The Big Bang

The efforts to understand our universe is a triumph of human scientific achievement, and the Big Bang theory is our best understanding of how the universe came into existence. The theory was first proposed by Catholic priest and scientist Georges Lemaitre of Belgium in 1927. The terminology used by Monsigneur Lemaitre was "...a primeval atom, a sort of Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of creation..." This was a bold proposal, which wasn't met with immediate acclaim. Such luminaries as physicist Albert Einstein and astronomer Fred Hoyle opposed the theory. Both favored the idea of a steady state universe, in which matter is created continuously. Whilst Einstein later admitted his error, saying that “the Cosmological Constant was my greatest mistake”, Hoyle persisted with the steady state hypothesis until his death in 2001. In fact, the term "Big Bang" was first used by Hoyle during a BBC radio broadcast in 1949, when he used it in a pejorative sense.

Georges Lemaitre and Albert Einstein.

Happily, Lemaitre was to live long enough (he died in 1966) to witness the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background in 1964. This discovery, more than anything else, supported Lemaitre's theory regarding the origin of the universe, and its subsequent expansion .
Despite his dual profession as scientist and priest, Lemaitre considered science and religion to be separate (but not incompatible), with each offering different, parallel interpretations of the world.

“As far as I can see, such a theory remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question.” Georges Lemaitre

Notwithstanding the reservations of Monsigneur Lemaitre, the numbers from the Bible are in accord with the Big Bang theory and particle physics. The signature of God (יהוה), which has a gematria value of 26, is evident throughout the Big Bang narrative. The most obvious observation about the universe is that it's very big, after starting very small.

“The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.” E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

At the very beginning of time, the universe spanned a region of only 10⁻²⁶ nanometers, or 10⁻³⁵ meters (1 Planck Length), with a temperature of over 10⁻³² degrees Kelvin (the Planck Temperature)

During the Inflationary Epoch, from 10⁻³⁶ to 10⁻³² seconds after the Big Bang, the universe expanded by a magnitude of 10²⁶
At the present time, the distance from the Earth to the edge of the universe is 10²⁶ meters in any direction

In the first 10⁻³² seconds after the Big Bang (that's a hundred millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second), the size of the universe increased by a greater order of magnitude than it has in the 13.8 billion years since. During this Inflationary Epoch, the universe expanded by 26 orders of magnitude, from smaller than the size of a proton to about 10 centimeters. At the size of a grapefruit, the expansion of the universe was (exponentially) past the half way mark in its expansion to what it has become today.

From the Big Bang to the end of the Inflationary Epoch, the universe expanded by 34 orders of magnitude. It has expanded an additional 27 orders of magnitude since.

The exponential increase in the size of the universe during the Inflationary Epoch is also described as 60 efolds, since 10²⁶ is approximately equal to e⁶⁰.

the radius of the observable universe is 4.3 x 10²⁶ meters = 3.77 x e⁶⁰ meters = 26.6 x 10⁶⁰ units of planck length
the present estimate of the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years = 8.27 x 10⁶⁰ units of planck time

Matter and Antimatter

“God created… light and dark, heaven and hell -- science claims the same thing as religion, that the Big Bang created
everything in the universe with an opposite. “Including matter itself, antimatter”
― Dan Brown, Angels and Demons

In physics today, one of the most puzzling unsolved problems is "why do we exist?" According to all theories of physics, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created after the Big Bang. According to this scenario, these should have completely annihilated each other, leaving energy in the form of light, but none of the building blocks for stars, galaxies and us. Somehow, matter prevailed - we know that the universe contains 10⁹ photons for every proton or neutron. These photons, created when matter annihilated with antimatter, are what we see in the cosmic microwave background. So we know that matter prevailed by just one part in a billion! Imagine a poll deciding whether or not we should exist, where every man, woman and child on earth participated. And the verdict is yes, we should exist - by a margin of a mere seven votes. It was that close. This video from Discovery TV describes the prevalence of matter over antimatter.

