The not-so-big Bang..!
A couple of weeks ago, the scientific community celebrated passionately the success of the first stages of simulating the big bang theory, to imitate the very creation of the universe some 13 billion years ago.. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has announced the success of much anticipated firing of the particle beams to re-create the conditions similar to those that happened just after the big bang.. As most of you know, the big bang theory is an attempt to explain what happened at the beginning of the universe.. Simply put, it suggests that before our universe there was nothing, and out of nowhere, there was something.. Something sprang our universe into existence..!!
Although its name suggests that there was an explosion, “the big Bang” theory does not imply any explosions or bangs. Actually it was not called so when it was first introduced. Not until it was ridiculed in an American radio show in the late seventies by this name, and it got stuck ever since. There are many variations of the theory and all of them depend on the hypothesis of the Inflationary Universe Theories (IUT’s). It’s debatable whether this theory is incorrect or not, however, discoveries in physics and astronomy have shown without any reasonable doubt that our universe is expanding and still expanding as I speak which suggest that it was compacted and had a beginning at one point of time. Off course, piles of mysteries and vague obscurities remain unexplained and what science has gathered so far is not “proving” much, however scientists at CERN are hoping that these current experiments in the Large Hadron Colliders (LHC) would help them explain what happened. The first step was to fire the particle beams in a super speed and they succeeded in that, now the next step is to get these beams to collide head on, using these huge LHC (these colliders run on a radius of about 27 km). However there was a setback a couple of weeks later, and CERN says that the LHC would be out of action for at least two months which is not that much considering that this project is ongoing for over 13 years now.
As for the never-ending debate, that comes to mind whenever the big bang theory is mentioned, in regards of God’s existence. Many atheists try to use this theory along with the Darwinian hypothesis on revolution to “prove” the non-existence of God. Well the way I see it, believing in God does not require evidence or proof.. To believe means having faith, and having faith doesn’t require evidence otherwise it won’t be faith as much as it is doubts.. However, and a BIG however at that, most scientists at NASA or CERN or any other scientific establishments are religious people.. Most of them believe in God.. And to think of it more closely the wonders of discoveries and explorations that these scientists witness would only increase their belief in God.. The extraordinary complexity of the tiniest organic cell by itself is an eye opener, and does certainly impose that this detailed and comprehensive construction of everything from DNA to galaxies cannot be merely a delivery of chance or a sheer strike of unknown matters that collided in each other and formed “everything” with such details. In fact, the only logical outcome that even science approves is that there must be a master designer for this entire universe. You cannot put some spare parts, plugs, engines and steel scattered in the backyard of your home, and assume that after a million years have passed and millions of storms have formed around the backyard, that a car would be created out of that chaos..! with all the features, including GPS..! it does not sound very rational to me.. but, let’s go back to science, to dazzle those atheists once more, the big bang theory itself suggest that at the very beginning of the universe, there was nothing, after that something they like to call a “singularity” came into being and sprang the universe out of it..! What is this singularity? And where did it come from? And what is the nature of it? And how it evoked the creation of all things and the expansion of the universe? Well, no one can explain that in any scientific terminologies..! And I think that to think of the big bang theory or any other theory as a proof to the existence or non-existence of God would be an illogical progress and a waste of money. There are many benefits that we can reap out of these scientific experiments that can spare us the religious disputes that fill our life at the moment..
This brings us to the next logical item that we should think about.. What is the return on investment in such experiments? Many people and scientists were afraid that these particle-physics related experiments are risky and could create “black holes” of antimatter that would eventually suck us all and destroy earth?!! Why risk all of that..??! Are the billions paid and time wasted justifiable..?
Well, I will try to be as objective as I can when I try to answer this question. For over two centuries now, the world has witnessed many scientific breakthroughs in all aspects of our life, and to a certain degree it helped rising the standards of our living. Indeed without these experiments and discoveries, our civilization would be significantly poorer. Also, these experiments at CERN do not only deal with the big bang theory, it also might help science in understanding the nature of all mass, particle physics can explain many other issues related to the dark matter “Antimatter”, a much deeper understanding of gravity and the existence of extra-dimensions in the universe and many others issues..
