Intelligent
Design / Creationist
The most standardized version of Intelligent Design
(ID)theory states that the universe and everything in it was designed
and created by some Higher Being. Creationism is another, similar
belief, which states that the world and everything in the universe
was created by a Higher Being. They differ in forms of evidence;
Creationists abandon all logic in favor of absolute literal faith in bible stories. Intelligent
Design theorists go a step farther by attempting to show there is a powerful intellect behind the design of the universe by twisting scientific reasoning and imagination together in mostly illogical rhetoric.
The lack of logic and imaginative twists they employ make all their statements impossible to prove or disprove. Logical nonsense
like this compels many scientists to reject both creationism and ID as invalid explanations of our universe.
The International Planetarium Society has made a statement endorsing the scientific interpretation of the age and origin of the universe complete with additional resource references. The University of Maine Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium recommends that as the most responsible and balanced summary of the facts.
These Other organizations also have assessments of the state of the question:
The American Astronomical Society; On the Teaching of the History of the Universe"
and ; An Ancient Universe: How Astronomers Know the Vast Scale of Cosmic Time (pdf booklet)
The American Physical Society has several position statements including one on creationism education.
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Big
Bang
The Big Bang theory represents the most agreed upon
theory among scientists and academics around the world on how
the universe was created. It states that at one point in time,
all matter in the universe was very closely condensed together
and very very hot. It then rapidly expanded in something like
a 'big bang'. This initial explosion started everything in the
universe in motion, and that motion led to the creation of stars,
planets, asteroids and every other astronomical body. The theory
is based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and other
instruments into the farthest reaches of space, which showed that
the universe is expanding, combined with predictions made by relativity
theory.
Scientists have calculated very precisely what went
on during the first fractions of the first second of the creation
of the universe. During those first miniscule moments, all of
the matter that had condensed experienced a period of intense
growth, called 'cosmic inflation'. This inflation of the universe
occured with very fast, and caused the elements that the early
universe was made of to eventually become deuterium and helium
nuclei in a process called 'big bang nucleosynthesis'. These nuclei
would later combine to form atoms, mostly hydrogen, which is one
of the most abundant elements in the universe.
As these elements expanded and cooled, they changed
into different kinds of elements through a process called 'baryogenesis'.
Theorists predicted that if this had actually occured, there would
be 'cosmic microwave radiation' of a particular type still existing
somewhere in the universe; and in the 1960's this type of radiation
was indeed discovered, further validating the theory over its
rivals.
The big bang theory is widely accepted among scientists,
and does very well at explaining the conditions we can see in our uiniverse today.
Einstein's relativity predicts
that all matter should have existed at a singularity, similar
to the singularity in the center of a black hole, but visible light or any radiation could not radiate at the very beginning. Scientists will continue to seek the evidence that will show what existed before the Big Bang and that will probably require them to study the very.. VERY small.
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