“I like to say that while antimatter may seem strange, it is strange in the sense that Belgians are strange. They are not really strange; it is just that one rarely meets them." ― Lawrence M. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

There has been a great deal of scientific research dedicated to this asymmetry of the early universe. In what has become one of the most quoted papers in higher physics, Kobayashi and Maskawa (1973) predicted there should be three generations of particles in order for this asymmetry to exist. The subsequent discovery of the charm (1974), bottom (1977) and top (1994) quarks proved their theory, for which they were joint winners of the Nobel Prize in 2008. Their prediction of three generations of particles was necessary to account for the difference between matter and antimatter. Fundamental particles can be considered to be geometric points, and at least three are required to produce a polygon (in the case of three generations - a triangle). Two generations would not be possible, because connecting two points results in a straight line, which would mean no difference between matter and antimatter (a straight line has no opposite reflection).

According to this polygonal model, Kobayashi and Maskawa predicted an asymmetry between matter and antimatter. Two recent experiments using particle accelerators by teams of scientists from Stanford/Berkeley and KEK (Japan) have confirmed theses predictions. Some of what is known as the CP violation was accounted for by these experiments - some, but not all.

the amount of CP violation accounted for was just 10⁻²⁶, still 17 orders of magnitude short of the existing difference

Another theory being investigated is the possibility that the neutron is not perfectly round, resulting in a slight electric charge imbalance (called the neutron electric dipole moment, or EDM). The neutron is known to be round to better than one part in a trillion.

the current limit on the neutron EDM is d < 2.9 x 10⁻²⁶ ecm at room temperature

This limit is insufficiently sensitive to detect an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, and the present goal is to reduce the level of sensitivity to 10⁻²⁸ using ultra cold technology. It seems that the study of quarks cannot explain the entire asymmetry, so experiments are being conducted in both Japan and the USA, exploring the properties of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. Scientists at Fermilab are planning a long baseline neutrino experiment. The experiment will send high intensity neutrino beams 800 miles through the earth's mantle to a large detector located at South Dakota. Neutrinos only spin left and antineutrinos only spin right. This is different from other fundamental particles of matter, which have both left and right spin counterparts. Given that neutrinos have no electric charge, there is the possibility that left-handed neutrinos and right-handed antineutrinos are actually the same. In other words, matter and antimatter can change into each other which may explain the asymmetry we see in the universe.

if these experiments prove successful, it is estimated that it will show that antimatter disappeared when the universe was 10⁻²⁶ seconds old

Particle Physics

"Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."
James Joyce - Finnegan's Wake

Until early in the 20th century, scientists believed that atoms were the fundamental building blocks of matter. Additional experiments revealed that atoms were made of protons, neutrons and electrons. It was then thought that these were elementary, and this view was held until the 1960s. Experiments hinted that protons and neutrons were composed of even smaller particles. Theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann proposed the existence of fundamental particles smaller than protons and neutrons, which he called quarks after a line by James Joyce. This discovery is explained by the man himself (not Muster Mark) in this video:

In the standard model of particle physics, there are three generations each of quarks, electrons and neutrinos. Quarks also come in three colors. Quarks and electrons can exist in either left or right handed states, but there are only left-handed neutrinos and right-handed anti-neutrinos. So there are 45 particles of matter (6 quarks x 3 colors x 2 spin states) + (3 electrons x 2 spin states) + (3 neutrinos), and 45 particles of anti-matter.

The Higgs field, which gives these particles mass, was proven in 2012 when the Higgs boson was detected, 45 years after first appearing in the physics literature in physicist Stephen Weinberg’s famous paper of 1967 "A Model of Leptons". These dates strangely correlate to the years which boast the longest and shortest mean average day in recorded history. The length of the mean average day is 86,400 seconds, but this can vary slightly due to Earth's dynamic atmosphere. Accurate measurements of these variations have been kept since the year 1700.

In the Bible, the generations of Adam up until the Great Flood can be calculated to accurately estimate the number of seconds in a mean average solar day, and the very day the windows of heaven were opened provides a key number in physics - the neutron-electron mass ratio to 99.99% accuracy. The verses Genesis 5:3-29 and 7:11 provide the clues. We read that Adam lived 130 years until he fathered Seth; Seth in turn lived 105 years until he fathered Enos, and so on through the generations up to Noah. By simple addition, we calculate that the years from Adam until the birth of Noah were 1056, and that Noah was 600 years of age at the time of the flood.

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Gen 7:11

the biblical age of the earth at the time of the Flood was 86,406 weeks
there are 86,400 seconds in a day
the gematria value of Gen 7:11 = 7425
the totient of 7425 = 3600
there are 3600 seconds in an hour
Gen 7:11 gives 7 x 11 = 77
the totient of 77 = 60
there are 60 seconds in a minute

In Gen 7:11 we read that the windows of heaven were opened on the 17th day of the 2nd month. Given that the first month on the Hebrew calendar (Nisan) has 30 days, that makes this the 47th day of the year.

86,406 / 47 = 1838.42
the neutron-electron mass ration = 1838.68 (99.99% accuracy)

The Expansion of The Universe

The expansion of the universe is determined by gravity (which slows the expansion) and the amount of matter in the universe. If there is enough matter in the universe, then the expansion will be slowed by gravity, and the universe will eventually collapse (the Big Crunch). If the density of matter is just below the critical mass, then the universe will defy gravity and continue expanding forever. The critical density of the universe is calculated using the formula (3 times the Hubble constant squared), divided by (8π times the gravitational constant).

the critical density of the universe is in the order of 10⁻²⁶ gm/cm³

The mass of the universe is very close to the critical density, meaning that the universe will continue to expand forever. This also has implications for the “shape” of the universe. A universe close to the critical density is said to be flat. Calling a three-dimensional universe “flat” means its shape is well described by Euclidean geometry: straight lines are parallel and triangles add up to 180 degrees. In the illustration, a closed (spherical) universe would occur when the total mass of the universe was greater than the critical density, whilst an open (saddle shaped) universe would result if the total mass was less than the critical density.

The three possible shapes of the universe. Closed (angles of the triangle total >180°), Open (angles of the triangle total < 180°) and Flat (angle of the triangle = 180°). Illustration courtesy of NASA.

There is further evidence for a flat universe using geometric measurements from the cosmic microwave background, as explained by astrophysicist Roberto Trotta in this video:

The total mass (baryonic) component of the universe is incredibly small in relation to it's size. Distributed evenly throughout the universe, it equates to about 6 hydrogen atoms per cubic meter. Evenly dispersed, the mass of an average man (85kg or 185 lb) would would fill a volume equivalent to about 6 suns!

the Sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.74

The Geometry of Genesis 1:1

                        "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen 1:1
                                            בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
                                      296 407    395    401    86    203    913 =     2701

Until about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a hot soup of unbound particles. As the Universe expanded it started to cool down, allowing electrons and protons to pair up and form hydrogen atoms. This recombination allowed photons of light to travel freely, no longer trapped by constant collisions with the free electrons. These photons are what we see today in images of the cosmic microwave background.

Simulated cosmic microwave background data. (Image Credit: ESA)

The first chapter of the Book of Genesis written on an egg. Israel Museum.

the gematria of Genesis 1:1 = 2701
the temperature of space 380,000 years after the Big Bang was about 2700° C
the temperature of space at present is -270.275° C

Considering the geometry of the flat universe and the triangular formation of elementary particles, it is interesting to note that 2701 is the 73rd in the series of triangular numbers according to the formula T(n) = n(n + 1)/2. Also worth noting is that 2701 is the sum of 26² and 45².

T(73) = 2701
26² + 45² = 2701
the totient of 26 x 45 = 288

The cosmic microwave background is the furthest back in time we can directly observe. Before that, there was a thick darkness which light could not penetrate. This is analogous to the thick darkness referenced in the Book of Exodus:

"And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." Exo 20:21
                              ויעמד העם מרחק ומשה נגש אל הערפל   אשר שם האלהים
                                     91    340 501 385    31    353 351       348 115      130    =   2645

the gematria of Exodus 20:21 = 2645 = concatenate (26, 45)

In the Jewish tradition, there is speculation about why the first letter in the Torah is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, rather than the first (aleph). The Midrash Genesis Rabbah provides a solution, suggesting that the letter bet is like a blinker, which means we can see forwards from that point, but not behind (remember that Hebrew script is read from right to left).

It seems the Bible really is the blueprint of creation.

The Hebrew letter bet - the first letter of Beresheit (In the beginning).

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