The Scientific Explanation: Part Three – The Matter Era
BOOK III: The Enigmatic Mystery (Science & Religion) – Consideration #174
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Tuesday February 4, 2025
“I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up—many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars."
– Neil deGrasse Tyson
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
In the Radiation Era, a new universe was unleashed through an explosion of cosmic energy capable of forming subatomic particles with the potential to combine into atoms. Once the radiation became less intense and the universe cooled down, these subatomic particles could finally form stable bonds capable of sustaining complete atoms. These atoms began to form and interact with the four laws of nature until the physical manifestation of matter became possible. However, unlike the Radiation Era, the Matter Era would be constituted by specific epochs spanning billions of years, as compared to microseconds.
“As atoms form elements gravity begins to have an effect…”
This universe of pure energy expands and cools to a point where stable atomic bonds allow for the manifestation of a physical, or what we call empirical, universe. As atoms form elements gravity begins to have an effect in the process. Gravity and matter begin to interact causing the formation of suns, galaxies, planets, and eventually a new mystery called life.
CONSIDERATION #174 – The Scientific Explanation: Part Three
The Matter Era
The Atomic Epoch begins approximately 50,000 years after the Big Bang. The universe has cooled considerably, to a temperature of only 3,000 Kelvin. This allows electrons to attach and form stable bonds with nuclei for the first time. This process of “recombination” initiates the manifestation of Helium and Hydrogen atoms. The creation of Helium and Hydrogen atoms begins the process of physicality called the Galactic Epoch.
“Hydrogen and Helium atoms began to form small atomic clouds throughout the universe.”
Approximately 200 million years after the Big Bang, the Galactic Epoch began when subatomic particles started to recombine into Hydrogen and Helium atoms, essentially starting the process, we call the physical universe. Soon, Hydrogen and Helium atoms began to form small atomic clouds throughout the universe. Within these clouds, small pockets of gas sometimes collected, producing enough gravity to cause atoms to collect. These atomic clusters, formed during the Galactic Epoch, would lead to the third, and final, epoch.
“Within the center of these new galaxies, stars began to form.”
The atomic clusters formed during the Galactic Epoch became the seedlings for the formation of galaxies. Within the center of these new galaxies, stars began to form. The extreme heat within these stars resulted in the conversion of Helium and Hydrogen into almost all of the remaining elements in the universe. Those are the elements responsible for the manifestation of planets, moons, life, and everything comprising the universe today. That final epoch, the Stellar Epoch, began 3 billion years after the Big Bang and continues today. The formation of stars was the essential factor in shaping the universe as we currently know it.
The following excerpt from, The Origin of the Universe, Earth and Life by the National Academy of Sciences, explains the support for the Big Bang Theory and describes how stars are born.
“In the late 1920s the American astronomer Edwin Hubble made a very interesting and important discovery. Hubble made observations that he interpreted as showing that distant stars and galaxies are receding from Earth in every direction. Moreover, the velocities of recession increase in proportion with distance, a discovery that has been confirmed by numerous and repeated measurements since Hubble's time. The implication of these findings is that the universe is expanding.
Hubble's hypothesis of an expanding universe leads to certain deductions. One is that the universe was more condensed at a previous time. From this deduction came the suggestion that all the currently observed matter and energy in the universe were initially condensed in a very small and infinitely hot mass. A huge explosion, known as the Big Bang, then sent matter and energy expanding in all directions…
As the universe expanded, according to current scientific understanding, matter collected into clouds that began to condense and rotate, forming the forerunners of galaxies. Within galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, changes in pressure caused gas and dust to form distinct clouds. In some of these clouds, where there was sufficient mass and the right forces, gravitational attraction caused the cloud to collapse. If the mass of material in the cloud was sufficiently compressed, nuclear reactions began and a star was born.”
– National Academy of Sciences: The Origin of the Universe, Earth, and Life
In the scientific narrative, there is no explanation for the origin of life, other than it is constituted by the elements created from the Big Bang. There is no objective scientific evidence as to when, where, how, or why life originated in the universe. However, science certainly recognizes the objective evidence that it did happen. Just like the Big Bang.
POSTSCRIPT
“When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter.”
– Albert Einstein
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity focused on the nature of light. He established that light was essentially pure energy with no mass. It moves in a straight line at 186,000 miles per second forever. Anything moving slower than that picks up mass and becomes matter.
“…it was possible for photons to transform directly into matter and vice-versa.”
Many scientists have suggested that in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, prior to the “laws of physics,” it was possible for photons to transform directly into matter and vice-versa. This non-physical “light-energy” manifested the physicality of the universe into empirical existence as mass, or matter. When we add the General Theory of Relativity dealing with gravity, we have the last piece of the cosmic puzzle. Gravity affects both energy (bends light) and mass (attracts matter). Energy forms the universe; gravity shapes it.
Consider how Einstein’s concept of Relativity encompasses the entire Big Bang narrative. The universe begins with an explosion of light, radiation, or energy. This light expands straight out in a linear direction at the speed of light forever. However, through innumerable photon collisions creating other particles, or some other unknown or unproven mechanism, matter forms in the universe.
“Eventually, through gravity, this matter forms galaxies, stars, planets, moons, and life.”
Gravity separates itself from the “Superforce” and slows down this matter; “pulling” it together by altering the fabric of space and time. Eventually, through gravity, this matter forms galaxies, stars, planets, moons, and life. This is the scientific process that creates all matter, and all motion in the universe.
Voila!
Next week we will begin our consideration of the Biblical explanation for reality…
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