I have been reading through many of the 'Big Bang' posts within these forums and so far, I have yet to come across one that maintains any real science to it.
This is not to say that such a thread ceases to exist, however, my findings indicate to me that this forum is in need of atleast a basic scientific explaination of the Big Bang model.
I will provide a mixture of links, sources related to the Big Bang Theory, as well as my own points related to the EvC debate.
To the creationist's who wish to oppose my argument:
1.
Do not assume that your argument is unique and new, it's not.
I read through icr.org almost daily so I am accustomed to the Creationist mentalities regarding science, evolution and the Big Bang.
2.
Do not attempt to use scripture to prove your argument, I will point out it's illogical nature.
You must remember that as a creationist, you believe the Bible is truth. I, however, do not subscribe to bibleGod's psychobable, so scripture will not convince me. If scripture is your only tool, this argument isn't for you.
3.
Logic is the basis for my discussions. If Logic doesn't appeal to you, do not engage yourself in this argument.
Those are three simple things that I ask of you if you wish to engage me in a discussion. I say this because often times, I run into creationist's who repeat the same arguments over and over which are tired, debunked and do not work on people of rational, sane thought.
Overview:
Common Misconceptions
1. The Big Bang did not occur at a single point in space as an "explosion." It is better thought of as the simultaneous appearance of space everywhere in the universe. That region of space that is within our present horizon was indeed no bigger than a point in the past. Nevertheless, if all of space both inside and outside our horizon is infinite now, it was born infinite. If it is closed and finite, then it was born with zero volume and grew from that. In neither case is there a "center of expansion" - a point from which the universe is expanding away from. In the ball analogy, the radius of the ball grows as the universe expands, but all points on the surface of the ball (the universe) recede from each other in an identical fashion. The interior of the ball should not be regarded as part of the universe in this analogy. (
WMAP Big Bang Concepts)
2. By definition, the universe encompasses all of space and time as we know it, so it is beyond the realm of the Big Bang model to postulate what the universe is expanding into. In either the open or closed universe, the only "edge" to space-time occurs at the Big Bang (and perhaps its counterpart the Big Crunch), so it is not logically necessary (or sensible) to consider this question. (
WMAP Big Bang Concepts)
3. It is beyond the realm of the Big Bang Model to say what gave rise to the Big Bang. There are a number of speculative theories about this topic, but none of them make realistically testable predictions as of yet. (It is beyond the realm of the Big Bang Model to say what gave rise to the Big Bang. There are a number of speculative theories about this topic, but none of them make realistically testable predictions as of yet. (
WMAP Big Bang Concepts)
It is important to keep in mind that the goal of science is to observe the
physical, natural universe and derive facts, laws and theories from such observations. It's the
duty of every scientist to do their best to
disprove everything that their colleagues discover, observe and theorize. This is because science is the pursuit for unadultered truth.
It is often a guise most often favored by Creationist which indicate that scientists have some agenda in 'proving' their 'ideas' and 'theories'. This isn't the case.
It happens that when we observe, measure and test the universe, these are the ideas and concepts which we derive. It's not like some guy said, "There was probably some singularity that expanded exponentially to form the universe, let's prove it."
In actuality, the evidence that was being observed and tested was pointing to the theory of the Big Bang model and in fact, a large portion of scientists refused to believe the early theories of the Big Bang model. It's only after decades of testing and observing have we continued to mount evidence in support of the Big Bang model.
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Questions and Answers | Sten's Space Blog (other cosmological theories)
The Big Bang Theory:
It is important to understand that Cosmology studies the universe at a macroscopic level. The scientific method is used exclusively to debunk or prove evidence related to the Big Bang Theory.
The basic steps to the scientific method are as follows:
1. Observe some aspect of the universe.
2. Invent a tentative description, called a hypothesis, that is consistent with what you have observed.
3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments or further observations and modify the hypothesis in the light of your results.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there are no discrepancies between theory and experiment and/or observation.
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http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node5.html
Defenitions
1.
Theory - A scientifically testable general principle or body of principles offered to explain observed phenomena. In scientific usage, a theory is distinct from a hypothesis (or conjecture) that is proposed to explain previously observed phenomena. For a hypothesis to rise to the level of theory, it must predict the existence of new phenomena that are subsequently observed. A theory can be overturned if new phenomena are observed that directly contradict the theory.
2.
General Relativity - The first key idea dates to 1916 when Einstein developed his General Theory of Relativity which he proposed as a new theory of gravity. His theory generalizes Isaac Newton's original theory of gravity, c. 1680, in that it is supposed to be valid for bodies in motion as well as bodies at rest. Newton's gravity is only valid for bodies at rest or moving very slowly compared to the speed of light (usually not too restrictive an assumption!). A key concept of General Relativity is that gravity is no longer described by a gravitational "field" but rather it is supposed to be a distortion of space and time itself. Physicist John Wheeler put it well when he said "Matter tells space how to curve, and space tells matter how to move." Originally, the theory was able to account for peculiarities in the orbit of Mercury and the bending of light by the Sun, both unexplained in Isaac Newton's theory of gravity. In recent years, the theory has passed a series of rigorous tests.
- Website:
General relativity - Wikipedia- Peebles, P.J.E., Schramm, D.N., Turner, E.L. & R.G. Kron 1991, "The Case for the Relativistic Hot Big Bang Cosmology", Nature, 352, 769 - 776.
3.