I don’t know where these experiments will lead us to.. But what I do know is that years from now, maybe centuries, the results of these researches will be the foundations for hundreds or thousands of new technologies, each is considered indispensable to our quality of life.
Although its name suggests that there was an explosion, “the big Bang” theory does not imply any explosions or bangs. Actually it was not called so when it was first introduced. Not until it was ridiculed in an American radio show in the late seventies by this name, and it got stuck ever since. There are many variations of the theory and all of them depend on the hypothesis of the Inflationary Universe Theories (IUT’s). It’s debatable whether this theory is incorrect or not, however, discoveries in physics and astronomy have shown without any reasonable doubt that our universe is expanding and still expanding as I speak which suggest that it was compacted and had a beginning at one point of time. Off course, piles of mysteries and vague obscurities remain unexplained and what science has gathered so far is not “proving” much, however scientists at CERN are hoping that these current experiments in the Large Hadron Colliders (LHC) would help them explain what happened. The first step was to fire the particle beams in a super speed and they succeeded in that, now the next step is to get these beams to collide head on, using these huge LHC (these colliders run on a radius of about 27 km). However there was a setback a couple of weeks later, and CERN says that the LHC would be out of action for at least two months which is not that much considering that this project is ongoing for over 13 years now.
As for the never-ending debate, that comes to mind whenever the big bang theory is mentioned, in regards of God’s existence. Many atheists try to use this theory along with the Darwinian hypothesis on revolution to “prove” the non-existence of God. Well the way I see it, believing in God does not require evidence or proof.. To believe means having faith, and having faith doesn’t require evidence otherwise it won’t be faith as much as it is doubts.. However, and a BIG however at that, most scientists at NASA or CERN or any other scientific establishments are religious people.. Most of them believe in God.. And to think of it more closely the wonders of discoveries and explorations that these scientists witness would only increase their belief in God.. The extraordinary complexity of the tiniest organic cell by itself is an eye opener, and does certainly impose that this detailed and comprehensive construction of everything from DNA to galaxies cannot be merely a delivery of chance or a sheer strike of unknown matters that collided in each other and formed “everything” with such details. In fact, the only logical outcome that even science approves is that there must be a master designer for this entire universe. You cannot put some spare parts, plugs, engines and steel scattered in the backyard of your home, and assume that after a million years have passed and millions of storms have formed around the backyard, that a car would be created out of that chaos..! with all the features, including GPS..! it does not sound very rational to me.. but, let’s go back to science, to dazzle those atheists once more, the big bang theory itself suggest that at the very beginning of the universe, there was nothing, after that something they like to call a “singularity” came into being and sprang the universe out of it..! What is this singularity? And where did it come from? And what is the nature of it? And how it evoked the creation of all things and the expansion of the universe? Well, no one can explain that in any scientific terminologies..! And I think that to think of the big bang theory or any other theory as a proof to the existence or non-existence of God would be an illogical progress and a waste of money. There are many benefits that we can reap out of these scientific experiments that can spare us the religious disputes that fill our life at the moment..
This brings us to the next logical item that we should think about.. What is the return on investment in such experiments? Many people and scientists were afraid that these particle-physics related experiments are risky and could create “black holes” of antimatter that would eventually suck us all and destroy earth?!! Why risk all of that..??! Are the billions paid and time wasted justifiable..?
Well, I will try to be as objective as I can when I try to answer this question. For over two centuries now, the world has witnessed many scientific breakthroughs in all aspects of our life, and to a certain degree it helped rising the standards of our living. Indeed without these experiments and discoveries, our civilization would be significantly poorer. Also, these experiments at CERN do not only deal with the big bang theory, it also might help science in understanding the nature of all mass, particle physics can explain many other issues related to the dark matter “Antimatter”, a much deeper understanding of gravity and the existence of extra-dimensions in the universe and many others issues..
I don’t know where these experiments will lead us to.. But what I do know is that years from now, maybe centuries, the results of these researches will be the foundations for hundreds or thousands of new technologies, each is considered indispensable to our quality of life.
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