Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Astrophysicist: The Big Bang says nothing about how the cosmos came to be

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

At Big Think:

We are often told that the Big Bang is a theory of cosmic creation. But in reality, cosmology says nothing about how the cosmos came to be. The Big Bang Theory is remarkably successful at describing what happened after the beginning, providing a detailed roadmap for how a super-high-temperature, super-high-density Universe expanded and cooled. – University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank (March 9, 2023)

Has Frank just given away the store to theists? The situation is exactly what we would expect if the cosmos is designed by a supernatural intelligence. We can learn how it works but the inventor exists and works at a higher level. We get only scattered, partial insights as to that.

From C.S. Lewis (1898–1963):

This, and perhaps this alone, fits in with the fact that Nature, though not apparently intelligent, is intelligible—that events in the remotest parts of space appear to obey the laws of rational thought. Even the act of creation itself presents none of the intolerable difficulties which seem to meet us on every other hypothesis… – C.S. Lewis, Miracles (New York: Touchstone, 1996), pp. 45–47

Comments
Seversky and PyrrhoManiac1, You can see why people committed to deterministic materialism squirm under the obvious conclusion that all existence is based on a non-material metaphysical foundation. A massive amount to time and brainpower have been committed to avoid or deny the what observational/experimental science is currently pointing to. The reasons why they should choose to avoid and deny can also be described: a. Everything that brilliant minds have discovered reveals a massive and beautiful system of physical reality and they do not want to simply abandon it (although they don't have to in my opinion). b. They are trying to cope with their own feelings of guilt and emptiness by rationalizing their immediate desires and behaviors just like everyone else. c. The world of metaphysics and religion is infested with quacks, charlatans, and control freaks. Many people have suffered from toxic religion. Many people have no clear method--or desire--to evaluate a dense jungle of beliefs, commitments, betrayals, and disappointments. C.S. Lewis famously embarked on a spiritual journey for what he first termed "the Tao," everything that is true. Similarly, I believe that there are "filters" that are available to guide people who are truly willing and desirous for an encounter "the Tao," and there are clear indicators of what is and isn't the truth. For example, leaders who seem to be focused on amassing money, adulation, or control are certainly not connected with the Tao, nor are people who are volatile, narcissistic, crude, greedy, opportunistic, unhappy, disharmonius, jealous, hateful, ungenerous, or unmerciful. Personally, I believe that this world we're in is a sort of behavioral sandbox, but I'd like to leave it at that in this forum. -QQuerius
March 12, 2023
March
03
Mar
12
12
2023
02:09 PM
2
02
09
PM
PDT
Frank is making the same point I was making the other day (here): it is not possible for cosmology -- given general relativity as a theory of the geometry of space-time -- to make any claims about what "preceded" the universe or "caused" it. That's not to say that it's completely meaningless to ask such questions, only to stress that there's a fairly clear boundary to what our currently best accepted scientific theories allow us to say. Beyond that lies the speculation of metaphysics (and theology).PyrrhoManiac1
March 12, 2023
March
03
Mar
12
12
2023
10:24 AM
10
10
24
AM
PDT
Finally! Something posted. For a while I've been unable to log in or, if I get in, I can only read, posts are not accepted.Seversky
March 12, 2023
March
03
Mar
12
12
2023
06:34 AM
6
06
34
AM
PDT
Querius/1
If Einstein was correct about space-time, then there was no “before” what’s commonly estimated to have occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
One of the few things on which kf and I agree is that you cannot get something from nothing. If there had ever been truly nothing there would still be nothing. Since this Universe exists, there must have been "something" that preceded it.
Without cosmic inflation followed by cosmic expansion, astrophyicists would have to find another reason why the earth is the center of ALL red-shifted light from all galaxies regardless of direction.
Yes, they would.
Without time, there can be no novel natural events, no probability, no quantum fluctuations, no laws of physics, and the universe was once as non-existent as the Easter bunny.
An event of any kind requires the existence of time and there can't have been non-existence. There must be an eternity of existence.Seversky
March 12, 2023
March
03
Mar
12
12
2023
06:32 AM
6
06
32
AM
PDT
If Einstein was correct about space-time, then there was no "before" what's commonly estimated to have occurred 13.8 billion years ago. Without cosmic inflation followed by cosmic expansion, astrophyicists would have to find another reason why the earth is the center of ALL red-shifted light from all galaxies regardless of direction. Without time, there can be no novel natural events, no probability, no quantum fluctuations, no laws of physics, and the universe was once as non-existent as the Easter bunny. -QQuerius
March 11, 2023
March
03
Mar
11
11
2023
02:46 PM
2
02
46
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply