Cosmic Chance?
The Big Bang is said to have started from a fluctuating quantum wave of energy. But where did this come from, and how did it “contain” in itself all the rules of physics, that could make a universe? Some people might say if that is what happened, there is no use asking why. It is just a very, very lucky event. Other people say, that it is too unlikely to ever have happened by chance, and they suggest a powerful intelligence, like God’s, must have begun it and set it in motion. Was this done as a show of power ?intelligence? Was it done as a show of love?
Big Bang
This is considered as the best explanation of the universe by most scientists. It was first put forward by a Catholic priest-physicist. The universe begun from a tiny “wobble” of quantum energy, that expanded with a huge release of energy, and as this cooled, it made the gases Hydrogen and Helium, and then these reacted together to make heavier elements, which made the stars and planets. These stars are still moveing away from each other, from the force of the explosion, and astronomers can measure how fast and where they are moving out to. This is evidence that that they must all have originally come from one single point, the Big Bang explosion. They calculated that theage of the universe is approx. 13.8 billion years old.Not 4400 years old as the Bible suggests.
Steady State
In this theory, also known as the “infinite universe theory”, the Universe is believed to be unchanging and eternal. It was suggested by Fred Hoyle. The universe is believedto have no beginning and no end. As it expands, it creates new matter, so overall it does not change – it maintains a “steady state”. This view is now generally rejected by most scientists, as evidence strongly suggests the universe does come from a single point,and all the matter in the Universe originated from the Big Bang.
One Universe in a Multiverse
Some scientists think the universe is like a soap bubble, and that there are other soap bubbles out there – other universes – multiverses. Like soap bubbles, universes could split off baby soap bubbles, creating new universes, while the old ones eventually expand so much that they die. Efforts have been made to spot some connecting bridges in the universe, that would suggest a new universe was being formed. So universes would be continually being created, and they could exist like parallel worlds, intersecting with ours in some invisibleway - we just don’t see them, because they exist in “dark matter”. Some scientists think we might be able to “see” them by detecting the pull of their gravity on us, as they move across us.