{"id":98082,"date":"2022-12-29T12:49:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98082"},"modified":"2022-12-29T19:06:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T02:06:24","slug":"cosmological-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/cosmological-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Cosmological 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JUNO<\/a>
An artist\u2019s rendition (from NASA\/JPL) of the JUNO orbiter approaching the planet Jupiter
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A recording of this lecture and its text were posted yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n

Conference Talks:\u00a0 \u201cThe Outer Solar System: A Window to the Creative Breadth of Divinity,\u201d<\/a> originally presented in November 2013 by Professor Jani Radebaugh<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh explores the creative side of our Creator with a breathtaking photographic tour of the unusual planets and moons in the outer solar system. Emerging discoveries have helped open our minds to the possibilities of other worlds with life in our galaxy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hubble<\/a>
A detail of Jupiter, showing \u201cRed Junior\u201d to the left, and the Great Red Spot
(NASA\/ESA Hubble photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back again, briefly, to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen\u2019s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith<\/em> (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).\u00a0 They are, as I\u2019ve previously explained, an initial hasty and unpolished pass on the topic that they address, rough building blocks for an argument (or, even, for the preface of an argument) that I intend to make (but, contrary to the fevered phantasies of a few over at the Peterson Obsession Board, haven\u2019t yet<\/em> made).\u00a0 Not being either an astronomer, or a physicist, or a cosmologist, I rely heavily on those who are<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s an argument that will play a distinctly minor role in a much larger argument that is, itself, part of an even larger project.\u00a0 And, yes, you\u2019re free to call me \u201cDan Peterson, International Man of Mystery.\u201d\u00a0 I have no plans to steal my own thunder, such as it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guillen suggests that \u201castronomy is arguably the most emotional and spiritual of all the sciences,\u201d and he quotes Book 7 of Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em> in support of that suggestion:\u00a0 \u201cFor every one, as I think, must see that astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.\u201d\u00a0 (139)<\/p>\n

This reminds me of the late Allan Sandage, one of the foremost astronomers of the latter half of the twentieth century \u2014 and, although I didn\u2019t realize it until too late, for many years a near neighbor of mine in San Gabriel, California, where I grew up \u2014 who came to serious Christianity relatively late in his life on the basis of a similar sense:<\/p>\n

It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery, but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world is too complicated in all parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together. Each part of a living thing depends on all its other parts to function. How does each part know? How is each part specified at conception? The more one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable it becomes unless there is some type of organizing principle \u2014 an architect.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But back to some items from Michael Guillen\u2019s book:<\/p>\n

\u201cLight brings us the news of the Universe,\u201d declared British scientist Sir William Bragg.\u00a0 \u201cComing to us from the sun and the stars, it tells us of their existence, their positions, their movements, their constitutions, and many other matters of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the intelligence that can be squeezed from this heavenly light is limited.\u00a0 Especially since we now have evidence that 95% of the universe is imperceptible.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, it appears that 95 percent of the cosmos is hidden from us \u2014 in the form of dark matter, dark energy, and other covert phenomena.\u00a0 It emits no detectable light whatsoever.\u00a0 It is invisible<\/em>. . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cDark matter isn\u2019t supernatural,\u201d says British astrophysicist Richard Massey of Durham University, \u201cbut its mysterious behavior certainly brings that idea to mind.\u201d\u00a0 (140)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this context, I mention again the Deseret News<\/em> column that I wrote back in 2015 under the title \u201cMaterialism isn\u2019t what it used to be.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 But, again, back to Guillen:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this discipline [physical cosmology] is a convolution of elementary particle theory, general relativity, and astronomical observations, there is still room for elements of mysticism and imagination,\u201d remarks University of Oregon physicist and cosmologist Gregory Bothun.\u00a0 The mysteries of cosmology are so profound, he says, that \u201cthere remains no clear and preferred model for the origin and evolution of structure in the Universe.\u201d\u00a0 (141)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the visible universe is almost inconceivably large \u2014 to say nothing of the regions that are, and may always be, utterly beyond us:<\/p>\n

[W]e now believe the observable universe to be about 92 billion light years across.\u00a0 That\u2019s 5.5 x 10\u02c623 or 550,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles across.<\/p>\n

The actual physical universe is much larger than that, but its outermost regions are moving away from us so fast that its light will never reach us.\u00a0 These regions will always remain hidden from us.\u00a0 [143]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there is an additional complication, the matter of \u201ccritical density.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the total mass-energy density of the universe exceeds what general relativity suggests as its critical density, then the size of the universe is finite<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cWe cosmologists call this a closed<\/em> universe.\u00a0 One day . . . such a universe will collapse on itself.\u201d\u00a0 However, if the total mass-energy density of the universe is equal to<\/em> or less than<\/em> the critical density, its size is infinite<\/em>.\u00a0 In cosmological parlance, such a universe is called flat<\/em> (in the former case) or open<\/em> (in the latter case).<\/p>\n

In both cases, such a universe keeps expanding, diluting, and transforming into a cold, dead nothingness.<\/p>\n

Improbable as it is, our universe appears to have precisely the target weight.\u00a0 It\u2019s not too fact and not too skinny.\u00a0 It\u2019s just right.<\/p>\n

This means the universe is infinitely large and flat, albeit barely so.\u00a0 In our universe, in other words, venturing out into space is like traversing a vast wilderness whose horizons we can never reach.\u00a0 Ever.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one wrinkle.<\/p>\n

Recent data from the Planck Orbiting Observatory implies that the universe is actually obese; that it has a density far greater than the critical density.\u00a0 If so, our universe is actually finite and closed.\u00a0 In that case, venturing into space is like traveling in circles.\u00a0 After a while, you return to where you started.\u00a0 (143-144)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A recording of this lecture and its text were posted yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conference Talks:\u00a0 \u201cThe Outer Solar System: A Window to the Creative Breadth of Divinity,\u201d originally presented in November 2013 by Professor Jani Radebaugh In this article, planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh explores the creative side of 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