Our Universe

Ancient Sky Watchers• The ancients learned about our universe by watching the

skies at night, noting the changes that happen daily and seasonally, suggesting reasons for these changes.

Star Patterns and Stories• Groups of stars were imagined to form pictures of animals

and persons.

The Ursa Major Story• Zeus liked the girl, Callisto, and his wife (Hera) was angry

so she turned Callisto into a bear. Callisto’s son Arcas, a hunter, almost shot his mother (the bear) so Zeus swept both Callisto and Arcas into the sky to protect them.

Astrology• The ancients felt that changes in the heavens affected

people and events on earth. The “Religion” of astrology studies positions of planets and stars and uses this to predict things. The signs of the zodiac like aries, pisces, libra etc. were developed by astrology.

Astronomy• Astronomy is the science that studies the heavens and our

universe by making careful measurements using various devices like telescopes.

The Work of Edwin Hubble• In the early 1900s, Edwin Hubble carefully observed sky

objects. By 1929 he had measured the distance from earth to 46 galaxies in space.

Sky Objects Are Moving Away from Earth• Hubble noticed what many astronomers before him had

observed: that sky objects in all directions from earth are moving away from the earth.

The Farther an Object is from Earth, the Faster it Moves• Hubble made the new discovery that the farther a sky

object is from earth, the faster it moves away from the earth. What could this mean?

Farther Objects Move Faster in an Expanding Universe

• In an expanding universe, objects farther away appear to be moving faster so they have greater red shifts. As the bread expands, the closer raisins move only 5 cm away but the farther raisins move 15 cm away – they move apart at a faster rate because there is more expansion between them.

How Do We Know that Sky Objects are Moving Away From Us?

• The Doppler Effect for waves helps us know whether an object is moving away from us or towards us.

The Doppler Effect• When something producing waves moves, the waves in front

get compressed into shorter waves while the waves behind get stretched out into longer waves. This is called the Doppler Effect.

Science Behind the Expanding Universe • There are many different kinds of light with different energies

and wavelengths. Visible light (detected by our eyes) has many colours. Red light has longer wavelengths, blue light has shorter wavelengths. White light is a mixture of all the light colours.

Science Behind the Expanding Universe • The Doppler Effect for a moving light source is that the light

gets shorter waves for an observer that the source is moving towards and longer waves for an observer that the source is moving away from. When visible light waves are shortened, this is a shift towards the blue end of the spectrum (a blue shift). When visible light waves are stretched or lengthened, this is a shift towards the red end of the spectrum (a red shift).

Science Behind the Expanding Universe • If a light source is moving towards an observer, there

will be a blue shift but if a light source is moving away from an observer, there will be a red shift. Also, the faster a light source moves, the greater the shift will be (the more waves get compressed or stretched).

Science Behind the Expanding Universe

• What would a blue or red shift look like?

Science Behind the Expanding Universe

• A blue shift means the star’s spectrum is shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum because it is travelling towards you. A red shift means the star’s spectrum is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum because it is travelling away from you.

Rotating Galaxies• Scientists looking at some galaxies have observed blue

shifts on the closest part of the galaxy and red shifts on the farthest part of the galaxy. This would mean that the closest part of the galaxy is moving towards us while the farthest part of the galaxy is moving away from us – that the galaxy is rotating.

Science Behind the Expanding Universe • When astronomers look in any direction into space, all stars and galaxies show red shifts and the farther away the objects are, the greater the red shifts are. What does this mean?

• All stars and galaxies are moving away from each other – the Universe is expanding!

Science Behind the Expanding Universe

• The more distant the stars or galaxies are, the greater their red shifts which shows our universe is expanding more and more each day.

Can you Travel Back in Time?

• Science Fiction writers (Like H. G. Wells – The Time Machine) have been fascinated with the idea of being able to view the past or the future with a special time travel machine.

The Night Sky is a Time Machine ?• When you are observing stars and galaxies, you are looking

into the past, you are viewing past history - right now in the present.

The Night Sky Time Machine• Sky objects at great distances are measured in light years. A

light year is the distance that light will travel in one year (9.46 x 1012 km).

The Night Sky Time Machine

• Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system. It is 4.3 light years away. It takes 4.3 years for light from Proxima Centauri to reach our solar system. When you look at Proxima Centauri today, you are seeing light that started on its way 4.3 years ago. Viewing Proxima Centauri today, you are looking 4.3 years into the past.

The Night Sky Time Machine• With the Hubble telescope in space, astronomers have been

able to look farther and farther into space. Many objects not visible before have been discovered.

The Night Sky Time Machine• Many space objects

are millions and some are billions of light years away. This means that it took millions and billions of years for the light we see today to get here. The object GRB080913 in the picture is 12.7 billion light years away or at least 12.7 billion years old.

The Night Sky Time Machine• When astronomers look in all directions into space, they see

objects moving away and the farthest of them are at a distance of 13-14 billion light years away. This means the age of the universe is at least 13-14 billion years old.

The Night Sky Time Machine• If we go back in time, then the universe must have been very

compressed into a small object when it started to expand outward. Scientists call the beginning of the expansion, the “big bang”.

Background Microwave “Noise”• In 1963, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered

microwave “noise” (light waves) in all directions in deep space. Further studies showed that these light waves were at the outer edges of our universe, likely the light remains of the “big bang” event that produced our universe.

The Night Sky is a Time Machine• At the edges of our universe (in all directions) is a faint glow,

what astronomers think is the remains of the big bang.

Satellites and Spacecraft Studying Deep Space• NASA in 1989 launched COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer)

and in 2001 launched WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anistrophy Probe). Both these devices have mapped radiation along the edges of our universe and are helping scientists to discover how our universe developed.

