The Origin of the Universe

The Big Bang

In the early 20th century, discoveries in physics, by Albert Einstein (Theory of General Relativity in 1905) and astronomy, by Edwin Hubble (Red Shift in 1929), indicated that our universe was expanding from a central event in the distant past. Prior to this time many in the scientific community believed in a static-state universe, the theory that the universe was eternal and consistent in size.

For those who held a purely materialistic framework, the idea of a beginning of the universe sounded too much like a religious orthodoxy. In fact, the term ‘Big Bang’ was coined by a British astronomer, named Fred Hoyle in 1950, as a way to jokingly dismiss the idea that the universe had a beginning. 

According to the Big Bang theory, the entire universe came into existence approximately 13.7 billion years ago through one event which defies the human understanding of physics. The Big Bang was not an explosion in space, but rather was an event that happened before space and time existed. According to the evidence, this single event, which the scientific community now calls singularity, caused everything in our universe to begin to exist. 

A Speculative Journey Began

In an attempt to understand ‘how can something come from nothing,’ scientific materialists were forced to venture from the observable sciences to speculative metaphysics in search for answers.

One of those voyagers was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Erwin Schrödinger who, in 1952, proposed the idea that an infinite number of histories are all happening simultaneously. Schrödinger’s idea of a parallel-universe was born out of his devotion to the Hinduism belief that an individual’s consciousness is only a manifestation of a single consciousness encompassing the entire universe. (source)

Although Schrödinger’s philosophy was rooted in pantheism, his ideas spread to various scientific speculations, generally grouped under the various definitions of a ' multiverse,' as a potential explanation as to how the universe began to exist.

As advancements in astronomy, chemistry and biology continued, and the scientific community learned more about the precision of the various anthropic principles necessary for life, Schrödinger's theories of multiverses and parallel realities became a plausible alternative to those who denied an intelligent cause.

Scientific Backlash

Rather than seeing creation in need of a creator, and the beginning in need of beginner, some in the scientific community continue to venture into metaphysical wonderlands at the expense of the very sciences in which they profess. This speculation has come under a great deal of attack from those in the scientific community, regardless of their worldview. Why? Because when you make speculations that can no longer be testable, repeatable or knowable, you are not longer performing science but the philosophy of why things are the way they are.

Cosmologist George Ellis says it like this:

“All in all, the case for the multiverse is inconclusive. The basic reason is the extreme flexibility of the proposal: it is more a concept than well-defined theory. Most proposals involve a patchwork of different ideas rather than a coherent whole. The basic mechanism for eternal inflation does not itself cause physics to be different in each domain in a multiverse; for that, it needs to be coupled to another speculative theory. Although they can be fitted together, there is nothing inevitable about it. … Nothing is wrong with scientifically based philosophical speculation, which is what multiverse proposals are. But we should name it for what it is.” (—Cosmologist George Ellis pg. 43)

For those clinging to purely a naturalistic, materialistic assumptions, when the scientific methods that were used to deduce that the universe began to exist could no longer explain the natural limitations of physics – specifically how something, as vast, complex and organized as our universe sprung into existence from nothing — new metaphysical theories had to be introduced which required more pure speculation, without evidence, otherwise known as blind faith.

Materialists, who often call advocates who ascribe to an intelligent designer ‘delusional,’ were now forced to move from the observable sciences to speculative philosophy in an attempt to theorize how something, as vast and complex as our universe, sprang into existence from nothing. 

Where do you put your faith

When you see the vast complexity of our universe, do you see a great architect outside of space and time who created everything in a moment, or do you put your faith in the various forms of unguided, undirected multiverses or parallel universes to explain to the origin and order of our universe? What requires more faith?