Is it God or The Big Bang?
- Victoria Funmilayo
- Jun 10, 2018
- 4 min read
Imagine yourself been in Wiruna, New South Wales, Australia stargazing at night with your binocular gazing at the vast amount of stars lighting up the sky and the half crescent moon gazing back at you in the horizon. As you gaze up at the sky, you start to wonder and ask yourself where all this heavenly bodies came from? A relatable question asked indeed! Every human being at some point in their lives has questioned and puzzled over how the earth and the universe was formed.
Majority of people that consider themselves atheist or undecided cling onto and rely on science to provide a logical explanation on how everything from the earth to galaxies in space came to being. While, others that are committed to some form of religion rely on their faith and religion to answer such paradoxical question.
In relation, the play Sequence by Arun Lakra shed to light the misleading conflict existing between science and religion especially Christianity on the origin of the universe. This is demonstrated in a pivotal scene where Doctor Guzman a stem cell researcher argues that “God is unnecessary [and] there is nothing in the universe that cannot be explained by science” with Mr. Adamson a highly devoted Christian (Lakra p.85). Today’s universe is a gigantic and ever expanding matter consisting of energy, space, stars, planets, time, and other galaxies.
Origin of the present universe from perspective of science: The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang theory is the most accepted scientific model among the science communities world wide that explains and accounts for the origin of the universe. The theory suggests that the universe seen today once had a beginning and was not infinitely and timelessly existing since the dawn of time (Big Bang Theory, n.d.).
According to this theory, roughly about 14 billion years ago, light, space, time and matter did not exist but a premature universe that was extremely hot, tiny and dense mass bursting in energy (Esa kids n.d.). Then, the dense mass started to inflate and expand in space (known as the big bang) becoming bigger, while cooling and emitting energy (Encyclopedia n.d. & Big Bang Theory, n.d. ). The mechanism of the Big Bang is similar to the process of inflating a balloon. The emitted cooled energy created atoms that bounded and grouped together to overtime form stars, comets, planets, black holes and galaxies.
Misconception about the Big bang
Common misconceptions and misunderstandings about the Big Bang we believe to be facts includes the following below (Lineweaver, Charles H., and Tamara M. Davis, 2005).
The Big bang was a bomb or explosion: The big bang was actually an expansion of our dense universe not an explosion.
The Big Bang Theory does explain what caused the Big Bang: The theory only explains what happened after the Big Bang not what caused the Big Bang or the formerly dense universe.
Origin of the present universe: The Christian Perspective
In Christianity, biblical account for creation started with God an all powerful force and creator that created everything and the universe for six days and rested on the seventh day. This is described in first book in the bible Genesis chapter one verse one “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. Various interpretation of Genesis has been made by Biblical Scholars and Creationists, but majority of Christians regard the scripture or bible description of the creation of the universe as “parables or symbolic accounts” (BBC, 2014).
Misconception regarding the Christian's perspective
Common misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding the Christian perspective are listed below.
Genesis explain exactly how God created the world: As stated earlier, the verses in Genesis are prone to be misinterpreted and taken literally when it should be interpreted as a story narrating how God created universe and does not account for the procedure or method God used to create the universe.
Christianity leaves no room for scientific explanation: The Pope Francis actually acknowledged and accepted the Big Bang model to be real and stated that God is not a magician (Adam withnall, 2014).
Conclusion
Summing it up, both the scientific and Christian perspectives are not actually in conflict with each other; although it is frequently portrayed mostly by the media that the two perspective cannot coexist in unity.
References
Lineweaver, Charles H., and Tamara M. Davis. “MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE BIG BANG.” Scientific American, vol. 292, no. 3, 2005, pp. 36–45. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26060916.
“GCSE Bitesize: The Origins of the Universe.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/environment/christianitybeliefsrev1.shtml.
Withnall, Adam. “Pope Francis Declares Evolution and Big Bang Theory Are Real and God Is Not 'a Magician with a Magic Wand'.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 19 Dec. 2016, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-9822514.html.
“Big Bang Theory.” Big Bang Theory, www.big-bang-theory.com/.
“ESA - Space for Kids - Our Universe - The Big Bang.” European Space Agency, 20 June 2014, www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMSZ5WJD1E_OurUniverse_0.html.
Theory.", "Big Bang. “Big Bang Theory.” Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America, Encyclopedia.com, 2018, www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/big-bang-theory-1
Image Credits
Credit: Image 1 by Bryant Arnold via cartoonaday.com
Credit: Image 2 by spirit111 via Pixabay
Credit: Image 3 by WannesVdv via Deviant Art
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