The ‘Spectacular’ Big-Bang Discovery

From the May-June 2014 Trumpet Print Edition

Is this the black eye for creationism that many say it is?

Scientists announced on March 17 that they have discovered fascinating markings in the sky. These ripples in the fabric of space time, they say, provide the first direct proof that the universe underwent a brief, staggeringly rapid expansion immediately following the big bang.

“Our universe burst into existence in an event known as the big bang 13.8 billion years ago,” nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory declared on its website. “Moments later, space itself ripped apart, expanding exponentially in an episode known as inflation.”

This inflation apparently would have happened much faster than the speed of light, likely leaving cosmic “stretch marks.” Now scientists believe they have discovered those marks. The discovery is being hailed as “spectacular,” a “smoking gun for inflation,” and “bigger than the Higgs boson.” There’s already talk of a Nobel Prize.

Though the findings don’t prove the big-bang theory, they lend heaps of credibility to it, according to many scientists. CalTech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll said, “Other than finding life on other planets or directly detecting dark matter, I can’t think of any other plausible near-term astrophysical discovery more important than this one for improving our understanding of the universe.”

“It’s mind-boggling to go looking for something like this and actually find it,” said the University of Minnesota’s Clem Pryke, co-leader of the project. “This has been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead we found a crowbar.”

Many also say that crowbar smacks a shiny black eye onto anyone who believes the universe was created by an intelligent Being. Really?

Early Documentation

The truth is, this discovery reinforces the Holy Bible’s teachings about how God created the universe. In fact, the books of the Bible are by far the earliest documents ever to refer to the universe inflating and expanding.

The best data we have concerning the big bang are exactly what I would have predicted had I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole.

Arno Penzias, Nobel laureate for physics (1978)

“Not until the 20th century did any other book—whether science, theology or philosophy—even hint at the universe’s continuous expansion,” astrophysicist Hugh Ross wrote in Why the Universe Is the Way It Is. That continuous expansion, ongoing to this day, is not the same as the inflation that these marks seem to prove, but inflation may well have been the initial phase of that expansion. And the Bible’s account of creation is certainly consistent with the inflationary model.

“Scientists first rejected the big-bang concept because it seemed too religious,” states our booklet Our Awesome Universe Potential. “Its echoes of ‘in the beginning’ bothered them. … There appears to be much solid evidence that the basics of the theory are correct. …

“When you study the biblical accounts of God creating the universe, the most common description is that God ‘stretched out’ or ‘spreads out’ the heavens. God ‘created the heavens, and stretched them out’ (Isaiah 42:5). ‘He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing’ (Job 26:7).

“This is highly unusual terminology. What exactly does it mean? The phrase spreadeth out comes from the Hebrew natah, which means to stretch or spread; it can mean to extend in every direction. Scripture refers to the heavens in this way a total of 11 times, by the pen of five different biblical writers: Job, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah.

“Based on observable evidence, scientists believe there was an initialrapid stretching out of cosmic material—and there has been an ongoing expansion ever since. God’s revelation in Scripture seems to corroborate that view. Four verses (Isaiah 45:12; 48:13; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15) use a form of natah that literally means the action was completed some time ago. Seven instances use a form of the verb natah that implies continual or ongoing stretching (Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 51:13; Zechariah 12:1). Both of these aspects of this stretching can be seen in Isaiah 40:22, which says that God ‘stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.’ Stretches out comes from natah and implies something continuing today ….”

There is no disagreement between accurate science and true religion!

University of Chicago cosmologist Michael Turner, like most scientists, acknowledges that human theories are inherently limited. “If inflation is the dynamite behind the big bang, we’re still looking for the match,” he said.

Theories such as big bang and inflation don’t even attempt to explain the origin of matter. Matches don’t spontaneously come into existence, neither do they light themselves. Despite amazing findings like the discovery of those cosmic markings, science remains without a match or a match lighter. Without a Designer, a Creator, a Maker who can make the match and light it, you still have no big bang and no universe.