Universe by Design by D. Faulkner 2015 142pg Dr Faulkner holds and MS in physics and a PhD in astronomy and is a highly published author for AIG(Answers in Genesis). The book is technical and well referenced, and useful for instruction in cosmology. The author states the current positions of science and differing views, and compares them. It also gives the history of astronomy and cosmology.
Introduction: He Faulkner is concerned that many Christians have wed the big-bang theory, the current science, to the creation account in the Bible. He cautions about trying to reconcile the Bible to to science. Its better to interpret the bible by standard rules of interpretation.(exegesis ) Attempts to reconcile the bible to modern science include– theistic evolution, progressive creation, The gap theory, the day age theory, and the framework hypothesis. Both theistic evolution, and progressive creation require vast periods of time, so they modify the 6 literal days of creation to very long periods (millions or billions of yrs) His view is that Genesis is not poetry, but history and the genealogies are true giving the age of the world as about 6000 yrs. A recent view of the big bang gave the age of the universe as 13.7 billion yrs. Cosmology means the study of the Universe. He gives a brief history of the development of astronomy and cosmologies, and since the 1960’s the main science view is the big bang theroy or standard cosmology, which is fully naturalist.
Chap. 1 20th Century Cosmology; Two Pillars of modern physics are quantum mechanics and general and special relativity. He found that at near the speed of light, time must slow down. The theory also treats space as real entity that can bend with heavy mass and has 4 dimensions with time; so we have space-time. In Einstein’s equations he added a cosmological constant called the Greek Lamba.p27 Heavy mass can also slow time. Slipher and Hubble found the redshifts of light from distant galaxies, indicating they were moving away and the universe was expanding. The Hubble equation is z= HD where z is the redshift, H is a constant and D the distance. The H term can affect the age of the universe in some equations.p.29 IN the big bang model several assumptions are made when applying the equations of relativity. One is that the universe is homogeneous – that it has the same properties throughout, and that it isotropic- that it has the same properties in all directions. These 2 together are called the cosmological principle. They also assume the universe has no center. The big bang model then makes one think that the universe had a beginning. In the 1960’s discovery of Cosmic background radiation CBR, tended to confirm the expanding universal and disprove any steady state universe. Thus the expanding universe with red shifts and the CBR are evidences for the Big Bang model. A good theory should have both some confirmation and some predictive power. If no experiment can be done that would disprove the model then it is said to be not yet falsifiable.
Chap. 2 Recent developments in Cosmology. One of the parameters used to describe the universe is the Greek letter Omega, O, defined as the ratio of the total gravitational potential energy to the total kinetic energy. In the big bang model, O is very near 1, making it almost flat. If it were much less than 1, the universe would have rapidly expanded to a very low density with no stars or galaxies. If it were much greater than 1, it would have contracted in a big crunch. The sum of all visible matter gives a value of O of 0.1, but with dark matter added it could be near 1. p38. With it very fine tuned sightly less than 1 we have the universe today. Also many other parameters are very fined tuned for our and the universe’s existence. This is called the anthropic principle. For Christians it means it was finely designed for life. The start of the big bang also as and added inflation theory, where when the universe as a massive dot and in micro seconds expanded some far faster that the speed of light. The initial value of O may not have been close to 1 but by the inflation it was very close to 1. p41 Zwicky found that the galaxies were orbiting to fast about the center of their orbits to be bound by gravity. Then galaxy halos were found and they are assumed to have the dark matter providing the other 90 % of the matter. p45 To support the big bang the universe must have some in-homogeneity(ih) to produce the structures we see. To test for this a Cosmic Background explorer (COBE) satellite was used. It found some nearly smooth CBR., not supporting(ih). Then very sophisticated statistical analysis was used on this data and one part in 105 was found and they claimed some confirmation of the standard cosmology, but others said they were over extrapolating the data.p47 Later a Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy (WMAP) satellite was used and it did confirm the (ih). In 2003 they announced the universe was 13.7 billion yrs. old and visible mater was only about 4% of the total mass and with 23 % being dark matter and 73% being dubbed dark energy. In the 1960’s the Hubble constant was said to be 50 km/sec Mpc, by 1990 experiment showed it to be about 80. Then a compromised value of 72 was used. pg.50. This episode indicates the changing nature of science and the unwarranted confidence that is put in some studies , as in 1950 scientists said the age of the universe was 4.6 billion yrs. Since 1998 the value of the cosmological constant, Lamba has been adjusted to a small non zero value. This affects the geometry and if the universe is open or closed. An open universe will expand forever p52 . Alan Guth’s inflationary model of the start of the universe and big bang uses uses quantum fluctuation for the start, perhaps in a vacuum. p55 This description of the universe tries to explain it in a a physical and natural way without a creator, and many assumptions are used.p56
