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Origins of the Universe

In the book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking presents his theories about the origin of the universe, the history of the universe, and a vision of the end of the universe. He says that this is a book about physics and cosmology but that it is also a book about God, and clearly this is because the subject matter crosses over into the same territory as religion. In considering the nature and reason for the universe, hawking is asking the same question religious people ask, though his answer may be somewhat different--he asks for an explanation of the universe, a reason for existence, and some understanding of the force that shaped it, governs it, and determines its fate.

Hawking considers the origin of the universe and notes at the outset that this is not a new question but one that has been asked by every major religion in the world. The assumption has long been that there was a beginning, a First Cause. Another argument for the existence of God was offered by St. Augustine. On the other hand, Aristotle rejected the idea of a creation because he did not like the idea of divine intervention. The Greeks thus believed that the human race and the world had exited forever and would continue to exist forever. Augustine argued that time existed only in relation to the universe because both had been created by God. The image was of an unchanging universe, but this changed from a scientific viewpoint with the discovery by Hubble that the universe is expanding:

Hubble's observations suggested that there wa sa time, called the big bang, when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. Under such conditions all the laws of science, and therefore all ability to predict the future, would break down (8).

As Hawking shows, all the beliefs of religion are also tested by this discovery, though they are tested in a way that suggests that those who believe there was a beginning shaped by God were closer to the tr...

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Origins of the Universe. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:09, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707179.html