addition of the
“Cosmological
Constant” the greatest
blunder of his career.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Steady State Theory


The appeal of a static, eternal universe was
strong however, and from 1930 to the 1960’s,
Big Bang models of the universe were opposed
by the “Steady State Theory”
This theory held that the universe had always
been expanding from eternity, that new matter
was continuously being created as space
expanded, so that the density and distribution of
matter in the universe remained approximately
the same.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Steady State Theory

Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 – 2001)
Defenders of the Steady
State Theory included
the English astronomer
Fred Hoyle, an atheist,
who derisively coined
the term “the Big
Bang” to ridicule the
idea of an evolving,
expanding universe,
which he said looked
too much like a creation
from nothing.
Big Bang: Historical Background
Cosmic Microwave Background

1965: The American
radio astronomers Arno
Penzias and Robert
Wilson detected a very
faint radiation in the
microwave range: 7.35
centimeters,
corresponding to black
body radiation at a
temperature of 3.5
degrees above absolute
zero
Arno Penzias (b. 1933) and Robert Wilson (b. 1936) in front of the microwave horn
antenna they used to discover the Cosmic Microwave Background
Big Bang: Historical Background
Cosmic Microwave Background


It was soon realized that this was “relic radiation”
left over from the Big Bang itself: radiation from
the Big Bang that had continued to saturate the
universe, but which had expanded along with the
universe and cooled, so that it is now about 1,000
times cooler than it was originally.
The Steady State Theory could not explain this
and became untenable.
The “Big Bang”
The Big Bang
Initial Singularity



The universe began 13.7 billion years ago.
At time = 0 seconds, presumably the universe consisted of
a “singularity” in which all the energy of the universe was
concentrated in a point of infinite density, pressure, and
temperature.
We in fact have no theory of physics able to predict
conditions before 10-43 seconds.


Currently, our best theory of Gravity, the General Theory of
Relativity, is incompatible with Quantum Theory, our best
theory of the subatomic realm.
A Quantum Theory of Gravity is needed and has not yet been
discovered.
The Big Bang
Rapid Cooling and Expansion

As the
universe
expands, it
cools
rapidly:
The Big Bang
During First Millisecond

First millisecond (thousandth of a second):




Forces of nature — strong, electromagnetism, weak, and gravity
— take on their current forms.
The Universe is filled with an incredibly hot, dense gas of
quarks, light particles (photons), electrons, and neutrinos.
Near 10 microseconds, it cools enough for quarks to combine to
make protons, antiprotons, neutrons, and antineutrons.
Near 100 microseconds, the protons and antiprotons, and the
neutrons and antineutrons, almost all annihilate.

Fortunately, a one-in-a-billion excess of protons over antiprotons leave
the matter from which you and I are now made.
The Big Bang
At a Few Seconds

At a few seconds:

Electrons and antielectrons annihilate, leaving light
particles (photons) as the dominant constituent of the
Universe.
The Big Bang
At 1 to 3 Minutes

At about 1 to 3 minutes:
Conditions everywhere similar to those at the centers
of present-day stars: ripe for hydrogen fusion.
 Big Bang theory correctly predicts that a quarter of the
cosmic hydrogen is converted into helium before
temperatures become too cool for this fusion.

The Big Bang
Next Few Hundred Thousand Years

During the next few
hundred thousand years:

The universe is a hot “foggy”
glowing gas



Foggy because roaming free
electrons are scattering all
photons (light particles) every
which way
The brilliance is
unimaginable – like a sky
filled with noon day suns
Color changes from blue to
orange as the universe
continues to expand and the
gas cools
The Big Bang
At 380,000 Years

At 380,000 years, the Universe cools past 3000 K



It is now cool enough for electrons to combine with protons;
atoms form for the first time.
The formation of atoms causes the universe to become
transparent. Light particles (photons) now can continue on
their way without being scattered or otherwise interrupted
We see these primeval, uninterrupted light particles from
the glowing 3000 K universe today as the Cosmic
Microwave Background

The red light particles from the hot, glowing 3000 K gas have
been stretched by a thousand fold cosmic expansion, so they are
now microwaves to us.
The Big Bang
At 380,000 Years

The Cosmic Microwave background is markedly
uniform, with a very slight patchiness (1 part in
100,000):
The Big Bang
At a Few Million Years

At a Few Million Years:
At 6 million years, the universe has cooled enough that
the “sky” glow falls below the range of visible light;
for the first time, the universe is pitch black to the
human eye.
 After 17 million years, the temperature dips below 32
degree F, and we enter a long, frigid night called the
“dark age.”

