Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Three Big Bangs

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

You've heard of the Big Bang, but are you aware of the other two big bangs, each of which represents the beginning of a fundamentally new thing that didn't exist before? Alan explains what they are and their theistic implications.

You've heard of the Big Bang, but are you aware of the other two Big Bangs? Each of which represents the beginning of a fundamentally new thing that didn't exist before. Well, that's what I want to talk to you about on this July 2021 episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schleman. So you've heard of the Big Bang, but are you aware of these other two Big Bangs? Although the explosion at the beginning of time is the most famous and of course allegedly kicked off our universe, turns out there are two additional beginnings that are, I would say, equally important for our existence. And all three of these Big Bangs, I would say,

also have theistic implications, okay? Now, whether you believe the universe began with the Big Bang or not is irrelevant, all right? I'm not here to talk about an age of the universe type of argument or even debate about creation, right? That's not my point. I'm just simply noting that scientists claim that the universe began to exist at a moment they call the Big Bang. Now, whatever it was, our world did have a beginning. And of course,

scripture even attests to that, right? Genesis 1.1. But I would only add that there are or have been at least two other Big Bangs that represent monumental transitions in our history and have brought about two significant phenomenon. OK, so let's look at all three of these Big Bangs. I will start with the first one, which I've already mentioned. And that, of course, is the cosmological Big Bang. So this first Big Bang was the kickoff, right? It started everything. Space, time, and matter began to exist with this rather epic explosion. Now, although initially thought to be an atheistic alternative to a creator,

actually, I think there are significant theistic implications of the Big Bang that quickly become evident. Why? Well, because a Big Bang needs a Big Banger, right? You can't get all of space and time and matter to just pop into existence without any explanation. Now, keep in mind that before, and when I say before, I'm using that in scare quotes here, before the universe began to exist, nothing existed. And I mean nothing, right? There was no time, no atoms, no space, right? There wasn't even a vacuum. So what then caused everything to begin to exist, right? Well,

there's seems to be only two options, only two possible answers here. Either nothing or something. In other words, either nothing caused everything to begin to exist or something caused everything to begin to exist. Now, if you go with nothing, that's kind of strange because nothing can't produce something, right? From nothing, nothing comes. And so the

only alternative then it seems to me is to suggest that something or someone caused the universe to begin to exist. And so this beginning really that begs for creator isn't the only Big Bang that needs explaining. So I want to talk about a second Big Bang, and that is a biological Big Bang, all right, biological Big Bang. So plants and animals that were once absent from all of existence, right, now populate the planet, right? However, life, or I guess the question would be, how does life emerge from non-living matter? So think about it. Not only must lifeless parts assemble without help to form living cells,

but colossal amounts of program code, which of course we call DNA, are necessary to create living organisms and to enable those organisms to operate properly, and of course to reproduce. and to enable those organisms to operate properly, and of course to reproduce. And this is really a gargantuan step to go from non-living matter to even the most simplest of living and reproducing cells. And so here I want to quote microbiologist Michael Denton, who explains the challenge of trying to bring about this biological Big Bang, and really highlights the massive leap that needs to take place to go from non-living matter to a living cell or something that is alive.

So here's the quote. Quote, We now know not only of the existence of a break between the living and non-living world, but also that it represents the most dramatic and fundamental of all the discontinuities of nature. Between a living cell and the most highly ordered non-biological system, such as a crystal or a snowflake, there is a chasm as vast and absolute as it is possible to conceive. Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living systems on earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex objects.

Each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery made up altogether of 100,000 million atoms, far more complicated than any machine built by man, and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world. The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle. End quote.

So you see, this transition from non-life to life represents a Big Bang, right? An explosion of life forms showing up across the planet. All right, so let me turn to then the third big bang, and that is the big bang of consciousness. So this third, again, unbelievable creation event is the beginning of minds, okay? How does inert matter begin to think and become self-aware, right? Physical objects, no matter how complex they are, they don't have the capacity to reason and to reflect on their own existence. And so at some point though, mere matter became conscious, began to think, and now we have Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, we got, you know, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and we got Shakespeare's writings.

It's amazing. Consciousness just sort of burst onto the scene and now there are billions of people with consciousness, with minds who are able to reflect upon it. And so here again you have three big bangs that I would argue represent monumental beginnings of fundamentally new things that didn't exist before. You got matter, you got life, and you got consciousness. Now naturalists, which are people who deny of course God's existence and believe

that physical or material things are all that exist. These people appear comfortable attributing the start of such profoundly significant creations to nothing, right? No one or no thing thought of or planned or created physical matter, biological life, or conscious minds. Nothing made everything on their view. And I would argue that's a significant miracle right there. And so an alternative scenario says that something or someone made all things. And whatever it was, it had the power to make matter from nothing,

to give life to the lifeless matter and to give consciousness to the mindless. And so I would argue that this isn't really a debate about evidence, right? I don't want you to be fooled by this old narrative that we've heard in the past where atheists are the ones who are claiming to uphold reason and evidence and science while Christians sort of succumb to sly fairy tales, right? Both parties are looking at the same evidence. And so the only difference then between them is the worldview by which they are interpreting reality. So the atheist naturalism tells them that nothing made everything, even though nothing is impotent

to do or create anything. And the Christian's worldview says that something, indeed someone, says that something, indeed someone, created all things. And that's why I say the fundamental divide is over worldviews, not evidence. All right, well, that's all I have for you today. If you are enjoying my thoughts and reflections upon apologetics and theology and worldview and this stuff that I've been talking about today and in other episodes, talking about today and in other episodes, be sure to rate or review my podcast on iTunes or wherever else you might be listening to this podcast on. And thanks for listening, and I will talk to you next time. Bye.