Rodney D Holder - Big bang big God : a universe designed for life?

BIG BANG, BIG GOD:

A UNIVERSE DESIGNED FOR LIFE?

RODNEY D. HOLDER

Text copyright 2013 Rodney Holder

This edition copyright 2013 Lion Hudson The right of Rodney Holder to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Lion Books an imprint of

Lion Hudson plc

Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road,

Oxford OX2 8DR, England

www.lionhudson.com/lion

ISBN 978 0 7459 5626 8

e-ISBN 978 0 7459 5786 9

First edition 2013

Picture Acknowledgments

Cover images: background Victor Habbick Visions/Science Photo Library/ Corbis; seedling Ingimage.com p. 16, figure 1.3 NASAs Imagine the Universe. Used by permission p. 17, figure 1.5 The Art Archive/ Mondadori Portfolio p. 50, figure 2.2 TopFoto p. 72, figure 4.1 iStockphoto

Text Acknowledgments

Every effort has been made to trace the original copyright holders where required. In some cases this has proved impossible. We shall be happy to correct any such omissions in future editions.

Scripture quotations are from The Revised Standard Version of the Bible copyright 1946, 1952, 1957, 1971 and 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

pp. 19, 100, 105, 166: Quotes attributed to Albert Einstein used by permission of the Albert Einstein Archives, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. p. 28: Extract from Mr Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow Cambridge University Press, 2012, reproduced with permission. pp. 3334, 37: Extracts from Religion and the Scientists by Fred Hoyle, SCM Press 1959 SCM Press. Used by permission of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd.

p. 37: Extract from The Universe: Past and Present Reflections by Fred Hoyle in Engineering and Science Magazine 1981. Used by permission of Engineering and Science Magazine.

pp. 4042: Extracts from Cosmology and Controversy by Helge Kragh 1996 Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press. p. 60: Extracts from A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking, published by Bantam Press. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

pp. 75, 76: Extracts from Letters and Papers from Prison , The Enlarged Edition by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, SCM Press 1971 SCM Press. Used by permission of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd.

The author is grateful to the publishers of the following for permission to utilise material from his earlier academic work: Rodney D. Holder, God, the Multiverse, and Everything (Farnham: Ashgate, 2004) 2004. Used by permission of Ashgate Publishing.

Rodney D. Holder, Georges Lematre and Fred Hoyle: Contrasting Characters in Science and Religion, in Georges Lematre: Life, Science and Legacy, ed. Rodney D. Holder and Simon Mitton (Heidelberg: Springer, 2012), pp. 3953. Used by permission of Springer Science+Business Media.

Rodney D. Holder, God and the Multiverse: A Response to Stephen Hawking, Faith and Thought 51 (2011), 317. Used by permission of Faith and Thought .

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed and bound in the UK, August 2013, LH26

At last a highly accessible book for the general reader on origins. The author shows how Christian theism provides the most coherent explanation for the existence of the universe. This is a great book on this topic and should not be missed!

Dr Denis Alexander , Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmunds College, Cambridge

Big Bang, Big God is a fascinating blend of modern cosmology and serious theology, well rooted in the historical observations and theories that led to the concept of the expanding universe. With a critical philosophical analysis, Rodney Holder explains why the astonishing fine-tuning of the universe is better understood by a single created universe than by the popular multiverse hypothesis.

Owen Gingerich , Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science, Harvard University, and Senior Astronomer Emeritus, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Big Bang, Big God takes the reader on a fascinating journey through modern cosmology, showing how our beautifully fine-tuned universe is wholly compatible with Christian ideas of creation and theism. It is a masterly, lucid, and very readable survey covering all the big issues in the field, and placing them in historical context, by an author who is both a trained academic cosmologist and an Anglican priest.

Dr Allan Chapman , Faculty of Modern History, University of Oxford

Rodney Holder has done a very careful analysis of the philosophical and theological issues arising in assessments of present day cosmology. The care of his presentation, taking into account current science as well as relevant philosophical issues, is a refreshing change from various recent presentations that tackle these issues in a philosophically inadequate way. If you wish to rationally consider the possible relation of cosmology to philosophical and theological issues, this book will provide a sound and historically well informed basis for that discussion.

George F. R. Ellis FRS , Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town

Big Bang, Big God is an engaging introductory account of the history of Big Bang Cosmology, including a detailed discussion of the underlying physics and a Christian perspective on its theological and philosophical implications. Holder explains why fundamental questions such as Why is there something rather than nothing? are not answerable within science, and he is rightly critical of the multiverse idea when it is invoked to account for the fine-tuning of the universe without the need for a Creator. I warmly commend this carefully argued monograph as a most valuable resource for anyone wishing to engage in the conversation between modern science and Christian faith, and who is also looking for arguments supporting the case that belief in God is reasonable.

John Pilbrow , Emeritus Professor of Physics, Monash University, and former President of ISCAST (Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology)

Are many universes a satisfactory alternative to belief in one Creator? With lucid rationality, this fine book guides the reader deftly through some of the most profound questions in contemporary science.

Roger Trigg , Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, and Senior Research Fellow, Ian Ramsey Centre, Oxford

Rodney Holder combines expertise in both science and theology to explore the exciting question of the origin of the universe he does so in a way that reflects the importance, complexity and fun of these big questions.

Revd Professor David Wilkinson , Principal, St Johns College, Durham University

CONTENTS

For Shirley,
with love

FOREWORD

Questions of origin have always fascinated people, and those with this concern will find much of interest in this book. One of the outstanding achievements of twentieth-century science was the establishment of the Big Bang theory of cosmology. The universe that we observe today has been shown to have a finite history, stemming from an originating event (the Big Bang) some 13.8 billion years ago. Initially the cosmos was very simple, an almost uniform expanding ball of energy, but over its long history it has become richly complex, with the human brain being the most complicated consequence of that evolving process of which we are aware. Many of the processes by which this complexity came to birth are well understood, and the surprising conclusion has emerged that they were only possible because the fundamental laws of nature operating in our world take a very precise, finely-tuned, form. Small variations in the strengths of the basic forces of nature would have rendered the development of carbon-based life impossible.