The Biblical model of origins states unequivocally that God created the universe. Modern science has, however, presented a model of origins that does not require a Higher Being to form the universe.

Briefly put, the naturalistic theory states that in the beginning there was the cosmic egg—a very dense object into which was compressed all the matter of the universe. This primordial egg exploded 15 billion years ago and produced some atoms of hydrogen and helium, which together with photons came shooting out of the explosion with great speed.

As the atoms cooled, they clumped together to form stars, and nuclear reactions within the stars produced the heavier elements such as oxygen and iron. When these stars in turn exploded, they scattered these elements. Enriched by these elements, gas clouds eventually spawned other objects including our sun and planets, which contain all the elements necessary for life to evolve.

The evolutionary process then continued until, by chance, molecules arose which gave rise to life. Eventually, all the plants and animals, including humans, came into existence through these naturalistic processes.

This scenario requires a substantive leap of faith, since the very essence of the theory violates the laws of thermodynamics. The First Law of Thermodynamics tells us that matter cannot be created or destroyed. So we still must grapple with the question of where the initial material in the primordial egg came from in the first place.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything tends toward disorder. This phenomenon is known as entropy. The first law is one of conservation and implies that the matter and energy of the universe are constant. No matter or energy is being added to the universe. One could say that the "creation" of all matter is complete.

The Second Law states that all processes in the universe will result in an increase in movement toward a final equilibrium where all processes cease. This, in turn, will lead to what has been described as the heat death of the universe. According to this law, order will tend to decrease rather than increase, but because there is so much order in the universe today this law must be violated by all theories that suggest the development of order out of chaos. This applies both to the physical and the biological world.

Dr. Isaac Asimov states this in the Smithsonian Institute Journal (1970):

The universe is constantly getting more disorderly! Viewed that way, we can see the Second Law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to itself, it becomes a mess again very quickly and very easily. Even if we never enter it, it becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses, and machinery, and our own bodies in perfect working order; how easy to let them deteriorate. In fact, all we have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out—all by itself—and that is what the Second Law is all about.ⁱ

In spite of the constraints imposed by the laws of thermodynamics, theories of naturalistic origins still continued to flourish. In our next article, learn more about the specifics of the Big Bang theory.

Two century-old discoveries changed the way scientists viewed the origin of the universe. In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity and 13 years later, Lord Rutherford developed the technique of radiometric dating.

Henri Becquerel. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Becquerel_Henri_photograph.jpg...

These advancements meant that age determinations of certain strata be carried out, and also that elements have a finite existence. This raised the question of where the elements came from in the first place, and the search for the origin of matter was pursued with new vigor.

In the first half of the 20^th century, astronomers were concluding that stars were the source of complex atoms that were being produced by nuclear processes in their interior. The process of atomic fusion could construct complex atoms from simple ones.

This insight raised more questions: where did the stars come from and where did the universe come from? In the second half of the 20^th century, a number of theories were put forward to address these questions.

The quark structure of the antiproton.
CC BY-SA 3.0 Spinningspark https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quark_structure_antineutron.svg...

The model that has come to be most widely accepted is called the "Standard Model," as it is apparently most consistently supported by astronomical observations. It is also generally known as the "Hot Big Bang" model and can be summarized as follows:

• The universe is 10-20 billion years old.


• It started with a rapid expansion (explosion) of super hot and dense ‘primordial matter’ comprised of subatomic particles such as quarks and antiquarks.


• The rapid expansion caused cooling. As temperatures dropped, other particles were formed such as electrons and positrons, protons and antiprotons, neutrons and finally nuclei of hydrogen, deuterium, helium, lithium and beryllium (the primordial elements).


• During the first 300,000 years or so, matter and radiation were coupled (they were in thermal equilibrium).


• When the temperature had dropped to 3000 K (Kelvin, the absolute temperature scale on which -273 K stands for 0°C) the universe became transparent (matter and radiation ‘decoupled’).ⁱ

This cosmological theory of the origin of the universe was largely formulated by Edwin Hubble. Read about his assumptions and principles in the next article