Atom Smashers Show How Our Universe Developed• The CERN accelerator located near Geneva, Switzerland is

conducting experiments that crash atomic particles into each other at very high energies like those that particles had at the formation of our universe. The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is studying what happened in the “Big Bang”. The CERN LHC has a diameter of 27 km and is located 100 m underground.

Are Science’s Theories in Conflict With Scripture?• Scientific Theories about the origin of our universe may

seem to be in conflict with what the Bible says concerning the origin of our universe. How do we relate the Bible to Science as we study ideas about the origin of our universe? Christians have differing views about this.

God’s Two Revelations of Himself (Besides Christ)

• God gave His Word, The Bible, through ancient cultures and persons in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic languages.

• The study of the Bible produces Theology, a human understanding of what the Bible is teaching.

• God Created the World which reveals His attributes: His perfection, power, beauty, dependability, justice, etc.

• The study of God’s World is Science, a human understanding of the world’s objects and processes.

No Conflict Between The Bible and Nature• God inspired the writing of the Bible. God created the

universe. He is One and there is no conflict in what He has given us. But we as humans interpret the Bible and we also interpret what we see in the universe. Our human, cosmological interpretations from the Bible and from Nature may conflict. The conflict is in our human understanding of either the Bible or Nature. The conflict is not with God who is consistent in both of His revelations.

Human Interpretation of Human Interpretation of

the Bible: the Universe:

Earth made in six, 24 hr days Billions of years to make

the universe

Interpreting the Bible • Any person reading the Bible makes interpretations. In some

cases, persons make literal interpretations while in other cases the intent of scripture is followed rather than the literal instruction. In Romans 16:16, Apostle Paul writes,”Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Do Christians literally follow Paul’s instruction? Some yes. Many no. But Paul’s intent, the message of expressing genuine love and affection can be conveyed without kissing (as they did in Paul’s day).

Interpreting the Bible • I Timothy 2:12 says ”I do not permit a woman to teach or to

have authority over a man; she must be silent”. Persons taking this text literally do not permit women to be Sunday school teachers or not to be deacons, elders or pastors in the church. Others see Paul’s instruction aimed at the Ephesian church which had unruly women, some former priestesses of Diana (who claimed divine inspiration) who were undermining the teaching he had given the Ephesians.

Interpreting the Bible • Many Bible passages are not interpreted literally.

– A woman ought to have a veil on her head (I Cor. 11:10)– Wash one another’s feet (John 13:14)– It is disgraceful to a woman to speak in the church (I Cor. 14:35)– Abstain from eating blood (Acts 15:29)– Anoint the sick with oil (James 5:14)– Preach two by two– Prohibit women from wearing braided hair, gold, pearls or expensive clothes (I Tim. 2:9)– Speak in tongues privately and prophesy publicly (I Cor. 14:5)– Lift up holy hands in prayer (I Tim. 2:8)– Owe no man anything (Rom. 13:8)– Set aside money for the poor on the first day of every week (I Cor. 16:1-2)– Abstain from the meat of animals killed by strangulation (Acts 15:29)– If a man will not work, he shall not eat (2 Thess. 3:10)

Our Interpretations of the Bible and Nature May Conflict

• Most scientists are convinced that our universe developed over billions of years but a few scientists are not.

• Some Christians think the Bible teaches that the universe is only thousands of years old. Others think that the Bible does not teach this. It depends on how the book, Genesis, is interpreted – literally, figuratively, as a Scientific account or as a non-scientific, non-technical account.

Why the Bible can NOT be read as a Science Book

• Moses, the presumed author of Genesis, lived around 1500 BC, 3000 years before Science started.

• Science began in the 1500s – 1600s AD.

Modern vs Ancient Ways of Thinking• For us moderns, the function of a thing (what it does) is

related to its structure and composition. A thing does what it does because of its structure and function.

• But for Ancients, the function of everything was related to its purpose as it was named and called into being by a god (the pagans) or The Creator (the Hebrews). The author of Genesis is interested in the purpose of things because their purpose explains why things do what they do.

Modern vs Ancient Ways of Thinking• In Genesis, God creates day and night (time), waters, ground

and atmosphere. He creates all this, the seasons, seed plants and animals with the purpose of providing for the lives of His creatures. Man is created with the purpose to commune with God, to care for His creation and to image God’s character here on Earth (His Love, Justice, Forbearance etc.) . Genesis is not interested in the structure of matter as a way to explain why it functions as it does – this is the focus of modern science.

Genesis DaysWhy would the author of Genesis use the framework of seven

days to describe God’s creation of the world?

1. We mark time and do our work in six days, resting on the seventh. By describing God’s creating work in terms of days, the author was emphasizing that we are made in God’s image – we are like him in the way we work and rest.

Genesis DaysWhy would the author of Genesis use the framework of seven

days to describe God’s creation of the world?

2. The days have a parallel structure. On day 1 light and darkness are separated while on day four the light bearers are made.

Genesis DaysOn day 2 the waters and air are separated while on day 5 the

inhabitants of water and air are made. On day 3 the land and plants are created while on day 6 land animals and man are created. The days are a framework for describing God’s way of preparing domains (like rooms) and then filling these domains with objects and creatures (like the furnishings for a room).

In Your Personal Search, Remember What is Important• Remember that your personal view of how God created

this universe (quickly or with great time, with or without natural processes) is not fundamentally important towards your salvation or towards how you should live.

• Your confession of Jesus as Saviour and serving Him through your life is fundamentally important and requires a faith in Him, but not a faith in the way God created things.

Don’t be Afraid to Read and Think• God gave us His Word and His World. Read them

both carefully with your best understanding. Consider God’s amazing love, be thankful for the gift of life in and around you, and make yourself a channel for His love to others.

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