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Jonathan Brindle

Professor Malcolm Butler

UWRT 1104

05 April 2018

Since the inception of human intuition, humanity has pondered what the origins of our

lives, earth, stars, and everything that we can has come from. Many explanations have come and

gone, and throughout history mankind has fought over these ideas, spilling blood over a mere

difference in opinion. The two most relevant ideas that have been adopted in the current age are

The Big Bang Theory and The Creationist Story of Origins. The Big Bang Theory is a relatively

new idea in the known age of our species existence. Interestingly enough, a catholic priest first

proposed the idea of an expanding universe which would eventually be dubbed “The Big Bang

Theory.” The priest, Georges Lemaître, proposed this idea after recognizing the red-shifting light

of spiral nebulae at the edge of the observable universe. A redshift in light means that the

photons, or particles of light, have lost their energy in their long journey from the point of origin

to the observer. This process is called red-shifting because red light is the least energetic of

observable light on the color spectrum from purple to red. Once code for finding what correlated

with the idea of an expanding model for the universe and the proper technological advances was

made, scientists were able to determine the beginning of the expansion of photons by measuring

the distance between the earth and the edge of the observable universe and calculating the time it

took to reach from the edge to the observer based on the finite speed of light. These observations

were key in forming the backbone of the modern-day interpretation of The Big Bang Theory.

The Creationist’s explanation for origins involves an intelligent design of the universe to account

for the unknowns and the randomness that seem to have all coalesced into what we see today.
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These two ideas have been questioned extensively, but neither has been able to address every

question that has been posed. Scientists that have worked in this field have even stated that the

chances of everything falling perfectly into place as it did in order to create life on this planet are

so infinitesimally small that an intelligent being must have had something to do with the creation

of our universe. These existential questions are deeply rooted in our human nature. Every last

one of us has gazed towards the heavens and wondered to ourselves what exactly created all of

the vastness of space and the beautiful planet we call home. The origins of our universe, as

proposed by The Big Bang Theory and the Creationist Story of origins, should be considered the

two best representations of the beginning of our universe. Furthermore, the idea that these two

could go hand in hand rather than juxtaposing one another should be taken into account instead

of dismissing one or the other based on one’s personal preference.

The mountain of evidence that corroborates the ideas encompassed within The Big Bang

Theory only cover a small portion of the abyss of questions that the theory raises. It seems as if

one mystery solved by science opens another two inquiries. This constant train of questionings

has led us to the quandary we are at today. Humanity now holds more knowledge about the past

and the future than we ever could have imagined, even 100 years ago. In order to fully

understand the argument for the Big Bang Theory, one must understand the theory in its entirety.

Essentially, the Big Bang Theory begins with a point which scientists call the singularity. This

singularity, as hard as it may seem to visualize, holds every single particle in the entire universe

in space of about 1x10^-35 meters. This idea was derived from Einstein’s Theory of General

Relativity. This singularity would be infinitely dense and infinitely hot. Another idea concerning

the singularity is that all of the fundamental forces in physics must have existed as one during the

time of the singularity. This symmetric representation of the forces of gravity, weak nuclear and
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strong nuclear forces, and electromagnetism has been compared to the symmetry of a freshly

sharpened pencil. A freshly sharpened pencil may very well be symmetric, but is rather unstable

when you attempt to place the graphite end on a table and stand the eraser portion facing

upwards. This instability is believed to have caused the expansion. Before this singularity there

was a nothingness. A common misconception is that the singularity existed at a point in space,

however, nothing existed before this singularity. There was no space and no time before the

singularity formed. One of the fundamental issues of this theory is exposed in this unknown.

