Question: Have we seen the Big Bang or Effects of it?

[Jim_Baur]

Have we seen the Big Bang?

Or, have we seen effects of it?

Thanks!

 

[prodigalson2011]

Obviously, we haven’t seen the Big Bang, as it happened billions of years ago. Have we seen the effects of it? Yes. They’re all around you. Among the best and most indicative evidences of the Big Bang, though, is what’s known as the Cosmic Background Radiation. This background radiation is like a “paper trail” of energy from the initial explosion that is present across the entire observable universe and emits the same frequency throughout. It grows cooler and cooler as the universe expands (it is currently about 3 degrees Kelvin, I believe… which, in fahrenheit, is wayyyy below zero.)

I see you’re a book club member, so I assume you like to read. I recommend you read Dr. Gerald Schroeder’s (an MIT physicist) books, “Genesis and the Big Bang” and “The Science of God,” in that order. “The Science of God” reiterates and expands upon “Genesis…” I think you’ll find what he has to say quite fascinating.

 

[Gods_Peace]

I don’t understand how athiests claim that God didn’t not create the universe, then why is the created fruit Good? Obviously the seed is Good, and only the Good Lord is Good and only he can make things Good.

 

[eightandsand]

We have measured it:

“The evidence that resulted in the Big Bang’s victory over the steady state model, at least in the minds of most cosmologists, included the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in the 1960s, the distribution of “young galaxies” and quasars throughout the Universe in the 1980s, a more consistent age estimate of the universe and most recently the observations of the COBE satellite in the 1990s and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe launched in 2001, which showed unevenness in the microwave background in the early universe, which corresponds to currently observed distributions of galaxies” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle)

It is interesting to note that Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” out of ridicule for the main rival of his own steady state theory. Although the “Big Bang” ended up being accepted and Hoyle’s steady state theory largely rejected, Hoyle is stil considered one of the great physicists ever to have lived.

Hoyle was a life-long atheist, anti-theist, and Darwinian, yet he famously stated that “A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.” Speaking on the absurd fantasy of life arising from the “primordial soup” Hoyle noted that,“The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.” Hoyle also stated that, “If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter, without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure or order must be the outcome of intelligent design. No other possibility I have been able to think of…”

 

[Edmundus1581]

Thanks for both the replies. Very interesting indeed! I knew that Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” even though some one else (a Belgian jesuit) discovered the theory, but I didn’t know that it was intended as a term of derision.

Nice to see scientific question here, and to get some good responses!

 

[Jim_Baur]

prodigalson2011

Yes I am a person who loves to study.

Hopefully I get the time and energy to read those two books.

Thanks!

Thanks to all.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Obviously, we haven’t seen the Big Bang, as it happened billions of years ago. Have we seen the effects of it? Yes. They’re all around you. Among the best and most indicative evidences of the Big Bang, though, is what’s known as the Cosmic Background Radiation. This background radiation is like a “paper trail” of energy from the initial explosion that is present across the entire observable universe and emits the same frequency throughout. It grows cooler and cooler as the universe expands (it is currently about 3 degrees Kelvin, I believe… which, in fahrenheit, is wayyyy below zero.)

…

I think that radiation consists of photons emitted in the Big Bang. So in that sense - when we see them, we see the Bang.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

…
It is interesting to note that Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” out of ridicule for the main rival of his own steady state theory. Although the “Big Bang” ended up being accepted and Hoyle’s steady state theory largely rejected, Hoyle is stil considered one of the great physicists ever to have lived.
…

Someone named Boyle was associated with the Big Bang. So we had “The Universe According to Hoyle” and “The Universe According to Boyle”.
That was early in my career in physics. A fellow student who I worked with on the same project as I did for our theses, went on to work with one of the teams that measured the background radiation.