"SCIENCE AND THE CHURCH"
Session 1B, What Science Tells us about Creation
See for example, "Powers of 10" http://www.wordwizz.com/pwrsof10.htm
the physical laws go from smallest to largest and are interrelated (the worm Ouroboros) from quarks to the whole universel
a. The Mount Wilson Observatory,
where it all began and Hubble found the Red Shift.
b.
The Doppler Shift and what it shows.
c. Whence the Big Bang from an expanding universe
d A history of the Universe.
e. The Birth of Stars and Planets
f. Where did the elements come from?
g. Cosmic Embers—more proof for the Big Bang—the
COBE background radiation:
g. lack of heavy elements in young galaxies (formed in first
billion years)
a. The Block Universe per Hawking:
b. Inflationary Bubble Universes per Linde.
God sticking the pin in the sweet spot (from Penrose "The Emperor's New Mind")
The formation of the solar system Solar System Creation
The solar system was formed about 5 billion years ago, relatively late in the life of the universe. A sphere of gas began to condense and rotate, the central portion drawing more gas and by the condensation heating up. "Knots" in the outer portions formed the planets. In the cloud of condensing gas were not only hydrogen and helium but also heavier elements-carbon, oxygen.......-that came as cosmic ash from the explosion of supernovae. These supernovae were formed by the gravitational collapse of red giant stars; in order that such heavy elements be formed, the stars had to be large and hot at the center.
Additional evidence for the Big Bang
1. Far distant galaxies (further than several billion light-years) show a preponderance of younger stars (unshifted radiation in the blue).
2. The microwave background radiation in the night sky shows an almost uniform pattern, much like the dying embers of a hot fire: The COBE measurements of microwave background radiation
3. The proportion of the light elements, approximately 25% helium, 75% hydrogen
Inflation and Bubble Universes.
Problems with the standard Hot Big Bang Model. Inflationary Universe(s)
There are several problems associated with the standard Big Bang Model. Among others, why is the universe not homogeneous-how did the irregularities that correspond to galaxies (galaxy clusters) originate?; also, there is the so called "flatness" problem: why is the density of matter so close to the critical value-the universe did not contract back in a big crunch, nor did it expand so fast that no stars were formed. (There are other difficulties, which are listed in the first link above.)
A hypothesis which partially resolved these problem was proposed by Guth in the 1980's. The universe expanded at a very rapid rate initially, such that very small fluctuations were isolated. Indeed, some cosmologists (see the link) propose that some parts expanded faster than the speed of light, so that a causal relation with other parts of the universe was lost, so that a series of isolated "bubble universes was created.