come again, big bang?

You have heard tell, I am sure, of the Big Bang. According to some, this is how the Universe as we know it got its start.

A few years ago, NASA’S Cosmic Background Explorer satellite-COBE-shot back pictures of the most distant objects scientists have ever discovered.

These pictures were alleged to reveal evidence of how the universe began.1 Ted Koppel of “ABC News Nightline” questioned Robert Kirshner, chairman of Harvard University’s department of astronomy on the significance of this discovery by asking a question about origins.

• Ted Koppel: The big bang theory, to what limited degree I understand it, calls for something infinitesimally small, so small that it cannot be measured to have exploded into the universe as we now find it, in other words, something tiny exploded into the reality of everything large that exists in the universe today. Now, how does that work?

• Robert Kirshner: Well, you’re trying to answer the hardest part at the beginning. It might be easier to think about some of the observational facts and see why the big bang is such a simple explanation for them. The thing that we see today is a universe which is expanding, galaxies getting farther from one another, and if you imagine what that was like in the past, it would be a picture in which the galaxies were getting closer to one another. And if you take that picture far enough back, and we think the time scale is about 15 billion years, far enough back, then you get to a state where the universe is much hotter and denser than it is today. That’s the thing we’re talking about when we talked about the big bang. The details of exactly the structure of space and time at that—in that setting are a little tricky, but the basic picture is that the universe that we see today is very old, and had come from a state which was very different than we see around us today.2

At the conclusion of the program Koppel, unsatisfied with the previous evasion to the essential question, returned the central issue of the origin of the universe:

• Ted Koppel: And in the 40 or 50 seconds that we have left, Professor Kirshner, you want to try another crack at that first question, how we get everything out of next to nothing?
• Dr. Kirshner: No, I don’t think that’s the question I really want to answer. That’s the one I want to evade…3

[as quoted in the theological journal, Bibliotheca Sacra4]

Koppel’s question is an interesting one. Many people accept the Big Bang theory without much question because they heard it from an authority figure who seemed to know what he was talking about.

But what are we really talking about when we talk about “the universe”. If, as some say, the whole universe were once (15 billion years ago) all condensed into one infinitesimal [i.e., really, really, really small] bit of space, how much energy are we talking about? And how could it have been condensed so small?

Let’s consider the amount of energy that is constantly being produced by our Sun. According to NASA, the Sun occupies a tremendous amount of space and emits a tremendous amount of energy.

At over 1.4 million kilometers (869,919 miles) wide, the Sun contains 99.86 percent of the mass of the entire solar system: well over a million Earths could fit inside its bulk. The total energy radiated by the Sun averages 383 billion trillion kilowatts, the equivalent of the energy generated by 100 billion tons of TNT exploding each and every second.5 [emphasis mine]

A million earths…

100 billion tons of TNT every second…

That’s a lot of mass and power. Condensed into an infinitesimal fraction of space?

But that’s not all. That’s just our Sun, a medium sized star. Apparently, according to Wikipedia,6 the Sun doesn’t have enough mass to supernova. Too puny. It will go to Red Dwarf stage, though. Red Dwarf means it will expand past the earth’s orbit. Some dwarf. (And speaking of global warming!!!)

In any case, our Sun isn’t all there is to the universe. I don’t know how big the universe is. I guess nobody does. But considering the amount of power generated by the Sun in one second, let’s take this little snippet from NASA to put it into perspective:

NASA’s Swift and Fermi spacecraft are monitoring a neutron star 30,000 light years from Earth that is drawing attention to itself with a series of powerful gamma-ray flares.

“At times, this remarkable object has erupted with more than a hundred flares in as little as 20 minutes,” said Loredana Vetere, who is coordinating the Swift observations at Pennsylvania State University. “The most intense flares emitted more total energy than the sun does in 20 years.”7 [Emphasis mine]

So what we have here is just one gamma-ray flare erupting from a neutron star that emits in a matter of minutes more total energy than the sun does in 20 years.

That doesn’t count the energy that remains inside that neutron star.

And all of that, plus all the other millions of stars in the universe, and all the planets, comets, asteroids, etc. in the universe were likewise compressed into an infinitesimal portion of space?

How would that work?

How stable would that super-compressed infinitesimal portion of space be, actually? No wonder it exploded! I wonder how long it was compressed?

Of course, I suppose you are detecting I am a little sceptical of such claims.

On the other hand, the Bible says that God began creation by saying:

Let there be light.

I recognize that many people are as sceptical about God as I am about the claims of science. But I ask you, which is easier to believe, that the mass and energy of the universe was compressed into an infinitesimally small portion of space (for how long? and how did it get there?) or, on the other hand, that an infinite, all-powerful, intelligent God said the word and all that is came into existence?

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. (Ps 19.1-6)

And if there is such a God, with this kind of power, what do you think you owe Him? Do you think he has any concerns about the way you live, or  your attitude towards Him?

— Pastor Don

PS: I remain fascinated by space science. I recommend the RSS feed found at the NASA science links I provide below, if you, like me, are interested in the amazing discoveries of NASA and other space scientists around the world.

1. See Michael D. Lemonick, “Echoes of the Big Bang,” Time, May 4, 1992, 62–63; and “ABC News Nightline,” transcript 2850, April 24, 1992, 1. [↩]
2. Ibid., 2. [↩]
3. Ibid., 4. [↩]
4. Bibliotheca Sacra Volume, 149:426-427 [Dallas Theological Seminary, 1992] [↩]
5. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/23oct_superstorm.htm [↩]
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun [↩]
7. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/10feb_sgr.htm [↩]