What could have possibly created the singularity? Our minds cannot grasp the concept of

something deriving itself from nothing. This mystery is one of the greatest of our entire universe

and one in which Creationist’s posit that God’s hand must have created the singularity. As

previously mentioned, the instability of such a great force in such a small space can account for

the expansion. At this point, space and time begin. Gravity and the Strong Nuclear force within

the singularity break off and begin the never-ending expansion, known as the inflationary epoch

or the cosmic inflation. An estimation of the temperature of the so-called quark-soup at this point

of the expansion is put at 10 quadrillion degrees, or about 10,000,000,000,000,000 degrees if

you’re interested in the long hand version. This quark-soup is composed of the early elementary

particles such as Z, W, and Higgs Boson particles. For the purpose of keeping simplicity, these

particles are distant cousins of the electrons, neutrons, and protons that make up the everyday

matter that we interact with. The next stage of the expansion shows the universe to have cooled

to about a trillion degrees and this allowed for the combining of hadrons to form electrons and

weightless neutrinos. These neutrinos are some of the hardest particles to detect in the universe.

They are traveling at nearly the speed of light and have nearly zero mass. As small as these

particles are they are fundamental in the search for truth concerning the expansion of the early
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universe. The next stage consists of another cooling down which allowed the first elements to

form such as Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium. This stage also allowed for the formation of

photons. These photons are what light is made of and what allowed scientists to age the universe

so accurately. Photons would dominate the next few hundred thousand years as the universe was

still cooling and this plasma like soup of matter thrived during the early expansion. After

300,000 years of expansion and cooling the universe finally fell to the point at which it was the

same temperature as the surface of our sun today. This allowed for more particles to interact and

initiate the formation of solid material and the many elements from which all matter is

constructed. In the next stage of The Big Bang, mysterious dark matter dominates the lion’s

share of the mass in the universe. Not much is known about dark matter because we cannot see it

with any sort of instrument. The only reason we know that it exists is due to the abnormally fast

rotations of galaxies within the universe. These supermassive portions of matter drive the

rotation of entire galaxies in our universe today. This era of Dark Matter is known as the Dark

Era and would carry on until about 150 million years after the initial cosmic inflation. After this

stage of development, the universe has cooled to the point where the first stars can begin to form.

These first stars were supermassive and highly unstable. They often would go supernova, which

is a term used to describe the final stage of life in a supermassive star. The guts of the star shoot

out of itself in a massive explosion that emits cosmic radiation and creates some of the brightest

lights that humans have ever seen. This ejection of mass would go on to create other stars and in

turn begin the formation of the first galaxies and solar systems. Our solar system is no exception

as it was formed about 4.5 to 5 billion years ago from this same process. Now, nearly 13.7 billion

years after the initial inflation we stand on the third rock from the sun in the Milky Way galaxy,

within the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies. So, what can all of this mean and how can we be so
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sure that it occurred in this manner? Well we can never know for sure, but there is a great deal of

evidence that does support this position. These pieces of evidence include; red-shifting light,

microwave background, mixture of elements in distant galaxies, and our ability to look

backwards in time. Red-Shifting, as previously mentioned, can account for the measured

distance between the earth and the edge of the observable universe. This hard edge is a barrier

that blocks us from seeing any further due to the fact that light has not had enough time to travel

to us from that immense distance. The old saying goes that you are not the center of the universe

and this may be true in a philosophical sense but in reality, every single person, is in fact, at the

center of their observable universe. Light expands in all directions at the same speed, so in your

own perspective you and everyone else are at the center of the universe. The cosmic microwave

background also provides some concrete evidence for the Big Bang Theory. This theory stated

that the early universe would be infinitely hot and due to the nature of the heat should leave

behind a glow that can be measured in microwaves. This glow has been measured and recorded

accurately by orbiting detectors, concluding that the map of the glow directly correlates with

what was expected from such a rapid expansion proposed in The Big Bang Theory. We also have

the ability to view distant galaxies which are far younger than our own but are made up of what

would be considered early universe expansion material. We can accurately predict what these

galaxies are made of and if they are wholly consistent with what was expected in the early

universe. This points to the idea that the expansion of the same materials that made our galaxy

and solar system also made the galaxies located billions of light years away. These key pieces of

evidence corroborate and support the entirety of The Big Bang and all of its stages.

