Cosmological Discoveries and the Christian

Cosmology is that branch of science which studies the origin and evolution of the universe.  Since the philosophy of evolution is the underlying assumption of cosmology, it is expected that a good number of their conclusions will come in conflict with the Biblical history of creation.  It is therefore good to know if those conflicts arise because of scientific reasons or because of philosophical presuppositions.

The present theory of the origin of the cosmos is the Big Bang theory.  According to it, the present universe started with the explosion of the "cosmic egg" which contained all the matter that is distributed in the universe today.  (It does not say anything about how all the matter came there in one lump, nor does it explain how the matter there originated). Even though a good number of cosmologists believe in the big bang hypothesis, not all of them are on their side.  There are numerous scientists who believe that the truth is something else.  Further, even those who believe in this hypothesis  accept that the concept  of big bang hypothesis, not all of them are on their side.  Further, even those who believe in this hypothesis accept that the concept of big bang is not a firmly established fact of science.  Many many more details have to be worked out before one can satisfactorily say whether such an explosion took place.

Some people would like us to believe that the universe is expanding.  To a Christian it does not matter whether it is static or expanding, but this such should be noted that the concept of an expanding universe itself is hypothesis. It is not an established fact of science that this universe is expanding.  Since this idea is connected with the big bang model also with the presumed vast age of the universe, the hypothetical character  of this assumption must be clearly understood.  It has been reported recently that the Tired-Light model of the universe is better than the big bang model.  If that is true, this universe is not expanding at all.

The question of red-shift might immediately pop up.  Red shift of the spectrum is a universal observation.  According to our understanding of the Doppler effect, such a shift of the light frequencies is possible only if the light-emitting body is going away from us.  But this not the only cause that can produce red shift | The tired-light model mentioned above seems to explain the red-shift and related phenomena in a much a better way.  Many anomalies found in the red-shift do point out further that our present hypothesis of red-shift due to an expanding universe is not necessarily the best explanation.  Probably the universe is not expanding at all.

The question of the Hubble constant is bound to come up at this stage.  Red shift, Hubble constant, and numerous other concepts, observations, hypotheses, and even assumptions form the underlying foundation of the vast dimensions assigned to the universe.  The universe might surely be as vast as they clam, but it does not rest upon sufficiently firm foundation.  The nature of the Hubble constant, which forms an important link in the conclusions leading to a billion-years old universe, is itself not clear yet to us.

The vast age assigned to the universe is based upon all the above-mentioned assumptions, plus a lot more of them.  But once these assumptions are accepted, assigning a vast age for the universe is only a matter of simple deduction : if the universe is as vast as they deduce, then light coming from the extremities of the known universe will need about ten billion years to reach us; since our telescopes are able to pick up this light, the universe must be at least ten billion years old.  This conclusions seem valid, but it is only one side of the possibility, but there is another side of it.

It is possible that some of the fundamental constants have  been changing in the past.  This was the conclusion reached from Dirac's large Number Hypothesis (LNH).  This is a plausible hypothesis, and even though scientist in other fields of science are not very happy about it, this hypothesis has not been abandoned by cosmologist and others in related fields.  If the fundamental constants have been changing in the past, it is possible that in a universe as vast as they suppose it today, or even in a much big universe, the light travelling from its edge could have reached us in a short span of time after the supposed recent creation.

One thing ought to be clear to every Christian: Cosmology is still in infancy (in spite of all the advances in astronomy).  Many of its ideas and hypotheses seem to contradict something or other in the Bible.  But this is no cause of alarm because theories have contradicted the Bible time and again, but most of such theories have died out.  Right now there are several alternate possibilities in cosmology, and if they are true then there is no conflict between Bible and Cosmology.  But since the last word has not yet been said on these topics, let us accept them as what they are : theories and hypotheses which have not yet become established facts.  And we do not know of any fact in cosmology or in astronomy which contradicts the Bible.  This is not a trivial observations when one notes that there are several hindered direct references in the Bible related to astronomy and cosmology.