How the universe came into being is a basic question for both science and religion. According to the account accepted by the vast majority of astronomers and physicists who specialize in cosmology – the study of the origin and nature of the cosmos – the observable universe originated in the “Big Bang,” a foundational event that happened 13.7 billion years ago. In an infinitesimal instant of time, all the matter in the universe, which had initially been extremely dense, began to expand. Despite the event’s popular name, the Big Bang was not an explosion in the ordinary sense, but rather the intense and rapid expansion of matter and space.
The universe has continued expanding ever since. In the intervening eons, matter condensed in various locations into the countless galaxies, stars and planets that fill the observable universe, while the universe itself continued to expand. As proof that the Big Bang occurred, cosmologists cite astronomical observations of structures such as the Cosmic Microwave Background, a form of radiation that fills the whole universe and is considered a relic of the initial expansion, and of phenomena such as the accelerating movement of distant objects away from each other.
This accepted standard model of the universe arises from concepts of physics, such as relativity and quantum mechanics, and advanced mathematics that are too abstract and technical for anyone but experts to evaluate or, often, even understand. The cosmological account does not explain why or how the Big Bang happened, but only that it did. It also does not imply that the universe observable from Earth is the complete or only universe in existence.
According to a number of scientists, however, the Big Bang model is consistent with a variety of religious and spiritual interpretations. The founder of modern physics, Albert Einstein, for example, though not a believer in a personal God or one concerned with human affairs, discerned divinity in the “orderly harmony of what exists.” Other scientists have also expressed religious views through the decades. Some point out that, though the Big Bang model differs from the biblical account of creation, it is compatible with the concept of creation ex nihilo expressed in the Bible. Some argue that the Big Bang allows for an intentional creator.
Recently these views have been gaining increasing attention. Several recent books by scientists at prominent universities explore the findings of cosmology in religious or spiritual terms. In The Physics of Christianity (2007), Tulane University physicist and mathematician Frank J. Tipler asserts that science can explain various events described in the Bible. In Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life (2007), University of Arizona cosmologist Paul Davies examines the anthropic principle, which is the argument that life is able to exist because the universe has various characteristics, including certain physical laws, that, if only slightly different, would make life impossible. In The View From the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos, University of California physicist Joel Primack and his co-author seek to connect the origins of the universe to the concerns of life on Earth.
Why it matters
Second only to evolution, the modern cosmological account of the universe’s origin has pitted modern science against supporters of the biblical account of creation. The fact that reputable scientists, while not accepting the biblical account as literally true, nonetheless argue for the compatibility of religious concepts and modern cosmological science, indicates a possibility of reconciliation between science and at least certain kinds of religious faith. Some scientists and others go further, arguing that the anthropic principle implies a cosmic intention to create an environment conducive to intelligent life.
Angles for reporters
What is the attitude of various faith communities in your area toward the findings of cosmology? Do they perceive the Big Bang account of the universe’s origins as compatible with their faith?
Do astronomers and physicists in your area who are knowledgeable about cosmology have views on the religious or spiritual implications of physics and astronomy?
National sources
For more sources, see ReligionLink’s issue on “Science v. faith: Is the battle diminishing?“
- Paul Davies is a College Professor and founder and director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. at Arizona State University in Tempe. His most recent book was published in Great Britain in 2006 as The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? and in 2007 in the United States as Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life. In 1995 he won the Templeton Prize for work on science and religion. Contact 480-965-3240, deepthought@asu.edu.
- Frank J. Tipler is a professor of mathematics and physics at Tulane University and author of The Physics of Christianity (2007) and The Physics of Immortality. Contact 504-862-3449, tipler@tulane.edu.
- Joel R. Primack, a professor of physics at the University of California Santa Cruz, is co-author of The View From the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (2006). Contact 831-459-2580, joel@scipp.ucsc.edu.
- Paul J. Steinhardt is Albert Einstein Professor in Science on the faculties of physics and astronomy at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Contact 609-258-1509, steinh@princeton.edu.
- George F. Smoot is co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize; a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and research physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His publications include, as co-author, the popular book Wrinkles in Time: Witness to the Birth of the Universe. Contact gfsmoot@lbl.gov.
