What Evolutionists Say – About the Big Bang
Many people, including a likely majority of Christians, believe the universe came about according to the “big bang” theory. If so, this would logically mean the Bible is wrong and there is no Creator God as described therein. The Bible clearly states that God caused everything to come into existence in the beginning from nothing (ex nihilo). Evolutionary cosmology currently cannot be correlated with the logic that tells us that the universe had to have had a primary cause. In addition, secular scientists are very aware of the lack of scientific support for the big bang theory with over 400 of them signing “An Open Letter to the Scientific Community” that expresses their skepticism of the whole idea of a universe causing big bang.
Note: It seems that there is no agreement as to whether the topic of this article should be “Big Bang” or “big bang.” So, I will go with big bang in the body of this article unless I am quoting someone else who uses the capitalized form.
How can we simply describe what we are talking about? The big bang theory claims that all matter, space, and energy of the entire universe pre-existed in a particle smaller than the head of a pin. This is sometimes called the “singularity.” Then, for no apparent reason, this tiny particle suddenly expanded with the resulting formation of galaxies, stars, planets, life, and ultimately humans.
In this article we will look at a number of things that scientists who are not fans of the big bang theory have to say about it, starting with this quote: “Was there ever really a big bang? Even as greater and greater numbers of people have come to believe that the universe began with one great eruption, others have seen a persistent weakness in the theory – a weakness that is becoming ever harder to overlook.” [Hoyle, Sir Fred, “The Big Bang under Attack,” Science Digest, vol. 92 (May 1984), p. 84.]
Sir Fred Hoyle was never a fan of the big bang and had a completely different idea about the universe. He is the one who coined the moniker “big bang,” and did so in derision. In 1990 he, along with three other eminent scientists, wrote this: “The Big Bang model offers a Universe created in a smooth featureless condition, out of which a highly structured Universe is nevertheless supposed to have evolved. Numerous attempts have been made to explain how this miracle is supposed to have happened. They have two features in common, one a retreat into the highest flights of physics and the other an unsatisfactory absence of the immense detail that would be required to support them in a proper manner, from which we suspect the attempts to be little more than ingenious hand waving. Perhaps this is why they are called ‘scenarios.’” These four then write this: “Cosmology is unique in science in that it is a very large intellectual edifice based on a very few facts.” [Arp, H.C., B. Burbidge, F. Hoyle, J.V. Narlikar, and N.C. Wickramasinghe, “The Extragalactic Universe: An Alternate View,” Nature, vol. 346 (August 30, 1990), p. 809, 812.]
The fact is that while organic evolutionists make up stories about fossils, sediments, and lifeforms that they can actually touch, the evolutionary cosmologists are dealing with an immense universe that is nearly totally remote. This results in lots of ivory tower speculation, but very little real science. One big bang dissenter puts it this way: “Big Bang cosmology is probably as widely believed as has been any theory of the universe in the history of Western civilization. It rests, however, on many untested, and in some cases untestable, assumptions. Indeed, big bang cosmology has become a bandwagon of thought that reflects faith as much as objective truth.” [Burbidge, Geoffrey, “Why Only One Big Bang?” Scientific American (February 1992), p. 120.]
Some secular scientists are firm in their opinion that the field of cosmology is not even science. Here is one example demonstrating this from a distinguished astrophysicist: “Cosmology is not even astrophysics: all the principle assumptions in this field are unverified (or unverifiable) in the laboratory, and researchers are quite comfortable with inventing unknowns to explain the unknown.” [Lieu, Richard, “ASDM Cosmology: How much suppression of credible evidence, and does the model really lead its competitors, using all evidence?” May 17, 2007; arxiv.org/abs/0705.2462v1.]
The big bang has always relied on a continually increasing number of hypothetical unobserved entities –things like inflation, dark energy, and dark matter. They are required because without them actual observations are contradictory to the predictions of the theory. The biggest problem is how do you get something from nothing? Darling put it this way in 1996: “Don’t let the cosmologists try to kid you on this one. They have not got a clue either – despite the fact that they are doing a pretty good job of convincing themselves and others that this is really not a problem. ‘In the beginning,’ they will say, ‘there was nothing – no time, space, matter, or energy. Then there was a quantum fluctuation from which…’ Whoa! Stop right there. You see what I mean? First there was nothing, and then there is something. And cosmologists try to bridge the two with a quantum flutter, a tremor of uncertainty that sparks it all off. Then they are away and before you know it, they have pulled a hundred billion galaxies out of their quantum hats.” [Darling, David, “On Creating Something from Nothing,” New Scientist, vol.151 (September 14, 1996). p. 49.]
Another skeptic put it this way: “The first, and main, problem is the very existence of the big bang. One may wonder, what came before? If space-time did not exist then, how could everything appear from nothing? What arose first: the universe or the laws determining its evolution? Explaining this initial singularity – where and when it all began – still remains the most intractable problem in modern cosmology.” [Linde, Andre, “The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe,” Scientific American, vol. 271 (November 1994), p. 48.]
Oh, the problems that will distort your thinking when the Creator God is removed from your worldview! The Biblical Christian can know that God did not use the big bang, and He did not use cosmic evolution. Our preexistent God is the creator ex nihilo of all things. According to the Bible, in the beginning He spoke everything into existence, that is, all of the known universe. He is still outside of the universe and outside of time, yet has chosen to personally step into his creation according to His will. As with all of the ideas of fallible men, the godless cosmological theories for the origin of the universe are all doomed to be eventually discarded. Christians must practice to rely on God’s word when trying to understand the universe and its creation.
Why is there still such a commitment to the big bang, not only by atheistic scientists, but also many Christians? Here is the explanation by one secular physicist: “Today, virtually all financial and experimental resources in cosmology are devoted to big bang studies. Funding comes from only a few sources, and all the peer-review committees that control them are supportive of the big bang. As a result, the dominance of the big bang within the field has become self-sustaining, irrespective of the scientific validity of the theory.” [Lerner, Eric, “Bucking the Big Bang,” New Scientist, 182(2448):20, 2004.]
Creationists know that they could complain in a similar way that there is absolutely no secular support for creation science, with an even more distressing result. The conclusion is that, as with organic evolution, cosmic evolution is a field promoted by an elite group of people who control the money and the information processes. Thus the Western culture is indoctrinated into a huge batch of lies about the origin of things. This is a process for promoting not science, but science, falsely so-called. It would be more accurate to describe cosmology as a “speculative alternative historical endeavor designed to replace the Bible.”
The good news is that those who believe the Bible and its history can know that these evolutionary fairy tales will someday be shown to have been totally worthless. There is the false reality now in the world, but the true reality is soon to make itself known to each and every soul. What an encouraging bit of news to those who have accepted the gift of salvation! (John 3:16.)
J.D. Mitchell
