WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THE BIG BANG THEORY?

Created by Aaron Smith

PAGE TWO

The Age Problem

A primary complaint raised against the big bang theory has to do with the age of the universe. To understand why, one must first realize that the big bang model predicts a certain age for the cosmos. Generally, this age is stated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 billion years. Should the universe be shown to have a much younger age, the validity of the big bang theory would be called into question. This is exactly the question young-earth creationists ask when they put forth evidence that fixes the age of the universe to be relatively young-around ten thousand years old.

Not Smooth Enough

Another problem that is commonly sited against the big bang theory is the presence of so much ‘clumping’ in the observable universe. By clumping, I mean the degree to which matter aggregates, or is attracted to, other matter; forming galaxies, stars, planets, comets, etc. According to the big bang theory, energy and matter were blown outwards in a homogenous mixture. At around the three hundred thousand-year mark, the universe had expanded enough so that this matter became spread extremely thin and diaphanous; radiation was free to move unhindered throughout space. This ‘background heat radiation,’ as cosmologists call it, is still detectable today. Highly sensitive infrared telescopes have detected a uniform temperature slightly above absolute zero that pervades all of space. The problem is that this background radiation is smooth to a least one part in a hundred thousand. Keeping in mind that the background radiation is a relic of what the early universe was like, this means that early conditions in the universe were extremely uniform and smooth as well. The problem is as follows: Physicists are at a loss to explain the amount of clumping (superclusters, globular clusters, galaxies, and stars) present in the universe based on the extreme uniformity exhibited by the background heat radiation. Paul Davies, a highly acclaimed science writer, explains it like this: “If there were clumps in the early universe, then they should show up as distinctive ripples in the heat radiation. This radiation seemed to be completely smooth.”

Too Orderly

Finally, there is the contention that the big bang violates the second law of thermodynamics. Without getting into too much detail, the second law of thermodynamics deals with the amount of disorder in a closed system. As an example, heat has a tendency to flow from a hot cup of coffee to the relatively cool air in a room until the coffee and the air attain a heat equilibrium (i.e. achieve the same temperature). The flow of that heat represent an increase in the entropy-a fancy name for disorder-of the system (the coffee and room air being the system in this case). The entropy has increased because the heat that has floated into the air is no longer available. No one can ‘scoop up’ that heat and put it back into the coffee. The reason why the big bang theory conflicts with this law is that the universe today seems vastly more ordered than it was during its earlier epoch. The conditions during the big bang essentially mimicked an explosion. As we all know, explosions are extremely disordered; chaos and confusion reign. Yet, out of this cosmic explosion, a vast array of intricate systems developed. Planets orbit stars, stars orbit galaxies, and even galaxies orbit one another to create gigantic superclusters, millions of light years across. Clearly, this amount of complexity could not have come about from an explosion.

Home Page DID THE BIG BANG REALLY HAPPEN? Page One WHAT WAS THE BIG BANG? Page Two WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THE BIG BANG THEORY? Page Three WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE IN FAVOR OF THE BIG BANG THEORY?