[image: Moving Mountains, 2013, JA Van Devender]
Genesis 1:3 (NKJV)
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
The scientific world is evidently aflutter. Several articles in today's news (SEE NYT version HERE) joyfully confirm Einstein's predictions that there should be "ripples" in the space-time continuum that reflect the "inflation" that happened a t=0 - the beginning of "time" - when the "big bang" suddenly produced what is now called, the universe. The Baltimore Sun version stated that the time involved was a trillioneth of a trillioneth of a trillioneth of a second. Prior to this there was "nothing" (I'll come back to this) and after this interval, there existed a field of energy, now moving uniformly and with an essentially even temperature, expanding at the speed of light. Note - the period of "inflation" being infinitesimal required that the energy "travel" from its point of origin to the trillion of light years distance that it reached at an infinitely greater speed than light.
In other words... there was "nothing" and then there was "something" spanning the distance now known as the limits of the universe (as it existed then). No known laws of physics can explain how this works, since even Einstein's law, if I remember correctly posits the speed of light as a constant limit on all mass and velocity. It's been over 40 years since I got my degree in Physics so I might not be absolutely accurate in that last statement.
Further all of this is simply predicated on the size of the known universe of which our galaxy is only a very small part. As the NYT article itself states:
Confirming inflation would mean that the universe we see, extending 14 billion light-years in space with its hundreds of billions of galaxies, is only an infinitesimal patch in a larger cosmos whose extent, architecture and fate are unknowable. Moreover, beyond our own universe there might be an endless number of other universes bubbling into frothy eternity, like a pot of pasta water boiling over.
It is unreasonable to believe that our "universe" is all there is... so, if beyond the "out there" of our universe there lies other universes... then it seems that they must have come about in the same manner as our universe... perhaps at the same "instant"... which means that if no sequence of events is postulated, then all that exists, owes its origin to some scientifically inexplicable 'cause', the first manifestation of which was that suddenly, anywhere and everywhere, there exists "energy", moving and flowing at its present mopey rate (only the speed of light). And that all that is was formed from and through this energy in some form of contracting, expanding ripple effect that caused energy to transition to mass and the all powerful forces of "nature" then proceeded to bring about suns and moons and water and land and in due time, life.
And people call us Christians irrational because we believe in miracles.
I am not going to touch on the vexed question of "age"... it is not germane to the present point. All that I might mention is this.
At present there is no intellectual framework for conceiving of the situation that existed at t=-1sec. prior to the Big Bang. We can say that "nothing" existed but that is not quite precisely true. When we use the term "nothing" we cannot even give meaning to the word apart from referring it to some spatial parameters, e.g. length, breadth, height and time. We say that there is "nothing" between two limits at a given time. However, prior to the formation of "something" we really cannot even speak of "nothing." The point is this - prior to the dividing line (and that is what it really is) that people call t=0 - there is nothing in human empirical understanding to describe the circumstances.
To state that all the energy/mass of the present universe was infinitely small is meaningless... for that would mean that it existed apart from any definite limits which is to say it did not "exist" except in potential. To state that something exists only in potential is to say that it exists only in "thought." There is the congruence which, from time immemorial, has always made man assume that there was a prior cause to the existence of all things... that this prior cause was intelligent... and that the existence of the universe was the result of actions by this intelligence.
I know that much pagan thought began with the idea of an eternal universe in which the "gods" acted. But even there, the universe as it was understood, reflected order and intention.
Against all of man's speculation on these matters there stands the thundering power of Genesis 1:3. Before all space and time there was God. Space and time began with God's intentional speaking. The result of His intentional speaking was that the entire concept of "void" was established and simultaneously this "void" was filled, front to back (metaphorically speaking) with light (energy). And from this beginning, this infinitely small amount of time... this trillioneth of a trillioneth of a trillioneth of a second duration... all other potential began to actualize.
Some wise man once said that the telos, the "end", the culminating event toward which all human scientific endeavor is directed, can be compared to a man climbing a high mountain, struggling upward foot by foot, until he reaches the pinnacle, only to discover there a priest who had been there all along.
What I hope is one result of this current "discovery" is that previously arrogant human beings might suddenly fall to their knees and cry... "My God, how great Thou art!"
Arch,
I enjoyed your March 18 blog. Maybe a better title would be, "A Trillionth of A Trillionth of A Trillionth of a... What?"
You say, "No known laws of physics can explain how this works..." I would continue this way... because the laws have no context at T=negative anything. They are meaningless--indeed, when there is no time, energy, or mass they do not exist. When there is no time, energy, or mass, all the terms within these laws vanish. The "void" includes the non-existence of laws. They are a void along with all the other voidness. "Laws" has the sound of being eternal, but the "laws of physics" are not eternal. Only God is. The notion that we can apply laws that God created and controls to an era/not (a void) where God had not created them is preposterous. For physicists to presume to speak authoritatively based on "laws of physics" on something, even if it is trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth... (add as many of-a-trillionths as you like) of something we now call a second, when seconds (i.e. time) does not even exist yet is non-sensical. God could have conceived of an infinite set of different potential "laws of physics" and then snapped our set into existence when he declared, "Let there be light." and established T=0. Consider this, the heart of the laws of physics lies in continuity. But the act of creating T=0 is a most supreme discontinuity. Yet God made that discontinuity discoverable. That discontinuity declares something far greater than the puny "laws of physics." It declares the activity of a law maker, a law giver, indeed the maker of the universe. Einstein recognized this when he derived the theory of general and special relativity, which required a T=0. While that T=0 event is a pretty simple concept that got popularly named "the big bang" theory, it is incredible just how many different "big bang" theories there are floating around. The one you speak of it just one in a long list. Obvious as it is that the God of the Bible, the great "cause", must exist and be responsible for this T=0 event, like those dry bones spoken of in Ezekiel, apart from God doing again a special work and creating faith in a believer, people (including very bright physicists) can buzz around intellectually with this fascination and still repress the obvious truth of God's existence and activity. Praise to Him for opening our eyes. Praise Him for calling us to "preach to all the dry bones" around us, giving us evidences like the T=0 event, and allowing us to watch Him continue to create and give new life. That every experiment to validate that T=0 is the truth has come out affirmative is yet another in a long list of evidences that God has given us to preach to the "dry bones" around us. It was good to see you doing so.
John
Posted by: John | March 19, 2014 at 08:56 AM
Thanks John for your comment... I appreciate your more precise formulations and your more current background in physics. I am not sure to whom I am speaking so shoot me an email if you will to tell me who "John" is.
Arch
Posted by: Gadfly | March 19, 2014 at 09:49 AM