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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment