Cosmology

Universal Issues

Religious fundamentalists often have problems with understanding the nature of the universe. They will admit its vast size and wondrous beauty, all without acknowledging its ruling principles and the fact that existence is far older and far different from how it is described in Bronze Age stories when interpreted literally.

An understanding of the age of the universe, and therefore the Earth and the life on it, should help to breach many religion-based misconceptions of who we are, where we are, where we came from, and when.

Age and Size of the Universe

The universe, by current estimates, is 13.75 billion years old, which we know based on the age of the oldest stars and on the “expansion rate” of the universe. Our Solar System is about 4.5 billion years old.

We know how stars and planets form, based on the fundamental principles of gravity, thermodynamics, and through observation. There is no guesswork here. Nowhere do we look into the farthest reaches of our universe’s past and see evidence of a young, perfectly-created cosmos. What we see is chaos, broken worlds, pulsars, black holes, and other destructive, inhospitable forces unfriendly to life.

 

The Big Bang

The Big Bang is thought to have occurred roughly 14 billion years ago. The universe started as a dense point of heat in existence that “exploded” resulting in the rapid expansion of the materials that formed the elements, stars, planets and physical forces that comprise our reality.

Religious fundamentalists try to attribute the creation of the universe to six literal days of creation as described in Genesis, however this completely contradicts scientific principles.

 

The speed of light tells us the distance of other stars from our own, and judging by the distance, in light years, to the most distant star, we know the universe is far older than fundamentalists would have us believe.

Fundamentalists attempt to say that there is a “gap” between “let there be light” and the recreation of Earth, yet this creates its own logical fallacies, since the following verses have the Sun, Moon, and stars being created shortly before life on Earth, which contradicts what we know about the universe.

Supernovas

Something that certain fundamentalists have issues with is the existence of supernovas. In Armstrongism in particular, there are beliefs that humanity will be turned into “spirit beings” and create new life on other planets, and that there is no way that any planet was “created in vain,” meaning each of the countless heavenly bodies was created specifically for a specific individual to someday rule over.

 

Shaking off all that delusion for a moment, this doctrine get shots to pieces by the fact that stars, do in fact, die…and quite explosively. It also stands to reason that countless planets have been obliterated by supernovas in the history of the universe, making the idea that “God creates nothing in vain” out to be seemingly false.

Extrasolar Planets and Habitable Zones

Fundamentalists also have serious problems with the idea of other Earth-like planets existing beyond our Solar System. They believe there can only be one Earth in their human-centric universe. Yet, the discovery of extrasolar planets, bodies orbiting other star systems, has been bounding forward in the last 20 years.

It is only a matter of time before we find other planets in the habitable zone like we are, where liquid water can be maintained without either freezing or boiling away. A recent examples is GJ 1214 b in the constellation Ophiuchus, a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone, raising the prospects of another planet like our own.

 

Despite what fundamentalists claim, the habitable zone the Earth sits in is not a fragile, nigh-impossible phenomenon requiring the exact events of the Genesis creation. Mars and Venus are also in the habitable zone, just on opposite ends of each edge, where Mars has frozen and Venus has boiled-over. Under the right atmospheric conditions, both could potentially support life.

Habitable zones are relative to the size and heat output by the star a planet orbits, which makes it closer or farther away depending on those factors. Many more planets are being found in this zone, both gaseous and terrestrial, and in a universe boasting trillions of stars with countless planets orbiting them, the Earth is become less unique all the time.

We Are Unlikely to Be Alone

Out of the trillions of stars in our seemingly endless universe, it stands to reason that life was not a “one shot wonder” of a phenomenon, and it is likely to be quite common. The presence of intelligence is another matter, yet if humans can achieve some form of it, intelligence cannot be too difficult to obtain.

The very belief in God, Angels and other spirit beings in itself is an admission to the existence of extraterrestrials, as these are beings that would have to be from beyond Earth’s skies. Why should life beyond Earth be confined to the supernatural instead of the physical?

 

Our radio waves have been sent out into space for about 100 years, which is unlikely to be enough time for them to reach other listening ears on some far-flung world. Humans have only reached technological dominance over our planet in the last two centuries, and it is unlikely that the closest lifeforms beyond Earth have formed a civilization.

Yet, the idea that God chose this pale blue dot as the single home to all life seems laughable.

Life’s Origin in the Universe

The presence of water has been found on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and more recently on Mars where liquid streams have been discovered. Water is the basic requirement for the formation and sustenance of life, and science has shown us that it exists abundantly beyond Earth.

Current theories of abiogenesis, or the independent rise of life, are still being fine-tuned, yet there have been significant breakthroughs.

 

Our Planet Earth

Earth is 4.54 billion years old and life is thought to be 3.5 billion years old. We know this from a variety of sources, such as radioactive decay, geological layering, and measuring the age of the oldest known rocks.

Young Earth Creationists try to ignore the basic fundamentals of nearly every branch of science to preserve their fundamentalist views, the unnecessary preservation of a literal interpretation of the Biblical creation story, something many Christian denominations do not uphold.

The COG claims that it does not prescribe to Young Earth Creationism, yet there have been many instances of these elements appearing in COG literature, lectures, sermons, and seminars over the past 20 years. Regardless of the official stances of COG cults, it is clear that these fundamentalists are abundant in these sects.

 

 

God of the Gaps

When it comes to scientific understanding, which each new breakthrough, the necessity for a divine influence directing the forces of the universe becomes less and less. Fundamentalists like to attack the things we understand poorly as evidence of God’s direct hand and the affirmation of their rigid Bible-based beliefs. In reality, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and with that attitude, we would never advance as a civilization.

 

While science does not preclude or oppose the existence of God, it does not require it, and it certainly puts the lie to pseudoscientific claims that abound in the world religious fundamentalism.

A relationship with God is important in the lives of countless people, and its value for the religious cannot be denied. This personal relationship, however, need not be enforced upon each aspect of reality, nor upon the beliefs of other people. There is certainly room for God and religion in this vast universe, and within our societies and cultures.

It is important, however, to recognize that science is confined to physical observations. Theology and philosophy discuss the existence of the supernatural world beyond the physical. Both can be discussed in tandem, yet they remain separate disciplines, and it is unfair to attack one with the other.