Science:
Universe created in "Big Bang"
Astronomers now virtually all agree that the universe was created in
the "Big Bang". The universe was created about 13.7 billion years
ago, and is expanding from that initial small, dense, and hot state.
Evidence
for the big bang theory is now overwhelming.
Below are just some of the many discoveries
supporting the Big Bang. For more
information also see NASA
Origins Web Site
The expanding Universe:
In 1929 Astronomer Edwin Hubble, proved from his measurements on 40
galaxies
that they were moving away from each other in the manner that Einstein
had
predicted. Since then, more accurate measurements of the
velocities of galaxies establish that such
a cosmic expansion has been proceeding for the past about 14 billion
years.
Einstein's Theory of General
Relativity:
One of the first clues the universe came about in a big bang was the
implication that the universe is expanding from Einstein's theory of
general
relativity. First published in 1915, it
is now one of the most
exhaustively
tested principles in all of physics.
Existence of Cosmic Background Radiation:
It was predicted that if the Big Bang were correct, that the cooling
from it
would yield a faint cosmic background radiation. In 1965 Bell
Laboratory
physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson unexpectedly discovered this
background radiation of about 3º while measuring radio emissions
from our
galaxy. They later received the Nobel Prize for their discovery.
Exact Characteristics of the Cosmic Background Radiation:
Since the launch of NASA's COBE & WMAP satellites, much more data
on the cosmic
background radiation has confirmed not only it's
existence,
but also that the characteristics of it match the Big Bang model: NASA's
data center
for Cosmic Microwave Background research
1. Cooling of background radiation fits Big Bang.
2. Black Body Character of the Cosmic Background Radiation fits the Big
Bang.
3. Nature of irregularities of Black Body radiation.
Space Time Theorem of General Relativity
The space time theorem of general relativity, formulated by Stephen
Hawking and
Roger Penrose in 1970, states categorically that the universe's cause
(or
Causer) must have brought it into existence from outside the universe's
matter,
energy, and the unfolding dimensions of space and time.
In an interview Hawking stated directly "time has a beginning".1
1. John Boslough, "Inside the mind of a Genius", (Reader's Digest
February 1984), page 120