The Big Bang -- By: William M. Curtis III

Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 06:1 (Winter 1993)
Article: The Big Bang
Author: William M. Curtis III


The Big Bang

William Curtisa

Cosmology, which in the discipline of astronomy deals with the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe, has at the present time three naturalistic, and three creationist approaches to the origin of the universe.

The naturalistic theories are: 1) the Steady State, 2) the Big Bang, and 3) the Plasma theory. Creationists may be classified into three groups generally referred to as: 1) theistic evolutionists, 2) accommodation theorists, and 3) literal six-day creationists. This paper will deal with the most widely accepted of the naturalist theories, the Big Bang, and its relation to the latest astronomical discoveries, along with an apologetic for a literal, point in time, creation consistent with scientific data.

Measuring Distance in Astronomy

Measuring distance in space may be classified in two categories: direct, and indirect.

Direct measurement is done by bouncing radar and laser beams off the moon and the planets. For nearby stars, as well as the planets, trigonometric parallax (the angular difference of an object as seen by an observer from two different locations) may be used to measure their distance from the observer. When the distances exceed 25 Parsecs,1 the angle of parallax becomes too small to measure, so astronomers have developed indirect techniques which are believed to measure the distance of an object in space from earth.

Indirect measurement is based on three different techniques, all of which are open to some question. 1) Luminosity of light varies with the square of the distance travelled, and the distance is then estimated on how luminous they appear on earth. 2) Cepheids, which are pulsating variable stars in space, are read as their light varies and their distance estimated. Most important to the Big Bang theory is 3) the Red Phase Shift, seen in the light received from many of the stars. This so-called Red Shift has been interpreted as the relative velocity between the star and the observer. More will be

said about the third indirect method as this perspective is developed.

What we know about the Universe

Structures have been found recently that are larger than anything astronomers have predicted. At this point it might be helpful to review what we presently know of the universe. Let us start with the nearby and progress to the outermost.

First, there is the inner solar system (Fig. 1) in which the earth is uniquely placed to suppor...

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