The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel [55]
“The third main piece of evidence for the Big Bang is the origin of light elements. Heavy elements, like carbon and iron, are synthesized in the interior of stars and then exploded through supernovae into space. But the very, very light elements, like deuterium and helium, cannot have been synthesized in the interior of stars, because you would need an even more powerful furnace to create them. These elements must have been forged in the furnace of the Big Bang itself at temperatures that were billions of degrees. There’s no other explanation.
“So predictions about the Big Bang have been consistently verified by scientific data. Moreover, they have been corroborated by the failure of every attempt to falsify them by alternative models. Unquestionably, the Big Bang model has impressive scientific credentials.”
“And that,” I observed, “has surprised a lot of people.”
“It was an absolute shock!” he declared. “Up to this time, it was taken for granted that the universe as a whole was a static, eternally existing object.”
I knew, however, that there have been more recent refinements of the standard Big Bang model. “Most scientists would add inflation theory to the description of how the universe got started,” I said. “How has that changed the way we look at the Big Bang?”
“Yes, inflation is a wrinkle that most theorists would add,” he acknowledged. He paused for a moment, then added: “Personally, though, I think the reasons for it are a bit suspect.”
That took me aback. “Why is that?”
“You see, the Big Bang was not a chaotic, disorderly event. Instead, it appears to have been fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life with a complexity and precision that literally defies human comprehension. In other words, the universe we see today—and our very existence—depends upon a set of highly special initial conditions. This phenomenon is strong evidence that the Big Bang was not an accident, but that it was designed. Theorists who are uncomfortable about this want to avoid the problem by trying to explain how you can get a universe like ours without these special initial conditions. Inflation is one attempt to do this.”
I had read about inflation theory in several books and articles, but I asked Craig to describe it so that we were working from a common definition.
“Inflation says that in the very, very early history of the universe, the universe underwent a period of super-rapid, or ‘inflationary,’ expansion. Then it settled down to the more leisurely expansion we observe today. This inflationary expansion supposedly avoids the problem of the initial conditions of the universe by blowing them out beyond the range of what we can observe. So in a sense, inflation isn’t something that is motivated by the scientific evidence; it’s motivated by a desire to avoid these special initial conditions that are present in the standard model.
“And inflation itself has been plagued with problems. There are probably fifty different inflationary models. Nobody knows which, if any, is correct. There isn’t any empirical test that proves inflation has occurred. So even though most theorists accept inflation today, I’m rather suspicious of the whole thing, because it appears to be motivated by a philosophical bias.”
I stopped to analyze Craig’s comments. As I thought about inflationary theory, I didn’t understand how it would erode anyone’s confidence in the overall Big Bang model. “Since this inflationary period supposedly happened a microsecond after the Big Bang occurred,” I said, “then it really doesn’t affect the question of the origin of the universe.”
“That’s right,” Craig replied. “Prior to inflation, the universe still shrinks back to a singularity.”
I put up my hand to stop him. “A what?”
“A singularity,” he repeated. “That’s the state at which the space-time curvature, along with temperature, density, and pressure, becomes infinite. It’s the beginning point. It’s the point at which the Big Bang occurred.”
I nodded to acknowledge the clarification. “Okay,” I said. “Then how would you assess the health of the