Big Bang Cosmology and the Existence of God
Introduction
What exactly is the “Big Bang” theory? One of the central ideas of the Big Bang theory is based on a theorem proved by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose in 1970. They proved, on the basis of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity together with some assumptions, that the universe had a beginning. It began with what is called a “singularity” which is a point of infinite density – the point into which the entire mass of the universe is condensed. At some time extremely close to the singularity (1/1000… [43 zeros] of a second) there was a “big bang” where the universe rapidly expanded and has been expanding ever since. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.
The main evidence for the Big Bang theory is (1) light from distant galaxies is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum showing that the wave length is increasing and thus that the galaxies are receding from our galaxy, (2) the existence of cosmic microwave radiation detected in 1965 which was of the sort present at the big bang thus confirming the existence of the big bang.
The big bang and the existence of God
The following argument presented by the Christian philosopher William Craig is based on the big bang theory:
- Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore the universe had a cause.
Craig argues that since it is impossible for something to come from nothing at all, the only way for the universe to have come into existence is for it to have been created by God. It must have been God who caused the big bang or at least that which gave rise to the big bang. Note that the argument does not depend on there being events prior to the big bang that caused it. That would be a misunderstanding of the big bang theory since according to the theory there couldn’t be anything prior to the big bang. The big bang is the beginning of spacetime and therefore there could not be any events before the big bang.
Craig’s argument does not refer to events prior to the big bang but only to the fundamental principle that something can’t arise out of nothing at all. The big bang must have come from something. If there were no time, space, energy, particles – nothing at all, then how could either a singularity or big bang come into existence?
As mentioned above, Craig’s conclusion is that the only way that this is possible is for the universe to have been created by God i.e. a being who is “uncaused, eternal, changeless, timeless, immaterial and spaceless.”
Some questions about the argument.
- Where does God come from? This is a legitimate question about the universe but isn’t this also a legitimate question about God?
- God is presumably capable of creating the universe “ex nihilo” (out of nothing). But if we can’t make sense of the universe coming from nothing, is it any easier to understand how God can create the universe out of nothing? Even if God existed prior to the universe, how exactly could he have created the universe out of nothing at all? Isn’t this explaining one mystery in terms of another?
- Suppose there were no explanation for what existed “before” the big bang. Should we be satisfied with that? Is the answer “Don’t know” good enough? If there were no physical explanation for the cause of the big bang, would it then be rational to believe that it was God that caused it? Is some explanation, no matter how good, better than no explanation at all?
- Does the argument tell us anything about the nature of God? Why should the being (or whatever it was) that caused the big bang be a personal god who can answer prayers, reward us in heaven and so on? What exactly is the connection between the idea that the big bang must have come from somewhere and the idea of a god with all the attributes of a Christian god? Does Craig’s argument establish the existence of a god - Father, Son and Holy Ghost, of heaven and hell and everlasting life?
- Why couldn’t the big bang have had an infinite number of causes? Why should it have been the work of a unique being?
- Is it possible that whatever caused the big bang no longer exists?
- Is there any reason for thinking that whatever caused the big bang is omnibenevolent (i.e. infinitely good)? Infinitely evil?
Reference
W. Craig and Q. Smith, The Existence of God.
R. Neurath