Thank God for the Big Bang

I thank God for the Big Bang. Seriously. After all, if there was no beginning of our universe, there would be no universe, no Sun, no Earth, no life and no people. But beyond providing for our existence, the Big Bang is one piece of evidence that points me to the Creator.

The evidence is quite strong that our universe exploded into existence in a cosmic fireball of unimaginable heat and density somewhere around fourteen billion years ago. There are multiple lines of evidence that support this. One is the recession of galaxies; based on the shifting of the wavelengths and the relative brightness of light coming from distant galaxies and supernovas, there is a clear pattern that the further away from us a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us. Second is the cosmic microwave background, a radio-wavelength signal that comes at us nearly uniformly from every direction in the sky. The best explanation on offer for that is “fossil” light from the early universe when atoms stated to form, that has had its wavelengths stretched to radio signal lengths by the expansion of the universe. Third is the relative abundance of elements in the primeval matter of the universe. There is still a lot of gas that has yet to be incorporated into stars or planets in our universe, which consists mostly of hydrogen, a little helium and traces of lithium. The relative abundances of these, which are consistent everywhere we can look, are best explained by a model in which the dense early universe past briefly through a phase in which it was cool enough for atomic nuclei to be stable but still hot and dense enough for some nuclear reactions to occur. Forth is the presence of heavier elements, such as carbon, iron and lead. These are not found in “pristine” matter in the universe, but rather are products of nuclear reactions in stars, with the heaviest elements like lead and gold being created in a supernova explosion when a massive star turns into a giant hydrogen bomb and blows the majority of its mass into surrounding space; once there some can be incorporated into new stellar systems, the way it appears to have happened for our solar system. With the even the shortest-lived stars having estimated lifetimes of several billion years, it took time to create all the iron and gold we use, but a much older universe would contain much more of that than what is observed. Coupled with observations from geology of sedimentation, crust renewal, fossils and various methods of radioactive dating, there are multiple lines of evidence that point to a beginning point in the distant past for the universe we live in.

It is these multiple lines of evidence, largely independent of each other but all pointing in the same direction, that gives us such strong confidence that the Big Bang is a fairly accurate description of what actually happened. Any one piece of evidence might be misinterpreted or could be explained by an alternative theory, but when taken together, a single theory that explains all these different observations is far more likely to be true than a set of unrelated, ad hoc theories that each just explain one observation. In the same way, I believe that there are quite a few different pieces of evidence that point to the existence of a God who created the universe and (surprisingly) is somehow involved in the affairs of ordinary people. There is no smoking gun or one piece that people have not already attempted to explain away, but put together they give me a high level of confidence that God is not a product of human imagination but a real being and the force behind the universe and that which is in it.

For many years I have read, listened and pondered about what science, scripture, and other lines of inquiry can tell us about the nature of the universe we live in. A synthesis has slowly formed in my mind, weaving together insights from diverse fields that I believe does them justice and gives me a more comprehensive view of the world we live in. But much of that has happened in isolation, and I hope this blog I am starting can be a forum to think about these issues more in community. If I am misleading myself or have misunderstood things, I need other people point that out. On the other hand, if I am right about some of these things, I think I have a moral obligation to share with others so that they can draw on any good insights I might actually have. I’d like to invite you to join me on this endeavor, following my blog as I post thoughts about once a week, making comments to keep me honest and asking questions if things are not clear. My desire is to write such that it is understandable and engaging for a wide range of areas of study and religious beliefs, which is more challenging but I believe ultimately more rewarding. Please keep that in mind as you interact with this blog.

Image: Artist's rendering of a supernova explosion, (c) NASA, retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/175872main_sn2006gy_main_330.jpg