Cosmic Mythology Exposing the Big Bang as Philosophy not Science Dr John Hartnett.

Cosmic Mythology

Exposing the Big Bang as Philosophy not Science

Dr John Hartnett

1929 - astronomer discovered - ‘nebulae’ are

galaxies- redshifts of

galaxies- the Hubble Law - interpreted to

mean that the Universe is expanding

Edwin Hubble

1917 - developed his own cosmology from his general theory of relativity

- a static universe - his ‘biggest

blunder’- ‘cosmological

constant’ (L) a fudge factor

Albert Einstein

1922 and 1927 - developed Friedmann-Lemaître model from general relativity

- expanding universe

- ‘the Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of the creation’

Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître

Fred Hoyle1950 – BBC radio coined the term “Big Bang”

- believed an eternal universe and Steady State theory

Student of Friedmann1948 – predicted leftover radiation from big bang fireball should be observed today with a temperature 5 K

- later 50 K (-223 C)

George Gamow

1965 – working for Bell Labs- discovered the

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)

- temp. 3 K (-270 C)1978 - Nobel prize

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson

Sounded death knell for Steady State theory

1979 –Inflation to explain why we live in a (flat) Euclidean universe

Alan Guth

…is the theorized extremely rapid exponential expansion of the early universe by a factor of at least 1078 in volume, driven by a negative-pressure vacuum energy density. … It lasted from 10−36 seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)

CMB and expanding universe: Big Bang proven?

Steady StateBig Bang Eternal universe

Hoyle, Gold, BondiOrigin in timeGamow, Ryle, Dicke

1950s

[The Big Bang] is an irrational process that cannot be described in scientific terms … [nor] challenged by an appeal to observation. —Hoyle

Pope Pius XII at the November 22, 1951, opening meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

The Big Bang theory does not conflict with the Catholic concept of creation.

“Theistic Evolution”

“Big-Bang Creation”

"Hugh Ross's Testimony"

I also recognized that the Bible stood alone in describ-ing God and His dealings with man from a perspective that demanded more than just the dimensions we humans experience (length, width, height, and time). Further, I had proven to myself, on the basis of predicted history and science, that the Bible was more reliable than many of the laws of physics. My only rational option was to trust the Bible's authority to the same degree as I trusted the laws of physics.

-Hugh Ross, "Hugh Ross's Testimony," Jan 1, 1990, retrieved Feb 23, 2013, [http://www.reasons.org/articles/hugh-ross-testimony]

Galatians 1:9

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Psalm 119:160

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Today: Big Bang philosophy - believed by faith

No Creator God - naturalistic cause needed

2006 – Nobel prize for observations of the ripples in the CMB radiation – ‘the handwriting of God.’

George Smoot

Can these claims be tested?

• Assemble mock universes with large super computers

• Make statistical arguments• Many possible models

But are they testing their models on the actual universe?

No!!!

Weak science at best

Fundamental flaw

The Achilles’ heel of cosmology

Cho, A., A singular conundrum: How odd is our universe?,

Science 317:1848–1850, 2007

Researchers have measured the temperature variations in the CMB so precisely that the biggest uncertainty now stems from the fact that we see the microwave sky for only one Hubble volume, an uncertainty called cosmic variance. ‘We’ve done the measurement,’ [Charles] Bennett says. ‘It’s not going to get any better.’

2007:

That barrier to knowledge, some argue, is cosmology’s Achilles’ heel. ‘Cosmology may look like a science, but it isn’t a science,’ says James Gunn of Princeton University, co-founder of the Sloan survey. ‘A basic tenet of science is that you can do repeatable experiments, and you can’t do that in cosmology.’

2007:


Science 317:1848–1850, 2007

‘The goal of physics is to understand the basic dynamics of the universe,’ [Michael] Turner says. ‘Cosmology is a little different. The goal is to reconstruct the history of the universe.’ Cosmology is more akin to evolutionary biology or geology, he says, in which researchers must simply accept some facts as given.

2007:


Science 317:1848–1850, 2007

Cosmology – a philosophy• Not really testable – like in a lab experiment• It is actually historical science• Tries to reconstruct the past• No stronger than the unknown-yet-assumed

geological history of our planet or the putative sequences of biological organisms that allegedly produced a microbiologist from a microbe

Cosmology – a philosophy• Presupposition of denial of biblical authority

(the Creation and the Flood) led to long-age beliefs about the earth

• Geological evolution led to biological evolution – Lyell to Darwin

• Similarly ‘cosmic evolution’ from naturalistic thinking

• The Universe created itself

People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations.

George Ellis

Gibbs, W.W., Profile: George F. R. Ellis, Scientific American 273(4):55, October 1995

For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations.

George Ellis


… you can only exclude it on philosophical grounds.

George Ellis

In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that.


What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that.

