Fr Ennio Mantovani SVD 21 The COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite in 1992 could find ‘seeds’ of the cosmic large-scale structures like stars and galaxies, in the form of slight variations in the cosmic background radiation. This could explain how stars and galaxies could arise from the Big Bang origin of the universe. As we have seen, the findings of the 1998 Berkeley study supported the view that the Big Bang was a unique event, heralding a “Day without Yesterday”. The European Space Agency’s Planck Satellite which was launched in 2009 and has been transmitting very valuable information, is supposed to release its full data in 2014. The data of hot and cold blobs collected by this satellite is considered the ultra microscopic quantum fluctuations from the threshold of the cosmos. This gave a far more refined and accurate account of the variations in the cosmic background radiation which were responsible for the formation of cosmic large-scale structures. The discovery of the `God Particle’ on 4 July 2012 also gave strong support to the Big Bang since this discovery involved the creation of near Big Bang condition through the Large Hadron Collider experiment. All these facts lead to the conclusion that the Big Bang today is a scientific fact. 2. Some Problems with the Big Bang a. Origin or Transformation of Universe? The Big Bang is claimed to be telling us about the origin of the universe, “The Day without Yesterday”. But there is the Primeval Atom which was there already yesterday! From where did it come? Who formed it? These questions are left unanswered. Attempts have been made to respond to this problem, but unsatisfactorily. Some scholars have tried to respond to this challenge by proposing that it came from quantum “nothing”. Jerry Coyne, for instance, taking the Pope to task for his ignorance of quantum theory says that the universe “could have originated from ‘nothing’ through purely physical processes, if you see ‘nothing’ as the ‘quantum vacuum’ of empty space.’’ But this is no answer since the “nothing” science talks of is not really nothing, not complete absence of any material reality; it is in reality something. In fact, empty space, zero force or no force, means something different from what we ordinarily mean. For instance, zero force or no force in science often means “no net-force,” as in the case of one force being nullified by another force of equal strength which is acting in the opposite direction. It is well accepted that neither ‘quantum vacuum’ nor ‘empty space’ of quantum science is free of all forms of material reality. Jerry Coyne and others also bring in the concept of multiple universes to solve the problem of the ultimate source of the Primeval Atom. Since many consider the multi-universe theory involving too many speculative suppositions, this is no helpful answer. Besides, the First Law of Thermodynamics forbids something popping up out of sheer nothing. In the absence of an adequate answer to this question of the source of the Primeval Atom one will have to conclude that the Big Bang does not really tell us about the origin of the universe as such, but rather the process of the transformation of the Primeval Atom to the current stage of the universe. This situation opens up the need or at least the possibility for introducing some outside agency to give a complete account of the origin of the universe. b. The Big Bang and the Bible The Big Bang theory seems to go against the biblical narrative of the creation of the universe. Some of the extremist religious groups subscribe to a literal understanding of the Bible, and so are greatly disturbed by the Big Bang explanation. Much has been written on this controversy. One well known way to respond to this point can be explained as follows. When we talk about scriptural passages on the creation of the universe, there are two important and related aspects: The ‘who’ and ‘how,’ the cause and the modality, of creation. The biblical writer was primarily concerned about the first aspect and the author affirms that God was the primary The discovery of the `God Particle’ on 4 July 2012 also gave strong support to the Big Bang since this discovery involved the creation of near Big Bang condition...
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