According to Hoyle

  The Big Bang theory says the universe had one beginning. As an atheist, Sir Fred Hoyle preferred to believe otherwise, and so he resisted the evidence all of his life. He died last week at age eighty-six. Instead of one big bang, Hoyle postulated a series of "little pops." His "Steady State" theory included "continuous creation." Matter always existed, he said, and as it expands from the center of the universe, new matter is continually created to fill the void. The Big Bang and Hoyle's Steady State were mere abstractions, unable to be tested. Then, in 1964, Drs. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell Labs encountered continuous static on certain microwave frequencies. Rotating their antenna in a vain attempt to remove the noise, they realized it was coming from all directions -- permeating the universe. Physicists hailed this as the first observational evidence of the Big Bang known as "cosmic background radiation" or "the radio echo of creation." Penzias saw the philosophical significance in his discovery. ". . . [T]he best data we have," he said, "are exactly what I would have predicted, had I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole. . . . [T]he creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far." Even as an atheist, Hoyle recognized an amazing complexity and precision in the universe. In his words, "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question." In other words, the things that exist in the universe are so complex and brilliantly made, that they look as if an Intelligent Designer fine-tuned them. Mao Zedong, by the way, recognized this as well -- which is why he would never allow the Big Bang theory to be taught in China. Today, advocates of the Big Bang think that their theory is a substitute for God. But it's just the opposite. Hoyle rejected the Big Bang in spite of the evidence because he knew that the Big Bang pointed irresistibly to the existence of God. Science historian Frederic B. Burnham observed that scientists consider the idea that God created the universe, "a more respectable hypothesis today than at any time in the last hundred years." Dr. Geoffrey Burbridge, of the University of California at San Diego, complains that many astronomers are rushing off to join what he calls "the First Church of Christ of the Big Bang." That's a cynic's way of acknowledging that many astronomers are being forced by their data to recognize the existence of a Creator-God. Whether God created the universe through the Big Bang or some other way, the one who did the creating demonstrated an amazing amount of power and wisdom as he caused the formation of everything that has been made! As we read the obituaries about Sir Fred Hoyle, the man who named the Big Bang, we might ask our skeptical neighbors: If there was a Big Bang, isn't it reasonable to recognize what Hoyle did -- that there behind it a Big Brain. And might that not be the God of the Bible and of all creation?   For further reference: Bergman, Jerry. "Arno Penzias: Astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate." Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, September 1994 (Ipswich, MA: American Scientific Affiliation). " 'Big Bang' Astronomer Dies." http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1503000/15 03721.stm Brian, Denis. Genius Talk: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries. New York: Plenum Publishing, 1995. "Fred Hoyle Dies at 86; Opposed 'Big Bang' but Named It." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/22/obituaries/22HOYL.h tml Gingerich, Owen. "Dare a Scientist Believe in Design?" Chapter in John Marks Templeton, ed., Evidence of Purpose. New York: Continuum Publishing, 1994. Ross, Hugh. The Creator and the Cosmos. http://www.reasons.org

08/30/01