The Cosmological Principal - After the introduction of General Relativity a number of scientists, including Einstein, tried to apply the new gravitational dynamics to the universe as a whole. At the time this required an assumption about how the matter in the universe was distributed. The simplest assumption to make is that if you viewed the contents of the universe with sufficiently poor vision, it would appear roughly the same everywhere and in every direction. That is, the matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotropic when averaged over very large scales. This is called the Cosmological Principle. This assumption is being tested continuously as we actually observe the distribution of galaxies on ever larger scales.
- Peebles, P.J.E., Schramm, D.N., Turner, E.L. & R.G. Kron 1994, "The Evolution of the Universe'', Scientific American, 271, 29 - 33.
- Will, Clifford, "Was Einstein Right?"
Understanding
The Beginning: The Big Bang theory predicts that our universe began as a singularity which expanded. One second after the Big Bang, the temperature of the universe was roughly 10 billion degrees and was filled with a sea of neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons (positrons), photons and neutrinos. As the universe expanded it began to cool.The neutrons either decayed into protons and electrons or combined with protons to make deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen). During the first three minutes of the universe, most of the deuterium combined to make helium. Trace amounts of lithium were also produced at this time. This process of light element formation in the early universe is called “Big Bang nucleosynthesis” (BBN).
Nucleosynthesis
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WMAP Cosmology 101: Big Bang Theory - Elements Test-
Nucleosynthesis - Wikipedia
Expansion Possibilities
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Universe Expansion Graph
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation
The Big Bang theory predicts that the early universe was a very hot place and that as it expands, the gas within it cools. Thus the universe should be filled with radiation that is literally the remnant heat left over from the Big Bang, called the “cosmic microwave background radiation”, or CMB.
Today, the CMB radiation is very cold, only 2.725 above absolute zero, thus this radiation shines primarily in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and is invisible to the naked eye. However, it fills the universe and can be detected everywhere we look. In fact, if we could see microwaves, the entire sky would glow with a brightness that was astonishingly uniform in every direction. The picture at left shows a false color depiction of the temperature (brightness) of the CMB over the full sky (projected onto an oval, similar to a map of the Earth). The temperature is uniform to better than one part in a thousand! This uniformity is one compelling reason to interpret the radiation as remnant heat from the Big Bang; it would be very difficult to imagine a local source of radiation that was this uniform. In fact, many scientists have tried to devise alternative explanations for the source of this radiation but none have succeeded.
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WMAP Cosmology 101: Cosmic Microwave Background-
CMB
WMAP (WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE) - The WMAP mission reveals conditions as they existed in the early universe by measuring the properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation over the full sky.
This microwave radiation was released approximately 380,000 years after the birth of the universe. WMAP creates a picture of the microwave radiation using temperature difference measured from opposite directions (anisotropy).
CMB Fluctuations-
WMAP Cosmology 101: Cosmic Microwaves Fluctuations
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
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LAMBDA - Cosmic Background Explorer
The WMAP and COBE are constantly measuring the CMB Flucuations and currently, we have consistently found evidence through observation and testing, to indicate overwhelmingly that the CMB is expanding. By studying these fluctuations, cosmologists can learn about the origin of galaxies and large scale structures of galaxies and they can measure the basic parameters of the Big Bang theory.
Doppler-effect Frequency Shift-
Doppler effect - Wikipedia
Red Shift-
Redshift - Wikipedia
If you are curious what other cosmological theories have been presented in response to the Big Bang Theory, there have been many. However, none have been able to accurately predict and test with the accuracy of the Big Bang Model.
Here are some sources which give you an idea:
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Questions and Answers | Sten's Space Blog
Summary of the Big Bang Theory taken from (
Ask a Space Scientist)
1.... The universe is expanding.
2.... There exists a cosmic background radiation field detectable at microwave frequencies.
3.... The cosmic microwave background field is measurably isotropic to better than a few parts in 100,000 after compensation is made for the relativistic Doppler effect caused by Earth/Sun/Milky Way motion.
4.... The cosmic microwave background radiation field is precisely that of a black body.
5.... The cosmic microwave background radiation field has a temperature of 2.7 K.
6.... There does exist a universal abundance ratio of helium to hydrogen consistent with the current expansion rate and cosmic background temperature.
7.... The cosmological abundance of deuterium relative to hydrogen and helium is consistent with the levels expected given the current expansion rate and density.
8.... There are only three families of neutrinos.
9.... The night sky is not as bright as the surface of the Sun.
10... The cosmic background radiation field is slightly lumpy at a level of one part in 100,000 to 1,000,000.
11... There are no objects that have ages indisputably greater than the expansion age of the universe.
12... There are about 10,000,000,000 photons in the cosmic background radiation field for every proton and neutron of matter.
13... The degree of galaxy clustering observed is consistent with an expanding universe with a finite age less than 20 billion years.
14... There are no elements heavier than lithium which have a universal abundance ratio.
15... The universe was once opaque to its own radiation.
16... The universe is now dominated exclusively by matter and not a mixture of matter and anti-matter.
Conclusion
The Big Bang Theory is currently, the only theory which has been able to predict changes in the universe as well as explain a large portion of missing history from our universe's expansion prior to our existence.
The Big Bang Theory isn't complete and it's constantly testing itself over and over again.
I
invite you to disprove the Big Bang Theory, however, I am positive that your physics, chemistry and geology skills are far inferior to those that have dedicated their lives to the study of the universe.
Until something or someone comes along to disprove the Big Bang Theory, it's the most accurate explaination of our universe.
I now invite you to open a discussion as I
left this simple and broad for this particular reason.
This message has been edited by complexPHILOSOPHY, 04-26-2006 07:57 PM
This message has been edited by complexPHILOSOPHY, 04-26-2006 08:00 PM
This message has been edited by complexPHILOSOPHY, 04-26-2006 08:03 PM
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