The Big Bang
Next ~200 million years


The slight
“lumpiness” seen
in the Cosmic
Microwave
Background is
growing.
After about 100
million years, the
densest regions
begin collapsing.
The Big Bang
At 200 Million Years

A “web-like” pattern of lumpiness has formed:
The Big Bang
At 200 Million Years

At 200 Million Years: first stars are born
The Big Bang
At 200 Million Years

At 200 Million Years:
These first stars are huge, live short lives, and die in
supernova explosions.
 The new stars make new chemical elements: carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen and heavier elements, which appear
for the first time in the universe.
 The supernova explosions release these newly made
chemical elements into the interstellar medium.
 Successive generations of stars continue to enrich their
surroundings with heavy elements.

The Big Bang
At 400 Million Years

At 400 Million Years

Stars cluster to form small infant galaxies:
Small detail of the Hubble GOODS
Survey field, released Jan 5, 2010,
showing infant galaxies down to 650
million years after the Big Bang
The Big Bang
At 5 Billion Years

At Five Billion Years:
Infant galaxies have merged into the kind of galaxies
we see around us today.
 Galaxies have been clustering, forming filamentary
structures, refining the “galaxy web” we see today.

The Big Bang
At 5 Billion Years
Galaxy “Web”
1 Gpc/h = ~4.35 billion light years; 1 Mpc/h = ~4.35 million light years
The Big Bang
At 5 Billion Years

Also at Five Billion Years:

The expansion of the universe begins to accelerate
Death by Fire
Death by Ice
The Big Bang
At 9.1 Billion Years to Today

At 9.1 Billion Years to Today:

At 9.1 Billion Years: Solar System forms
The Big Bang
At 9.1 Billion Years to Today

At 9.1 Billion Years to Today:





At 9.9 Billion Years: Possible formation of primitive life
(definitely by 10.2 billion years)
At 11.7 Billion Years: Free oxygen begins to accumulate in
the Earth's atmosphere due to photosynthesis
At 13.1 Billion Years: Present atmosphere essentially
complete. multicellular life flourishes
At 13.2 Billion Years (550 million years ago): Cambrian
explosion, formation of complex, hard-bodied animals
At 13.5 Billions Years to Today:


240 million years ago: Mesozoic era. The earliest dinosaurs appear.
4.5 million years ago: first hominids appear
The Big Bang
Today and Beyond

Today and Beyond:





Dark Energy is driving an exponential expansion in which
galaxies double their distance from us every 10 billion years.
As the billions of years pass, we will live in an ever-lonelier
Universe as galaxies continually get further away, moving
faster.
As the receding galaxies pass light speed, they become
forever invisible to us.
Around 100 billion years from now, only our “local ball” of
stars will be visible, formed by the merger of the Milky Way
and its few neighbor galaxies.
Eventually all the stars will burn out.
The Big Bang
Summary

Summary: a picture of a universe with:
a definite origin 13.7 billion years ago
 beginning as a hot, formless soup of elementary
particles,
 evolving into the richly structured cosmos seen
today,
 apparently destined to a death by ice, to become a
cold and lonely place of darkness

The Big Bang
Can Naturalism Explain The Universe?


How does Naturalism try to explain the origin
of the universe?
At this time, naturalistic explanations are all
speculative, because a Quantum Theory of
Gravity is needed to explore the universe before
10-43 seconds, and such a theory remains
undiscovered.
The Big Bang
Can Naturalism Explain The Universe?

Naturalistic speculations:
The Big Bang resulted from the collision of our
Space-Time Universe with another universe
(Ekpyrotic Scenario)
 The universe is cyclic, expanding, collapsing,
expanding, collapsing, expanding .. for eternity


This explanation has theoretical difficulties, as both
entropy and the ration of photons to nuclear particles
would increase with each cycle, making an infinite
number of cycles unlikely
The Big Bang
Can Naturalism Explain The Universe?

Naturalistic speculations:
The boldest speculation is the Multiverse, which
posits our universe began as a “quantum fluctuation”
that then rapidly inflated by a force similar to Dark
Energy.
 It posits that such fluctuations and inflations could
produce an infinite number of separate universes,
each with different dimensions and physical laws.

The Big Bang
Can Naturalism Explain The Universe?

None of these “explanations” are particularly
satisfying, even if the particular speculation is taken as
true.


What is the origin of the universe we collided with? What is
the origin of the Multiverse? What is the origin of the “metalaws” that govern the Multiverse?
The laws of physics describe the behavior of the universe in
mathematics. What gives “fire” to the equations so that what
the equations describe is real?

In other words: What gives the structures described by the equations
being? What maintains and sustains them in being?
The Anthropic
Principle
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life



The laws of physics, the constants of nature, and the
“initial conditions” of the universe all seemed
extremely “fine-tuned” to produce a universe that is
fruitful of life.
There are many examples of this fine-tuning at multiple
levels.
For example: there are four fundamental forces of
nature: gravity, the weak nuclear force, the
electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force.

Any slight change in the character and magnitude of any of
these forces would have resulted in a sterile, lifeless universe.
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life

Another
example:
the
resonances
of the
carbon
nucleus.
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life

The nucleus of the carbon atom possesses a
“resonance” at precisely the right value so that
three helium nuclei will stick together to form
one carbon nucleus in the process of
nucleosynthesis in the stars.

