What new discovery in astronomy has provoked many leading scientists to rethink the origin of our universe?
A. Most scientists thought the universe had always existed until Edwin Hubble observed that the universe is expanding. Scientists now believe that the universe originated with a one-time explosion of incredible force called, “the big bang.” But scientists wonder how everything in our cosmos could come from nothing. Something or someone must have been there to cause it to begin. Astrophysicist George Smoot (an agnostic) said, “If you’re religious, it’s like looking at God.”(See “Did the Universe Have a Beginning?”) Q. How could a “big bang” randomly result in the conditions necessary for life? A. Scientists have calculated that several conditions vital for life needed to be fine-tuned to a razor’s edge. Without this precise fine-tuning, our universe wouldn’t exist, let alone support life. Leading astrophysicist Stephen Hawking writes, “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like a big bang are enormous….I think there are religious implications whenever you sta
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