Is Religion Too Involved in Science?

As a rule, ever since science began, there have been mandatory religions like Christianity directing the thoughts of scientists, and sometimes changing their assumptions about the world. Scientists who dared speak out about thoughts that were contrary to the bible were often called heretics. Men like Galileo, Darwin, and even Einstein, were made to feel restricted in the ideas that they could express, if these ideas went against the Christian religion.

Ideas like evolution, and the origin of the universe are still held hostage by the church. If you do a Google search on these subjects, you will just as likely find as many Christian sites, telling you the way they want you to think, as scientific sites. Religion hides from some pretty hard to escape arguments, when they think that their belief in the literal truth of their bible is being challenged. I have nothing against the bible, but I do believe that it was written in an age when myth and legend were the style of writing, and anyone who tries to interpret every passage of the bible as literal truth, is fooling themselves.

The Greek Christian philosopher Philo, who philosophy is named after, said that there were both literal and allegorical meanings to different passages of the bible, and if you interpreted it all literally, it was nonsense. The bible, and religion, has no place in science, because science is all about proving theories, not believing them. However, there are many scientific theories today that cannot be proven, and must be believed, due to the evidence that exists, and common sense.

The Science of Evolution

Evolution is perhaps the oldest, most proven theory in science which is still argued by Christians. They can only argue that we cannot look back a million generations, to see if we were monkeys, and that because it was written in a book, we must have been created from clay by the hand of God. There is overwhelming evidence that this is not the case, for example, ape-like human skeletal remains.

Accepting this fact and still remaining a Christian would mean accepting that the people who wrote the bible were just people, and were in many cases, expressing ideas, not known facts. It is this inability to accept any other truth that makes Christianity a dangerous influence on not just science, but society. For example, we can see evolution at work when bacteria evolve resistance to anti-biotics. Admittedly, there is a lot of good intent, but some fundamentalist interpretations.

The Science of the Universe

There is not much known about the origins of the universe, except that there was most probably a big bang about thirteen billion years ago. When it was discovered that the universe was expanding from a central point, it was taken as proof by most western scientists that the universe was created by God at the big bang, like it said in Genesis. Before this, it was the opinion of most scientists that the universe was eternal.

Einstein had a very hard time believing this theory, because of two equations that pointed to an eternal universe. They were: energy equals mass, multiplied by the speed of light squared, and mass equals energy divided by the speed of light squared. The first law of thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form. The most popular idea today though, is that the universe existed as a singularity of infinite density, in which time did not exist, and then it started expanding, in a big bang, for no particular reason.

This is the view favored by Christians, because they believe by trying to prove this theory, they can prove that God must have created the universe, because there was no other cause. Scientists like Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, even Einstein himself, believed that the universe had a beginning, when there is no reaction possible without space/time. For the effect of the big bang, there must have been a cause, and I can tell you what I think that cause was.

A singularity of infinite density is a black hole, which is a form of mass in which the atom is so cold, that the electron has stopped revolving around the nucleus and collapsed, taking away most of the volume of the atom, but none of the mass. These black hole atoms can be split, just like an ordinary atom, if a very large amount of force is applied. We already know Einstein's equation E=MC2 led to the atomic bomb.

You cannot have the entire universe in one singularity, because the gravity exerted on the atoms would create heat and pressure more than sufficient to cause an atomic explosion, like the big bang. The only obvious solution is that the previous universe collapsed in a big crunch, being sucked into the center, into a giant black hole singularity, until it could no longer contain itself, and exploded again.

In the center of our sun for example, hydrogen is fused into helium, which creates an atomic reaction which keeps it burning, giving us light. There is not nearly enough pressure in the center of the sun to split an atom, only to fuse them together. Given the fact that we can split atoms on Earth using fairly simple technology, the point at which an atom splits cannot be that hard to achieve in nature, and when the entire universe collapses on itself, it will surely split every atom left in this universe.

This is what I believe

Christians don't like the many worlds theory, and try to give reasons as to why the universe could not be eternal. They site the second law of thermodynamics as a reason. The second law of thermodynamics says that all things will gain entropy over time, fall apart, slow down, cool down, and move towards a state of equilibrium.

Right now, I believe there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy, and most others, which will eventually suck in all the stars and planets, and be drawn by gravity back to the center of the universe, where a giant black hole singularity probably already exists. But the ultimate equilibrium cannot come about, because as I said, a giant singularity cannot survive the weight of itself when it has the entire universe pressing down on it.

I believe this is an endless cycle, big bang, big crunch, big bang. The amount of energy released when the next big bang happens will be the same as the last one, the second law of thermodynamics is reset each time, because, there is still just as much energy being released, due to Einstein's equations of energy and mass. How can these strings of energy, (if they are strings), continue to vibrate faster and slower, and faster again, at the same rate, for eternity, without gaining entropy? I don't know.

To tell you the truth, I don't really know any of this, it is just what I believe, and the same is true of the other theory. It makes a lot more sense to me that the universe follows an endless cycle, and has always been moving, rather than it just deciding to begin moving one day. When scientists say there are ten dimensions, or strings of energy that make up everything, they do not know for sure, but they do have to develop theories that try to explain things, even if they can never be proved, because that is their job.

Now most of the great advancements in science have been made by Christians, or at least, they had to say they were, Einstein believed that God didn't play dice, but until science can prove the existence of God, then it should be operating with complete objectivity, and trying to see things as they really are, not the way religion told them they should be.