The Creationist’s view of the beginning of the universe is far less random and in fact a

very intricate design. This design is performed by an intelligent being often in the form of God.
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Creationists believe that God created all that lies within the universe. In the Christian version of

creation, God is said to have created the entirety of the universe in only seven days. However, we

know that this is scientifically impossible based on the evidence that has been compiled. The

bible was never intended to be interpreted literally; Christians believe that God’s time functions

on a different scale than our human conception of time does. For instance, a day for God could

have been a billion years in humanity’s eyes. The main argument that scientists use to discredit

the claims of the bible and the claims of creationists are that there is no scientific evidence to

support the existence of God, the carbon dating processes ability to forego the time scale of a

creationist, and the idea that evolution is a much better model for the variation in species than

simply creating many different species all at once. Firstly, evidence of God would never become

available to our human minds. The idea of God and his involvement in our lives is that we

should have faith in his existence. This means that God would never show himself to us before

we depart from this life. God’s entire purpose in providing for our existence is for us to exercise

our free will in determining whether or not he exists and whether or not we believe he is the

ultimate creator of the universe. Therefore, the burden of proof does not belong to the creationist

to show God’s existence because proving his existence would be fundamentally broken in the

face of a faith-based belief. Secondly, the carbon dating systems points out a fatal flaw in the

idea that the earth is only 7,000 years old. Now, this truly puzzles some creationists and some are

completely adamant that the Earth must be exactly this old. One of the fundamental ideas in the

story of creation is that God simply doesn’t function at the same scale that we as mankind do.

This means that if we were to record the age of the Earth based on the evidence that God

provided within the content of the Bible then we would come up with the number similar to that

of 7,000. However, one must understand that God has no timetable. God is purportedly present
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forever with no beginning and no end. This idea is mind boggling in both the creationist and the

non-creationist. How can something have no beginning and no end? This is where one can draw

a parallel from the previously discussed singularity and God himself. Human minds cannot

understand the idea of something with no origin and no end because we have been taught that

every single thing in our universe must have a beginning and an end. This parallel unknown

elucidates the fact that we simply do not know enough to banish one idea or the other to the

scrap heap. Lastly, evolution teaches us that small variations in the genetic code has provided us

with the many variations in the species of Earth. Creationists posit that God created every species

that can be found on the planet and that without his intelligent design there is no way that all the

necessary materials could be present to create a single living cell all at once. The central

argument against this is that without a slow genetic variation there would not be so many

similarities between humans and other species that look nothing like us externally. Furthermore,

why would there be so many extinct species if the intelligent designer gave them life? For

example, if God created the dinosaurs then why would they be killed off as an entire species

nearly 65 million years ago based on carbon dating and the entirety of the human race remained

intact? This is one of the more difficult arguments for Creationists to refute, however, the best

answer that has been provided has to be the idea of the mouse trap. For a single bacterium to

form and function long enough to reproduce, the environment must be exact and several key

parts must come together all at once. The pieces cannot come together slowly in order to form

the first living organism, but rather all at once. A flagellum, or small tail on bacteria that allows

it to move throughout their environment would need to be constructed all at once from a random

assortment of atoms and molecules along with the other seemingly infinite number of atoms and

molecules that encompass the entirety of the bacteria. This parallels with the idea of a mouse trap
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because a mouse trap must have no less than eight parts in order to function. One must consider

the possibility of all of those parts randomly assembling to form the mouse trap all at once rather

than over an extended period of time. This example provides the best evidence for an intelligent

design that can currently be surmised. The randomness and infinitesimally small possibility of

life forming on the only planet that life would be possible in all of the planets that we have

observed simply seems to point to the idea that there must be some sort of an intelligent designer

that allowed life to occur all at once. One concession that could be made be made by Creationists

is that God utilized the process of evolution in order to create the vast diversity in species on

Earth. In this manner we can see that there is not a definite way to refute the idea of Creationism

by intelligent design based on our current knowledge of the universe.

