Lemaitre, Einstein, Hoyle and Hawking

In the 1920’s, the Dutch priest and astronomer Georges Lemaitre proposed two controversial ideas:

  1. That the universe is expanding, and so are the distances between the galaxies (Hubble’s Law)
  2. That the universe began from a tiny condensed point of energy– a primeval atom (now known as a quantum singularity)
  3. That this could be proved by finding and measuring some of the left-over energy from this explosion – CBR (cosmic background radiation)

He was right.

Albert Einstein, the famous mathematician[1], originally thought the universe was static (steady state, eternal), and he tweaked his equations to make this appear to be the case. Only later was he persuaded, that the whole universereally is expanding –not just the galaxies within it.

Fred Hoyle, another physicist at the time, mocked Lemaitre’s theory as “a Big Bang” maybe because he was afraid that this new theory was too much like the beginning of the world in the account of Genesis: “Let there be light!”. Maybe he didn’t want religion to mix in with science. But his sarcastic put-down, became the official name of the most approved theory for the origins of the universe!

Since then, scientists have found evidence to prove that the Big Bang, is probably the correct explanation for the origins of the universe:

  • Measurements show galaxies are expanding apart from each other, so back in time, they must have been very close – even coming from the same single point
  • We can measure some of the shock waves that came from the Big Bang - CBR (cosmic background radiation.) This proves it must have happened.
  • The age of the universe can be dated: it is 13.8billion years old. It is not “eternal”.

Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous cosmologists living today, agrees that the Big Bang is probably the reason why we have a universe. But as an atheist, he is not comfortable with the idea that the universe beginning with a single creative act, at a specific point in time. He prefers to believe that the universe is part of a multiverse that has always existed, outside of time and space, in a “steady state”. – splitting off “soap bubble” universes, while itself, remaining unchanged and eternal. He says “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”. He thinks that gravity is the reason why multiverses split off to produce universes.

But this is confusing. Does Hawkings mean that the law of gravity exists before the universe does? If so, he is creating another problem - the problem of another “beginning”, that of gravity in a multiverse...

[1]Famous for his Theory of Relativity gave a new understanding of how space and time are related, and equation E=mc2, showing how massand energy are related