Steady-State Theory- Scientific Theories of the Origin of the Universe and Life

 Scientific Theories of the Origin of the Universe and Life: Description and Its Reception.

 Steady-State Theory

Berry, R J. True scientists, true faith: some of the world's leading scientists reveal the harmony between their science and their faith. Oxford: Monarch, 2015.

Ross, Hugh. The Fingerprint of God: Recent scientific discoveries reveal the unmistakable identity of the creator. California: Promise Publishing, 1991.

 

Steady-state theory, in cosmology, the view that the universe is always expanding but maintaining a constant average density, with the matter being continuously created to form new stars and galaxies at the same rate that old ones become unobservable as a consequence of their increasing distance and velocity of recession. A steady-state universe has no beginning or end in time, and from any point within it the view on the grand scale—i.e., the average density and arrangement of galaxies—is the same. Galaxies of all possible ages are intermingled. 

The theory was first put forward in 1948 by British scientists Sir Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Sir Fred Hoyle. It was further developed by Hoyle to deal with problems that had arisen in connection with the alternative big-bang hypothesis. Observations since the 1950s (most notably, those of the cosmic microwave background) have produced much evidence contradictory to the steady-state picture and have led scientists to overwhelmingly support the big-bang model. 

Their models suggested that the creation of matter is an act of nature, even a law of nature, not a one-time miracle from outside nature. Skipping past any attempt to explain the expansion of the universe, they proposed that the voids resulting from expansion are filled by the continual, spontaneous self-creation of new matter.

Big Bang Growth versus Steady State Growth

In a big bang universe the density of matter thins out and the mean age for the galaxies advances. All big bang models predict a finite age for the universe. In a steady-state universe, new matter is spontaneously and continuously created. The density of matter remains the same, and the mean age for the galaxies is constant. On a large scale, nothing changes with time. All steady-state models assume that the universe is infinite in age and extent. Since the light of very distant galaxies takes considerable time to reach us, astronomers can look back into the past to see which growth pattern the universe follows.

The champions of this steady-state hypothesis made their theological position clear from the start. Bondi and Hoyle declared their opposition to the notion that anything could transcend the realm of nature Hoyle made no bones about his opposition to Christianity. To his thinking, “the Universe is everything” and to suggest otherwise is “crackpot.” 

Quasi-Steady-State Universe

As noted in books by both Christian and non-Christian astronomers, and even by steady-state model proponents themselves, steady-state models have been decisively proven wrong by observational advances. In addition to the failures already noted in this chapter, the established character of the cosmic background radiation, the abundance of the elements, the dispersal of galaxies with respect to time, the cosmic entropy measure, and the accelerating expansion of the universe clearly refute the possibility that we live in a steady-state universe. 

Theology and Steady-State 

The theological thrust of the steady-state models was that no personal involvement from God was necessary to explain our existence. Steady-state says the universe has not evolved and that it has existed for infinite time. Thus, the dice of chance could have been thrown an infinite number of times under favorable natural conditions to explain the assembling of atoms into organisms.

But, observational proofs now affirm that the universe has evolved, very significantly, from a beginning just several billion years ago. Thus, our existence cannot be attributed to the natural realm’s lucky throw of the dice (out of an infinite number of throws). Moreover, the big bang determines that the cause of the universe is functionally equivalent to the God of the Bible, a Being beyond the matter, energy, space, and time of the cosmos. 

Steady state models were supported by an imagined force of physics for which there was not one shred of observational or experimental evidence. The oscillating universe model depended on an imagined bounce mechanism for which there was likewise not one shred of observational or experimental evidence. Similar appeals to imagined forces and phenomena have been the basis for all the cosmological models proposed to avoid the big bang implications about God. The disproof of these models and the ongoing appeal by non-theists to more and more bizarre unknowns and unknowable seem to reflect the growing strength of the case for theism.

According to Adolf Grünbaum, a German-American philosopher of science, there is no room for divine creation in either big-bang or steady-state cosmology. “Steady-state cosmology,” he concludes, “is indeed logically incompatible with [the] claim that divine creative intervention is causally necessary for the non-conservative popping into existence of new matter in the steady-state universe”.

Steady-state cosmology is at least problematical from the point of view of traditional theology, it goes well together with the ideas of process theology or philosophy, where God is seen as interacting creatively and incessantly with natural processes. The prominent British astronomer Bernard Lovell, a devoted Christian inspired by process thinking, was in sympathy with the steady-state theory and saw no reason why it should be a threat to belief in a divine being. To him, the creation of matter was a sure sign of God's activity.