George Ellis


The Cosmological Principle• States that distribution of matter is – homogeneous (or uniform) and– isotropic (the same in all directions)

• Without this assumption there is no BB model• Believed more by blind faith than by

observation• The starting assumption used in interpreting

all observational evidence

The Axis of Evil• A preferred direction in the sky• Some features of the CMB

temperature variations aligned around a direction in space

• Aligned with the plane of the solar system and the path of the Sun in the sky (the ecliptic)

• Inconsistent with a Big Bang origin for the CMB

CMB ripples

… I suspect that the assumption of uniformity of the universe reflects a prejudice born of a sequence of overthrows of geocentric ideas. …

Richard Feynman

Feynman, R.P., Morinigo, F.B. and Wagner, W.G., Feynman Lectures on Gravitation (Penguin Books, London), p. 166, 1999.

1965 Nobel Prize

It would be embarrassing to find, after stating that we live in an ordinary planet about an ordinary star in an ordinary galaxy, that our place in the universe is extraordinary …

Richard Feynman


1965 Nobel Prize

To avoid embarrassment we cling to the hypothesis of uniformity.

Richard Feynman


1965 Nobel Prize

The Challenge

Cosmology is not even astrophysics: all the principal assumptions in this field are unverified (or unverifiable) in the laboratory

Richard Lieu

U. Alabama, Huntsville

… because the Universe offers no control experiment, i.e. with no independent checks, it is bound to be highly ambiguous and degenerate

Richard Lieu


…astronomical observations can never by themselves be used to prove ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ a physical theory.

Richard Lieu


This is because we live in only one Universe—the indispensible ‘control experiment’ is not available.

Richard Lieu


There is no way to interact and get a response from the Universe to test the theory under question, like an experimentalist might do in a laboratory experiment.

Richard Lieu


At most the cosmologist collects as much data as he can and uses statistical arguments to try to show that his conclusion is likely.

Richard Lieu


Hence the promise of using the Universe as a laboratory from which new incorruptible physical laws may be established without the support of laboratory experiments is preposterous …

Richard Lieu

Lieu, R., LCDM cosmology: how much suppression of credible evidence, and does the model really lead its competitors, using all evidence? 17 May 2007;

preprint available at arxiv.org/pdf/0705.2462v1

Five ‘unknowns’ (in bold)1. Galaxy redshifts, explained by expansion of space;2. CMB radiation, explained as the afterglow of the

big bang;3. Perceived motion of stars in the disks of spiral

galaxies, explained by dark matter;4. Distant supernovae dimmer than expected, hence

an accelerating universe, explained by dark energy;

5. Flatness and isotropy, explained by inflation.

‘UNKNOWNS’ TO EXPLAIN ‘UNKNOWNS’

the possibility that red-shift may be due to some other cause, connected with the long time or distance involved in the passage of the light from the nebula to observer, should not be prematurely neglected.

E. Hubble and R.C. Tolman Two methods of investigating the nature of nebular red-shift, ApJ, 1935, 82, 302H.

‘Unknown’ = expansion of space

‘Unknown’ = dark energy

‘Unknown’ = dark matter

Known = normal matter

30 years ago, cosmology was largely viewed as somewhere out there between philosophy and metaphysics.

Max Tegmark

Tegmark, M., Precision Cosmology, MIT World, 7 June 2008;

mitworld.mit.edu/video/600

You could speculate over a bunch of beers about what happened, and then you could go home, because there wasn’t a whole lot else to do … .

Max Tegmark



[But now they are closing in on a] consistent picture of how the universe evolved from the earliest moment to the present.

Max Tegmark



Steven Chu• 1997: Nobel Prize• 2010: Obama’s Secretary for

Energy• 2005: ‘we understand nearly all

there is to know about the Universe’,

• ‘except for a few small details’,• ‘..what is dark energy and dark

matter’.

= WISPnot a WIMP

Dark EnergyNew evidence has confirmed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating under the influence of a gravitationally repulsive form of energy that makes up two-thirds of the cosmos.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/2004/may/30/dark-energy

Dark EnergyIt is an irony of nature that the most abundant form of energy in the universe is also the most mysterious.


Dark EnergySince the breakthrough discovery that the cosmic expansion is accelerating, a consistent picture has emerged indicating that two-thirds of the cosmos is made of ‘dark energy’—some sort of gravitationally repulsive material.


2011 Nobel Prize in Physics

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/home.html

"for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae"Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess

http://supernova.lbl.gov/

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Edge of darkness - data from the Sloan Digital

Sky Survey support the existence of dark energy.

Credit: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab.


New Tower of Babel

All evidence for cosmological

expansion comes from the cosmos

itself.

Expansion of space

Colossians 2:8

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Ephesians 3:9

… to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Ephesians 1:17

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Father of glory, might give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of him,

Ephesians 1:18

That the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened; that ye may know what the hope is of his calling, and what the riches of his glorious inheritance is in the Saints,

Ecclesiates 3:11

He has made every thing beautiful in his time: also he has set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Hubble Bubble DVD 01181

Creation of the heavenly bodies seen as it happened on Day 4 of Creation Week.

…the expanse shows the work of His hands

Ps 19:1

Dismantling the Big Bang

Book published soon in 2014 – chapter on this topic thereMovie released end of 2014 – interviewed on it

More Information

• creation.com – 9500 articles Creation/Evolution

• johnhartnett.org – Cosmology oriented blog site

Cosmic Mythology Exposing the Big Bang as Philosophy not Science Dr John Hartnett.

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