Cosmic Evolution- The Scientific perspective - An overview

Big Bang Theory

Word of Caution:

This write up below is definitely not an exhaustive description of what our science talk about Creation.

The objective is to get a broad idea of the scientific principles involved so that when we take up the Indian Perspective of the Cosmos and Cosmology, we will have a better appreciation of the later.

Reader is strongly advised to strictly learn these under the guidance of a professional  guide/teacher if one wants a deep dive in this subject.

Introduction

“OMG, this is crazy. How did he do that”?

A very typical exclamation by the audience in a Magic Show. Across the world, irrespective of age, magic shows attract large audience. Why? Humans are curious. Perhaps we are hardwired to be curious, particularly when we believe that in magic, there is  a hidden cause that connects events where no cause apparently exists.

The most important magical reality about which humans have been ever so curious since their arrival in this planet is about “Universe and its creation”.  In other words, their curiosity is about themselves. How did we come into this earth? How was this universe created? Who created this Universe? When was it created? Where was it created and Why was it created? Is the creation a result of magical chaos or is there a scientific process? What was there before the creation?

We have several theories based on Science; each one putting out a strong case for themselves in terms of hypothesis, modelling, and validation. The Big Bang Theory is the leading scientific explanation for how the Universe began.

The Big Bang Theory

“Simply put, it says the universe as we know it, started with an infinitely hot and dense single point that inflated and stretched — first at unimaginable speeds, and then at a more measurable rate — over the next 13.7 billion years to the still-expanding cosmos that we know today”.

Around 13.7 billion years ago, everything in the entire universe was condensed in an infinitesimally small singularity, a point of infinite denseness and heat. Suddenly, an explosive expansion began, ballooning our universe outwards faster than the speed of light. This was a period of cosmic inflation that lasted mere fractions of a second.  When cosmic inflation came to a sudden and still-mysterious end, the more classic descriptions of the Big Bang took hold. A flood of matter and radiation, known as "reheating," began populating our universe with the stuff we know today: particles, atoms, the stuff that would become stars and galaxies and so on. This all happened within just the first second after the universe began, when the temperature of everything was still insanely hot, at about 10 billion degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius).  The cosmos now contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons — the raw materials that would become the building blocks for everything that exists today.

This early "soup" would have been impossible to actually see because it couldn't hold visible light. "The free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds," NASA stated. Over time, however, these free electrons met up with nuclei and created neutral atoms or atoms with equal positive and negative electric charges. This allowed light to finally shine through, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Sometimes called the "afterglow" of the Big Bang, this light is more properly known as the Cosmic Microwave Background called CMB. Existing technology doesn't yet allow astronomers to literally peer back at the universe's birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang comes from mathematical formulas and models. Astronomers can, however, see the "echo" of the expansion through CMB.

Scientists have been trying to figure out how to "see" the Big Bang through other measures by simulating thousands of versions of the current universe on massive supercomputers.

Big Bang is often described as an "explosion". In an explosion, fragments are flung out from a central point into a pre-existing space. If you were at the central point, you'd see all the fragments moving away from you at roughly the same speed.

But the Big Bang wasn't like that. It was an expansion of space itself – a concept that comes out of Einstein’s equations of  general relativity but has no counterpart in the classical physics of everyday life. It means that all the distances in the universe are stretching out at the same rate. Any two galaxies separated by distance X are receding from each other at the same speed, while a galaxy at distance 2X recedes at twice that speed.

The universe is not only expanding, but expanding faster. This means that with time, nobody will be able to spot other galaxies from Earth or any other vantage point within our galaxy.

Scientists agree that while we can understand how the universe we see came to be, it's possible that the Big Bang was not the first inflationary period the universe experienced. Some scientists believe we live in a cosmos that goes through regular cycles of inflation and deflation, and that we just happen to be living in one of these phases.

In other words,  "What Science is now trying to do is something like guessing a baby photo of our universe from the latest picture."

Conclusion

In the words of Deepak Chopra,

“Science has gone through a long, hard slog to replace magical thinking with rational cause-and-effect and yet  we are all embedded in a magical reality that has no cause or explanation”.

While Science came out with credible explanation of  how the Universe was created post “Big Bang” (the current theory believed to be the most scientific explanation of the phenomenon),  what we seek is what happened before the Big Bang. We are trying to understand who the “Magician” is, who generates creation without needing to be created.  In other words we are looking for the “causeless cause” for and  before the Big Bang.

This means that

      1. We need to be looking outside the    system of cause-and-effect  as within that cause & effect systems, a “causeless cause” is inconceivable.

      2. We should be looking at “something” which has both existence and consciousness.

We will see the thought process behind the Indian Cosmology in the coming newsletters. .

Until then……

God Bless