I came across on the internet a commentary titled, “The universe did not start with the Big Bang — Feyman explains why.” Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was a brilliant American theoretical physicist who won the 1965 Nobel prize in physics.
I had both read and heard a lot of commentaries on the Big Bang theory before, but this commentary on the so-called theory re-sparked my interest in it. For it ends with an “I don’t know,” a safer conclusion as to the beginning of the universe. The theory states that the universe began with the Big Bang explosion 13.8 billion years ago and then it has expanded. The universe is still expanding right this very moment.
This theory was triggered by Edwin Hubble’s discovery in the late 1920s: that light from distant galaxies appeared to be red-shifted. What’s red-shift? It is about the wavelength of light. The wavelength changes depending on the relative motion between the light source and the observer. When the light source is moving away from the observer, the light’s wavelength is stretched (longer) and it appears to be red-shifted. When the light source is moving toward the observer, the light’s wavelength is compressed (shorter) and it appears to be blue-shifted. It is likened to that of the Doppler Effect concerning sound waves. Take for example the siren of an ambulance. When the ambulance is moving toward us, the sound waves become compressed (shorter) and we hear an (increasing) high pitch sound. When the ambulance is moving away from us, the sound waves become stretched (longer) and we hear a (dwindling) low pitch sound.
Hubble’s discovery showed that galaxies were therefore moving away from each other; and it is the case in whatever direction we look at the universe. The interpretation of this phenomenon is that the universe must have been expanding. The expansion is likened to a balloon being stretched. Suppose the surface of the balloon is filled with dots. When the balloon is blown with air into it, it stretches and the dots move away from each other and the more the air the more the dots recede from each other. It is the picture used to describe the expansion of the universe. It is now the prevailing theory.
Conversely, it means that if we go back in time, the galaxies were closer together and if we go further back to 13.8 billion years ago, all the galaxies must be touching together, in what scientist calls, the singularity, where the universe had an infinite density. Because of the universe’s infinite density, it was then at this point that the explosion, the Big Bang, occurred and the expansion of the universe began and it is still expanding today. And the Big Bang is said to be the beginning of the universe. And the question — Where did that singularity ultimately come from? — seems to have been avoided.
Now, this commentary re-sparked my interest in Big Bang theory. It talked about the beginning of the universe. I wrote a journal article, related to this issue, on the single verse, 1:1, of the Gospel of John in 2022. The Big Bang theory was also included in that article. The question of the beginning of the universe was put forth and the impossibility of self-starting.
The said commentary talked about the nature of time as could possibly be part of the fabric of the universe itself and about multiverses. Although it somehow stepped into the realm of philosophical cosmology, particularly the beginning of the universe, it still seems to refrain from asking the question whether the universe started itself or it was started by something else, or whether the universe could ever start itself at all, supposing there was nothing else other than the universe itself.
If suppose the universe could start itself, then the problem is that before it started itself, there had been nothing and so there had been nothing to start anything at all. Thus, in accordance with St. Thomas Aquinas, there would have been nothing up to this moment. But this conclusion is absurd because of the fact that, there “is” the universe; it exists. If it is existing, then it must have been started 13.8 billion years ago, if science is really true or correct. But the universe could not start itself to exist, for prior to itself there was but nothing and so there was nothing to start anything. How can the universe start itself to exist when prior to its existence there was nothing to start itself to exist? It’s plainly absurd!
What else then could be thought than that there must be something else that started the universe since the universe could not start itself? But atheistic scientists — those believing in the philosophy of naturalism, the view that there is nothing than this natural, physical universe — would avoid dealing such issue in philosophical cosmology. Yet, however we think of the universe, we cannot avoid being led to the point where we are confronted with the reality that there must be something else that started the universe, bringing it into existence. And that being must be greater than the universe itself. The scholastics called it God.
Thus, as to the question, “Did the universe start itself?,” the answer is no. It could not possibly be. Was the universe started by something else other than itself? The answer is yes. He is the ultimate source of that singularity. He is God who is outside the fabric of the universe. He is the God referred to by verse 1:1 of St. John’s Gospel: “In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum.”