The Big Bang Theory and Christian Cosmology

To more fully understand the Big Bang theory and the evidence on which it progressed from, an overview of its earlier development over many centuries is needed. Present day ideas concerning the Big Bang theory can be seen as having first originated within modern European science. However before these ideas were developed, most explanations concerning the origins of the universe were based on religious themes and concepts, the primary tradition being Christianity. These Christian origin stories explain the appearance of the universe as being the work of an all powerful and omnipresent God. It is within this tradition that one of the first scientific attempts at understanding our universe’s origins came to be. By third century CE, many Christian theologians had been working towards dating the exact moment the universe began. Their research was based on the the generations recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible - the Bible being an ultimately authoritative source according to their religion. It was estimated by these theologians that the universe was over 4000 years old. Tying in with this early Christian cosmology was the work of Ptolemy of Alexandria, a Roman-Egyptian astronomer and mathematician. Ptolemy is notable for dismissing early Greek models of the universe, which were generally accepted. Ptolemy argued that it was the earth that lay at the centre of the universe, as opposed to the sun. This was argued against by Christian theologians, who maintained that the Earth was far too imperfect and full of sin. Despite this, most people accepted Ptolemy’s model, in which the sun and planets rotated around the earth. Not only did it explain the movements of the solar system, but it further fit in with the idea that if the earth ...

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... the universe was created and the possibility that time itself came into being at the same moment space, matter and energy did. Another hole in the cosmology of the Big Bang is what exactly appeared 13 billion years ago, and began to create matter and energy. This matter and energy became interchangeable in space, which was the size of an atom and unimaginably hot. This interchange of energy and matter began to cool down at immense speed, as it simultaneously began to expand. Within this moment, which is estimated to be a billionth of a billionth of a second, the universe inflated at an extreme pace. The basic forms of matter were thus created (dark and atomic) along with gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear forces. 20 minutes after energy and matter first came into existence, their stability has increased, with protons and neutrons appearing and joining together.