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Georges Lemaître first noted in 1927 that an expanding universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point, which he called the "primeval atom".
Hell Einstein thought the the universe was static, even when his own theory of relativity said it should be expanding.
originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: TrollMagnet
The difference here is that we can look at other models, such as gravitational models derived from the movement of galaxies, and when we compare them they match up.
Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly.
We know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe directly.
The amount of dark matter in the universe will determine if the universe is open (continues to expand), closed (expands to a point and then collapses) or flat (expands and then stops when it reaches equilibrium).
originally posted by: Skyfox81
Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly.
We know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe directly.
Cant see gravity yet we know it exists.
Cant see blackholes, yet we know it exists.
Einstein and most scientists held that the universe was “simply there” with no beginning or end.
Big Bang Theory Theme
Song by Barenaked Ladies
Lyrics
Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait
The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool
Neanderthals developed tools
We built a wall (we built the pyramids)
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries
That all started with the big bang (bang)
Since the dawn of man is really not that long
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song
A fraction of a second and the elements were made
The bipeds stood up straight, the dinosaurs all met their fate
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and Pangea, see ya wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang
It all started with the big bang
It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will pause and start to go the other way
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here, they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy (Descartes or Deuteronomy)
It all started with the big bang
Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang
It all started with the big bang
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Ed Robertson
Big Bang Theory Theme lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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Dark Energy and Dark Matter
In 1998, researchers analyzing light from a special kind of supernova, or exploding star, found evidence that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating!* At first, the scientists were skeptical, but evidence soon mounted. Naturally, they wanted to know what form of energy was causing the accelerating expansion. For one thing, it seemed to be working in opposition to gravity; and for another, it was not predicted by present theories. Appropriately, this mysterious form of energy has been named dark energy, and it may make up nearly 75 percent of the universe!
Dark energy, however, is not the only “dark” oddity discovered in recent times. Another was confirmed in the 1980’s when astronomers examined various galaxies. These galaxies, as well as our own, appeared to be spinning too fast to hold together. Evidently, then, some form of matter must be giving them the necessary gravitational cohesion. But what kind of matter? Because scientists have no idea, they have called the stuff dark matter, since it does not absorb, emit, or reflect detectable amounts of radiation.* How much dark matter is out there? Calculations indicate that it could make up 22 percent or more of the mass of the universe. [*: Dark matter was postulated in the 1930’s and confirmed in the 1980’s. Today astronomers measure how much dark matter a cluster of galaxies may have by observing how the cluster bends light from more distant objects.]
Consider this: According to current estimates, normal matter accounts for about 4 percent of the mass of the universe. The two big unknowns—dark matter and dark energy—appear to make up the balance. Thus, about 95 percent of the universe remains a complete mystery!*
A Never-Ending Quest
cience is in search of answers, but all too often one set of answers leads to another layer of puzzles. This fact calls to mind a profound statement recorded in the Bible at Ecclesiastes 3:11. It reads: “Everything [God] has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the true God has made from the start to the finish.”
Of course, at present we can absorb only limited amounts of knowledge because of our short life span, and much of that knowledge is speculative, subject to change. But that situation is temporary, for God has purposed to grant faithful humans endless life in Paradise on earth, where they can examine his handiwork for an eternity and thus gain true knowledge.—Psalm 37:11, 29; Luke 23:43.
Therefore, we need not fear doomsday speculations about the universe. After all, science has only scratched the surface of reality, whereas the Creator knows all.—Revelation 4:11.
Scientists' best estimate is that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. But, like so many of the largest-scale properties of the universe, we are not entirely sure about its age.
In my previous article, I summarized how astrophysicist Ethan Siegel presented an argument against the universe having a beginning based on the cosmological model known as eternal chaotic inflation. I concluded by describing how Stephen Meyer dismantled Siegel’s argument in Return of the God Hypothesis.
Here I will address another desperate attempt to avoid a cosmic beginning, this one by astrophysicist Paul Sutter. He is a research professor at the Institute for Advanced Computational Science at Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. He recently published at the website Live Science an article titled “What if the universe had no beginning?” Sutter argues that a cosmological model based on causal set theory demonstrates that the universe might not have had a beginning. His argument upon close inspection also collapses.
Causal Set Cosmology
...
Sutter’s Argument
Sutter references a preprint article employing CSC by physicists Bruno Valeixo Bento and Stav Zalel titled “If time had no beginning.”[whereislogic: unlike most who argue that because the universe had a beginning there must have been a cause for that beginning, which then often leads to the consideration of a Creator, I believe that the universe had a beginning but not time, long story] He summarizes their work as follows:
The paper examined “whether a beginning must exist in the causal set approach,” Bento said. “In the original causal set formulation and dynamics, classically speaking, a causal set grows from nothing into the universe we see today. In our work instead, there would be no Big Bang as a beginning, as the causal set would be infinite to the past, and so there’s always something before.”
…Their work implies that the universe may have had no beginning — that it has simply always existed. What we perceive as the Big Bang may have been just a particular moment in the evolution of this always-existing causal set, not a true beginning.
Confusing Imagination with Reality
Sutter asserts that Bento and Zalel’s article offers a credible response against the evidence for a cosmic beginning. Yet this claim is only based on what might be possible in the realm of the imagination. The referenced paper is a highly theoretical and entirely speculative cosmological model that is almost entirely divorced from physical reality. Sutter even acknowledges this point:
There’s still a lot of work to be done, however. It’s not clear yet if this no-beginning causal approach can allow for physical theories that we can work with to describe the complex evolution of the universe during the Big Bang.
His claiming that Bento and Zalel’s paper represents a credible refutation of a cosmic beginning is like a journalist interviewing a scientist who imagines a new possible rocket fuel and then claiming that the scientist demonstrated how NASA could establish permanent colonies on Pluto. Such sensationalist reporting is deeply irresponsible.
Oscillating Models and Entropy
Moreover, even if a mature version of CSC eventually described the Big Bang, it would not avoid a cosmic beginning. Proponents of CSC could assume an oscillating universe where Big Bang events correspond to a contraction stage transitioning according to causal-set dynamics to an expansion stage. In such a case, CSC is only needed to describe the bounces. Both the contractions and expansions would follow standard cosmological models for oscillating universes. Stephen Meyer explained in his book why an oscillating universe still requires an absolute beginning.
Specifically, Meyer summarized how cosmologist Alan Guth demonstrated that the oscillations could not continue indefinitely due to entropy:
Guth showed that, according to the second law, the entropy (or disorder) of the matter and energy in the universe would increase over time in each cycle. But such increases in entropy (or the disorderly distribution of mass-energy) would result in less energy available to do work in each cycle. That would cause progressively longer and longer cycles of expansion and contraction, since increasing inhomogeneities in the mass-energy density throughout space would decrease the efficiency of gravitational contraction. Yet if the duration of each cycle necessarily increases as the universe moves forward in time, then it follows that each cycle in the past would have been progressively shorter. Since the periods of each cycle cannot decrease indefinitely, the universe — even in an oscillating model — would have had to have a beginning.
Return of the God Hypothesis, p. 105
Some scientists, including Albert Einstein, fought hard against the idea of a Big Bang — that the universe burst into existence a finite time ago — until the scientific data became too overwhelming to fudge or deny anymore. “In the beginning,” indeed. In a brand new video for PragerU, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer asks, “How Did the Universe Begin?”
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