- Andrew Lange is Goldberger Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Contact 626-395-6887, ael@astro.caltech.edu.
- James Gunn is a professor of astrophysics at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., where he is a leading researcher on the structure of the universe. Contact jeg@astro.princeton.edu.
- Alan H. Guth is Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and author of The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. Contact 617-253-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu.
- Edmund Bertschinger is a physics professor and division head of astrophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Contact 617-235-5083, ednert@mit.edu.
- Steven Weinberg holds the Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science and is Regental Professor of Physics and astronomy and director of the Theory Group in the department of physics at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1979 he won the Nobel Prize in physics. Contact 512-471-4394, weinberg@physics.utexas.edu.
- Max Tegmark is an associate professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Contact 617-452-4627, tegmark@mit.edu.
Resources
- Read Ned Wright’s cosmology tutorial.
- Read “Cosmology Primer,” by Sean Carroll.
- Read an overview of the field of cosmology by Andreas Albrecht.
- Read “About Cosmology” by George Smoot’s research group.
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Read “Misconceptions About the Big Bang,” in the March 2005 issue of Scientific American.
Regional sources
- Eric R. Wollman is professor and chairman of physics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Contact 207-786-6325, ewollman@bates.edu.
- Alexander Vilenkin is professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Tufts Institute of Cosmology at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Contact vilenkin@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu.
- Priyamvada Natarajan is an associate professor in the departments of astronomy and physics at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Contact 203-436-4833, priya@astro.yale.edu.
- Richard F. Holman is a physics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Contact 412-268-5159, rh4a@andrew.cmu.edu.
- John P. “Jack” Hughes is a professor of physics and astronomy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in Piscataway. Contact 732-445-0980, jph@physics.rutgers.edu.
- Amber Miller is associate professor of physics at Columbia University. Contact 212-854-4987, amber@phys.columbia.edu.
- EricS.Perlman is an associate professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Contact 321-674-7741, eperlman@fit.edu.
- John F. Hawley is a professor and chairman of the astronomy department at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He co-authored Foundations of Modern Cosmology (2nd edition, 2005). Contact 434-924-4901, jh8h@Virginia.edu.
- Jean-Pierre Caillault is an astronomy professor at the University of Georgia in Athens. Contact 706-542-2883, jpc@akbar.physast.uga.edu.
- Robert J. Scherrer is a professor and chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Contact 615-322-2828, robert.scherrer@vanderbilt.edu.
- Marco Cavaglià is assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Contact 662-915-7642, cavaglia@phy.olemiss.edu.
- Hakeem M. Oluseyi is assistant professor of physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Contact 256-824-2490, oluseyh@email.uah.edu.
- Christopher S. Kochanek is an astronomy professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Observational Cosmology at Ohio State University in Columbus. Contact 614-292-5954, ckochanek@astronomy.ohio-state.edu.
- Barbara Sue Ryden is an associate professor of astronomy at Ohio State University in Columbus, author of Introduction to Cosmology and co-author of Basic Astrophysics (forthcoming 2008). Contact 614-292-4362, ryden@astronomy.ohio-state.edu.
- Deborah B. Haarsma is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Contact 616-526-6340, dhaarsma@calvin.edu.
- Andrew J.S. Hamilton is professor of astrophysicial and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Contact 303-492-7833, ajsh@origins.colorado.edu.
- Ina Sarcevic is a physics professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson and author of The Edge of Infinity. Contact 520-621-4392, ina@physics.arizona.edu.
- Yun Wang is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Contact 405-325-3961 ext. 36327, wang@nhn.ou.edu.
- Gregory Bothun is a physics professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene and author of Cosmology: Mankind’s Grand Investigation. Contact 541-346-2569, nuts@bigmoo.uoregon.edu.
- Neil J. Cornish is an associate professor of physics at Montana State University in Bozeman. Contact 406-994-7986, cornish@physics.montana.edu
- Virginia Trimble is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. Contact 949-824-6948, vtrimble@uci.edu.
