Science
The Big Bang
The universe had a beginning. Here is how scientists found out, and why it matters.
Everything started
About 13.8 billion years ago, all of space, time and matter began expanding from an extremely hot, dense state. Scientists call this the Big Bang.
How we found out
Georges Lemaître, a Belgian physicist and Catholic priest, first proposed an expanding universe. Edwin Hubble saw galaxies rushing apart. In 1965, two radio astronomers picked up the faint heat left over from the beginning.
“Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of Nature is repugnant to me.
Many scientists didn't like it
A beginning sounded too much like creation. For decades, many scientists preferred a universe that had always existed. The evidence won.
- Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- So the universe has a cause.
What that points to
Whatever caused space, time and matter can't be made of them. It has to be outside time, outside space, and powerful enough to make a universe. That is close to how the Bible describes God.
“There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.
Even the alternatives need a start
In 2003, physicists Arvind Borde, Alan Guth and Alexander Vilenkin showed that a universe that has been expanding on average can't go back forever. That includes many of the models meant to avoid a beginning.
The best science we have says the universe began. Something beyond it had to begin it.
By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.