Chap. 4 Problems with the big Bang: Quasars, which appear small, powerful and bright with red shift of 17 % meaning that they are a billion light yrs. away and possibly powered by a big black hole. H. Arp has photographed them interacting with close galaxies and questions if their redshifts are cosmological.p 77-81. W. Tifft has noted the redshifts are not uniformly distributed but quantized to occur in multiples of 72 km/sec. Scientists have not been able to fully disprove this. However a creation based cosmological model with a center, has no problem with these redshifts. p.82-3. The studies of the CBR have found that it is quite smooth ( see Chap 2 pg 47 above) not indicating much in-homogeneity(ih) which is needed for the big bang model (BBM). The CBR was off by orders of infinitude and the BBM was modified to accommodate this. This also supports the anthropic principle, that the universe is fine tuned. pp83-4. The BBM depends on the cosmological principal, that the universe and the galaxies are homogeneous and also isotopic (the same in all directions) There is some evidence that is not true and that there is a polarization of distant radio sources.(so not isotropic)p 84. Without the assumed inflation to the BBM, there is the horizon problem of not all parts of the universe being in thermal equilibrium initially. The flatness problem is noted on p 38-9
Chap. 6 Creation Based Cosmologies: Some Christians accept the big bang as part of their apologetics, but it is not biblical, even though it appears to give a beginning and a cause. The history of science tells us that many early theories of science have been replaced by better ones later. Progressive creation or theistic evolution do not agree with the bible and compromise the scriptures greatly. The bible indicates 6 literal days of creation. The use of ordinal numbers for the days and the use or morning and evening confirms this. The repeat of the 7 day week, with a day of rest in Exodus 20:11 confirms this. In Gen. 1:7-8 the word firmament is a poor translation and expanse is more correct, and could carry the meaning of spheres. The bible genealogies are correct in dating the earth about 6000 yrs ago. The redshifts area very real but their interpretation can be debated. The universe appears to be expanding and very large. A thorny issue for a recent creation is the light time travel problem. Setterfiled held that the speed of light has decreased over the several centuries, but there is not good support for that. Use of a creation based model like the one of Humphreys with time dilation solves the light time travel problem. His model assumes general relativity and it’s equations, and a reasonably correct theory of gravity. One result of general relativity is that time is not absolute for all space, but can proceed at different rates at different locations. The passage of time is affected by speed and acceleration and by large amounts of mass and energy. Time passes slightly faster on a tall mountain than in a deep valley with more gravity. With a huge mass there is a curvature of space-time and time passes more slowly. Humphreys model begins with bible assumption of all matter was now at the point of being a huge ball of matter with a density of water, about a light yr. across. This matter was in a white hole. With this cosmology, the earth is near the center of the universe to be formed and the last material to pass out from the white hole. The galaxies could have been spread out in somewhat concentric circles, Then millions of yrs can pass in the galaxies at the periphery, while at the earth time, only days pass. With the milky way galaxy near the center of the universe, it gives a great mass to pull on the outer shell galaxies. With the galaxies are spread out in somewhat concentric circles, this agrees with redshift quantization and CBR polarization.p103
Chap.7 Conclusions The creation models of the universe need more development, but offer new insights. There has only been a little study of the universe with biblical creation assumptions. Gen. 1:1 could refer to the creation of all matter that appeared later.( also the fabric of space could have been created here). Some of biblical creation could have been almost instantaneous , like that of man , while others took a little time like that of Gen.1:11,24 where the wording is- let the earth bring forth or produce plants and animals . The bible also has many references to the heavens being stretched out; like Isa. 42:5 ,Ps. 104:2 p. 107-110. Stars do age and burn out, but for ones like the sun, it is slow and takes a very long time. p111 Cosmology is a rapidly changing science, but the bible is forever true. p111-112