THE SPEED OF THE EXPLOSION
The explosive vigour of the universe is thus matched with almost unbelievable accuracy to its gravitating power. The big bang was not evidently, any old bang, but an explosion of exquisitely arranged magnitude.
Paul Davies, Professor of Theoretical Physics 1
In the first chapter we examined the universe’s
creation from nothingness as a result of a great explosion. Let us now
consider some of the implications of this.
Scientists estimate that there are over 300 billion
galaxies in the whole universe. These galaxies have a number of
different forms (spiral, elliptical, etc) and each contains about as
many stars as the universe contains galaxies. One of these stars, the
Sun, has nine major planets rotating around in it in great harmony. All
of us live on the third of those planets counting from the sun.
Look about you: Does what you see appear to be a
disordered jumble of matter haphazardly scattered this way and that? Of
course not. But how could matter have formed organized galaxies if it
had been dispersed randomly? Why has matter accumulated at certain
points and formed stars? How could the delicate balance of our solar
system have emerged from a violent explosion? These are very important
questions and they lead us to the real question of how the universe was
structured after the Big Bang.
If the Big Bang was indeed a such cataclysmic
explosion then it is reasonable to expect that matter should have been
scattered everywhere at random. And yet it is not. Instead it is
organized into planets, and stars, and galaxies, and clusters of
galaxies, and superclusters of galaxies. It is as if a bomb that
exploded in a granary caused all the wheat to fall into neat sacks and
bales on the backs of trucks ready to be delivered instead of showering
the grains every which way. Fred Hoyle, a staunch opponent of the Big
Bang theory for years, expressed his own surprise at this structure:
The big bang theory holds that the universe began with a single explosion. Yet as can be seen below, an explosion merely throws matter apart, while the big bang has mysteriously produced the opposite effect- with matter clumping together in the form of galaxies.2That the matter produced by the Big Bang should have formed such tidy and organized shapes is indeed an extraordinary thing. The occurrence of such a harmony leads us to the realization that the universe was the result of its perfect creation by Allah.
In this chapter we will examine and consider this extraordinary perfection and excellence.
The Speed of the Explosion
People hearing of the Big Bang but not considering
the subject at length do not think about what an extraordinary plan must
lie behind this explosion. That’s because the notion of an explosion
doesn’t suggest harmony, plan, or organization to most people. In fact
there are a number of very puzzling aspects to the intricate order in
the Big Bang.
One of these puzzles has to do with the acceleration caused by the explosion. When the explosion took place, matter certainly must have begun moving at an enormous speed in every direction. But there is another point that we need to pay attention to here. There must also have been a very big attractive force at the first moment of the explosion: an attractive force that was strong enough to gather the whole universe into one point.
One of these puzzles has to do with the acceleration caused by the explosion. When the explosion took place, matter certainly must have begun moving at an enormous speed in every direction. But there is another point that we need to pay attention to here. There must also have been a very big attractive force at the first moment of the explosion: an attractive force that was strong enough to gather the whole universe into one point.
Two different and opposing forces are at work here.
The force of the explosion, driving matter outward and away, and the
force of attraction, trying to resist the first and pull everything back
together. The universe came into being because these two forces were in
equilibrium. If the attractive force had been greater than the
explosive, the universe would have collapsed. If the opposite had been
true, matter would have been splattered in every direction in a way
never to unite again.
Then how sensitive was this equilibrium? How much “slack” could there have been between the two forces?
 Paul Davies: “The evidence is strong enough to acknowledge the existence of a conscious cosmic design.” |
Careful measurements puts the rate of expansion very close to a critical value at which the universe will just escape its own gravity and expand forever. A little slower and the cosmos would collapse, a little faster and the cosmic material would have long ago completely dispersed. It is interesting to ask precisely how delicately the rate of expansion has been “fine tuned” to fall on this narrow dividing line between two catastrophes. If at time I S (by which the time pattern of expansion was already firmly established) the expansion rate had differed from its actual value by more than 10-18, it would have been sufficient to throw the delicate balance out. The explosive vigour of the universe is thus matched with almost unbelievable accuracy to its gravitating power. The big bang was not evidently, any old bang, but an explosion of exquisitely arranged magnitude.3
Bilim Teknik(Science Technique, a Turkish
scientific periodical) quotes an article that appeared in Science in
which the phenomenal equilibrium that obtained in the initial phase of
universe is stated:
Even Stephen Hawking, who tries hard to explain away the creation of
the universe as a series coincidences in A Brief History of Time,
acknowledges the extraordinary equilibrium in the rate of expansion:
If the density of the universe was a little bit more, in that case, according to Einstein’s relativity theory, the universe would not be expanding due to the attraction forces of atomic particles but contracting, ultimately diminishing to a spot. If the initial density had been a little bit less, then the universe would rapidly be expanding, but in this case, atomic particles would not be attracting each other and no stars and no galaxies would ever have formed. Consequently, man would never come into existence! According to the calculations, the difference between the initial real density of the universe and its critical density, which is unlikely to occur, is less than one percent’s one quadrillion. This is similar to place a pencil in a position so that it can stand on its sharp end even after one billion years… Furthermore, as the universe expands, this equilibrium becomes more delicate.4
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It is We Who have built the universe with (Our creative) power, and, verily,
it is We Who are steadily expanding it. (Surat adh-Dhariyat: 47) |
If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size. 5
What then does such a remarkable equilibrium as this
indicate? The only rational answer to that question is that it is proof
of conscious design and cannot possibly be accidental. Despite his own
materialist bent, Dr Davies admits this himself:
It is hard to resist that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out… The seemingly miraculous concurrence of numerical values that nature has assigned to her fundamental constants must remain the most compelling evidence for an element of cosmic design.6
| Notes | |
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| 1. Paul Davies, Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature, 1984, p. 184 2. Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe, London, 1984, p. 184-185 3. Paul Davies, Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature, 1984, p. 184 4. Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technics ) 201, p. 16 5. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History Of Time, Bantam Press, London: 1988, p. 121-125 6. Paul Davies. God and the New Physics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983, p. 189 |
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