As a rebuttal for the Creationism argument, Neil deGrasse Tyson provides a key

philosophical issue with the application of Creationism as a means for describing the universe’s

inception. He states “The history of discovery, particularly scientific discovery, is one where at

any given moment there is a frontier, and there tends to be an urge for people, especially

religious people, to assert that across that boundary into the unknown lies the handiwork of

God.” (Tailgatos 00:00:38-00:01:02) Tyson discusses and anecdote where Isaac Newton had

discovered the laws of gravity and motion. Tyson states that once people reach a limit of

understanding, they tend to invoke the power of God. Philosophers call this the “God of Gaps,”

in which people invoke the power of God and the hand of God because they cannot yet

understand a concept. In this discussion Tyson is asked whether or not Dark Matter could be the

God of the Universe as it is known that it binds together all that we can see. This reasoning is

crucial when considering the objectivity of an argument in which science and religion go hand in

hand. I of course, cannot say the Tyson is wrong in saying this because it is quite possible that
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this is all that religion is. Without religion many people would find no purpose in life. To fulfill

their Earthly duties is what some live for on a daily basis. However, what Tyson describes as

scientific ignorance, I view as understanding one’s perspective and place in the universe. Tyson

is a known agnostic and this is an understandable viewpoint, but I believe it would be foolish to

dismiss the possibility of God’s existence based on the premise that all scientific discoveries

have snuffed out the teachings of the church. Instead, one should view this as a possibility of

God’s work as an intelligent designer that left clues to discover the workings of his hands.

After analyzing the evidence and arguments for both sides, I am convinced that there

must be a God. The key flaws of the Big Bang Theory can be attributed to the fact that we

simply are not intelligent enough to understand all that was needed to create the universe. For

example, the singularity that is present at the beginning of The Big Bang Theory simply cannot

exist without it being created by something of a higher order. If it not then it would defy all laws

of physics. Simply put, a massive ball of material cannot just appear. The mouse trap anecdote

also pokes a huge hole in the theory of random life assembly as described in The Big Bang

Theory. From an objective point of view, I cannot understand how someone could be arrogant

enough to believe that they understand enough about the universe to refute the idea of a God

entirely. Agnosticism is an understandable practice because as much as religious people and

atheists would like to believe, no man truly knows whether or not God exists. In order to believe

in God, one must exercise their faith that he exists rather than facts. I am not convinced that we

can even reach an intelligence high enough to allow us to know with 100 percent certainty that

there is not a God. As for now, the evidence points to an intersection of science and creationism

as the most likely way in which the universe was created. Those who hold a hardline stance

against the idea of evolution and The Big Bang Theory are simply ignorant to the facts. Science
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has proven that these things truly happened and if a creationist cannot grasp the concept that God

could have utilized these two methods in order to create all of the universe then they are truly

lost in the literal teachings of their holy books and in committing this they are only minimizing

the power of an all-powerful God. One must consider the idea that if we are to attribute these

capabilities to a God then we must allow him the capability of completing the process of creation

through the means described in the Big Bang Theory and The Theory of Evolution, otherwise,

we have minimized the power of God to that of a mortal. Due to the fact that neither creationism

and scientific reasoning can refute each other explicates the idea that they have the possibility of

working together in order to achieve a common goal rather than working as counter arguments to

one another.
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Works Cited

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.” National Geographic. Uploaded by National Geographic.

Written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, Directed by Brannon Braga, Performed by

Neil deGrasse Tyson. March 9 2014. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/cosmos-a-

spacetime-odyssey/

National Schools Observatory. Evidence for The Big Bang. NSO. 2018.

https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/learn/astro/cosmos/bigbang/bb_evid

“Neil deGrasse Tyson-God of the Gaps” Youtube, Uploaded by Tantan Tailgatos. Interviewee

Neil deGrasse Tyson, 18 Feb 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytaf30wuLbQ&feature=youtu.be

Mastin, L. Timeline of the Big Bang. The Physics of the Universe. 2018.

https://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_bigbang_timeline.html

Public Broadcasting Service. A Space Odyssey; The Big Bang Theory is Introduced. 1998.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dp27bi.html

Rennie, John. 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. Scientific American. 1 July 2002.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/15-answers-to-creationist/
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