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Stephen Meyer: The New Cosmology

When we consider what religion is for mankind and what science is, it is no exaggeration to say that the future course of history depends upon the decision of this generation as to the relations between them.

Alfred North Whitehead, 1926

Though these bodies may indeed continue in their orbits by the mere laws of gravity, yet they could by no means have at first derived the regular position of the orbits themselves from those laws. Thus, this most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.

General Scholium to the Principia

Psalm 19:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
Night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
Their words to the ends of the world.

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis.

Pierre LaPlace

Sire, By coupling the undirected, purposeless variations to the blind, uncaring process of natural selection, Darwin made the theological or spiritual explanations of the life processes superfluous.

Douglas Futuyma - Evolutionary Biology

Materialism

From eternity were the particles...
and the particles became complex living stuff. 
And the living stuff became aware,
and the living stuff conceived of god.

Edwin Hubble

Spiral Nebula

Hubble's Sketch

Hubble Space Telescope Image of Spiral Galaxy

The 'Pinwheel' Galaxy

Hubble Deep Field Image

Hubble Deep Field Image

Galaxies Listed by Distance and Red-Shift

Mount Wilston

Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson in 1931
Philosophically the notion of a beginning of the present order is repugnant to me. I should like to find a genuine loophole. I simply do not believe the present order of things started off with a bang...the expanding Universe is preposterous... it leaves me cold.
 
Sir Arthur Eddington

An infinitely old universe “would relieve us of the necessity of understanding the origin of matter at any finite time in the past.”

Robert Dicke,  Princeton 1965


Arnio Penzias and Robert Willson

Big Bang

Steady-State

Oscillation

Gravitationally Lensed Image of Highest Red Shift Galaxy - Hubble Space Telescope

Problems with the Oscillating Universe Model

  • Not enough mass to cause a recollapse
  • Energy available to do work would dissipate with each cycle
  • Universe has low mechanical efficiency or "thermodynamic elasticity" (Guth and Sher)
  • An accelerating expansion?

 

Field Equations of General Relativity

Rab - 1/2 Rgab = 8o Tab


Email link | Feedback | Contributed by: The Discovery Institute

Stephen Meyer: The New Cosmology

Related Topics:

Cosmos and Creator - Index
 John Polkinghorne: The Friendship of Science and Religion
Peter Hodgson: The Origin of Modern Science
Stephen Meyer: The New Cosmology: Theistic Implications
Stephen Meyer: Quantum Cosmology
Father Robert Spitzer: The Anthropic Principle - Theistic Implications

Source:

Presented at the 'Cosmos and Creator'conference sponsored by the C. S. Lewis Institute and the Discovery Institute

See also:

Physics and Cosmology
History
The Relation of Science & Religion
Purpose and Design
Was the Universe Designed?
Did the Universe Have a Beginning?
The Argument From Design
The Anthropic Principle
Books on Science and Religion