Any slight variation in the resonance would have
meant that virtually no carbon would have been
produced in the stars.
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life

Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 – 2001)
This discovery was
made by Fred Hoyle,
the atheist and early
supporter of Steady
State Theory, who
had derisively coined
the term “The Big
Bang”
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life


The discovery so shook Hoyle that he lost his atheism.
As he later wrote: Would you not say to yourself: “Some
supercalculating intellect must have designed the
properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chances
of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of
nature would be utterly minuscule.” Of course you
would. ... A common sense interpretation of the facts
suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with
physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and
that there are no blind forces worth seeking about in
nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts
seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion
almost beyond question.
The Anthropic Principle
A Universe Fine-Tuned for Life

The only viable explanation Naturalism can offer is the
Multiverse, consisting of every possible universe,
universes of very possible combination of physical laws,
constants and initial conditions, nearly all of them sterile.
Theological Accounts
of the Origins of the
Universe
Theological Account
Biblical Account of Creation




Christianity (and Judaism and Islam) proclaim that the
universe was created by God.
In Genesis 1, God creates the world by his word (and
perhaps by his Spirit, which broods over the waters).
The Hebrew word bara, translated as “create,” is only
used of God.
What does “create” mean here?


To order (from the “formless void and darkness covered the
face of the deep”)
To sustain
Theological Account
Biblical Account of Creation


The idea of creation from nothing emerges
explicitly only in later Hebrew writings
(especially in 2 Maccabees 7:28).
Note that to believe in Creation from nothing is
to assert the absolute dependence of the
universe on God.

Even a universe that has always existed, an eternal
universe, would require a creator as the source of its
being and its laws, even though it had no beginning
in time (Thomas Aquinas)
Theological Account
The Christian Explanation of Creation

This Christian doctrine of creation can certainly
explain the Big Bang.

How would the creation of the universe by God
from nothing look like to a physicist? “It would look
like the Big Bang!”
Theological Account
The Christian Explanation of Creation

The Christian doctrine of creation also easily
explains the incredibly intricate design of the
universe and the Anthropic Principle.
One of the main points of Genesis 1-11 is that God
is the source of order. Apart from God there is
chaos, and ultimately nothingness.
 We live in a universe in which the physical laws and
constants seem to be perfectly attuned and balanced
to make the universe hospitable to life because God
ordered it so.

Theological Account
The Christian Explanation of Creation


Finally, the Christian doctrine of creation gives
us a hint as to why the universe was created.
The universe is an expression of God’s goodness:
It is good in its own right (not just because it is useful
for humans), as the author of Genesis 1 repeatedly
asserts.
 But it is good, ultimately, because it is an expression
of its maker, God.


In Humanity, God finds a creature worthy of
being a partner in the stewardship of creation.
Theological Account
The Christian Explanation of Creation



Christian Scriptures hold out the promise that all
things will be fulfilled in Christ.
Those worthy of salvation will find eternal
peace with God in the resurrection.
But the universe itself will share in the glory of
the resurrection:

Romans 8:21: “The creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and will
obtain the freedom of the glory of the
children of God.”
Theological Account
The Christian Explanation of Creation

God, then, is the all-sufficing explanation for the
origin and destiny of the universe.
Theological Account
What Created God?

We live in a contingent universe, and in such a
universe, it would be understandable to ask:



But if God created the universe, what created God? Where
did God come from?
This is to conceive God as a being on the same level as
other created beings: as a contingent being, which
might or might not exist.
The idea of God however is the idea of the One who
exists necessarily, the One who cannot not exist.

God, says Aquinas, is the only One whose essence is to exist.
Theological Account
What Created God?

In other words, the claim that God created the
universe amounts to claiming:
That an infinite or eternal series of contingent
universes or contingent causes — universes or
causes that might exist or might not, but which do
not contain their reason for existence within
themselves — is impossible.
 The question as to why anything exists has to
terminate in One who contains his/her own cause
of existence.

Next Time (Jan 24):
3. Evolution: The
Journey into God
Sources of Graphics Used in
This Series
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Dark Energy Dark Matter: The Dark Side of the Universe, Sean Carroll, The
Teaching Company
Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe, Mark Whittle, The Teaching
Company
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition, Alex
Filippenko, The Teaching Company
Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations, Brian M. Fagan, The Teaching
Company
Biology: The Science of Life, Stephen Nowicki, The Teaching Company
Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes, and Their Real-World Applications, David
Sadava, The Teaching Company
Evolution, Douglas J Futuyma, Sinauer Associates
History of Christian Theology, Phillip Cary, The Teaching Company
Wikipedia
Astronomy Picture of the Day
HubbleSite
Millennium Simulation Project
The Equations, Icons of Knowledge, Sander Bais, Harvard University Press, 2005