> BY HARUN YAHYA
>
> The questions of how the universe originated, where it leads to, and
> how the laws maintaining its order and balance work have always been
> topics of interest. Scientists and thinkers have thought about this
> subject endlessly and have produced quite a few theories.
>
> The prevailing thought until the early 20th century was that the
> universe had infinite dimensions, that it had existed since eternity,
> and that it would continue to exist forever. According to this view,
> called the ‘static universe model’, the universe had neither a
> beginning nor an end.
> Laying the groundwork for the materialist philosophy, this view denied
> the existence of a Creator while it maintained that the universe is a
> constant, stable, and unchanging collection of matter.
>
> Materialism is a system of thought that holds matter to be an absolute
> being and denies the existence of anything but matter. Having its
> roots in ancient Greece and gaining ever-increasing acceptance in the
> 19th century, this system of thought became famous in the shape of the
> dialectical materialism of Karl Marx.
>
> As we have stated earlier, the static universe model of the 19th
> century prepared the grounds for the materialist philosophy. In his
> book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie, George Politzer stated
> concerning the basis of this universe model that "the universe was not
> a created object", and added:
>
>     If it were, then it would have to be created instantaneously by
> God and brought into existence from nothing. To admit creation, one
> has to admit, in the first place, the existence of a moment when the
> universe did not exist, and that something came out of nothingness.
> This is something to which science cannot accede.(1)
>
> When Politzer asserted that the universe was not created out of
> nothingness, he was relying on the static universe model of the 19th
> century, and thinking that he was posing a scientific claim. However,
> the 20th century’s developing science and technology demolished
> primitive concepts such as the static universe model that laid the
> grounds for the materialists. Today, on the brink of the 21st century,
> modern physics has proved with many experiments, observations and
> calculations that the universe had a beginning and that it was created
> out of nothing with a big explosion.
>
> That the universe had a beginning means that the cosmos was brought
> into being out of nothing, that is, that it was created. If a created
> thing exists (which did not exist beforehand), then it certainly
> should have a Creator. Being from non-being is something inconceivable
> by the human mind. (Man cannot practically conceive it since he has no
> chance of experiencing it.) Therefore, being from non-being is very
> different from bringing objects together to form a new object (such as
> works of art or technological inventions). It is a sign of Allah’s
> creation alone that everything formed perfectly all at once and in a
> single moment, when the created things had no previous examples and
> not even time and space existed in which to create them.
>
> The coming of the universe into being from non-being is the greatest
> proof possible that it has been created. Consideration of this fact
> will change a lot of things. It helps people understand the meaning of
> life and review their attitudes and purposes. This is why many
> scientific communities have tried to disregard the fact of creation
> which they could not fully comprehend, even though its evidence was
> clear to them.
> The fact that all scientific evidence points to the existence of a
> Creator has compelled them to invent alternatives to create confusion
> in the minds of people. Nevertheless, the evidence of science itself
> puts a definite end to these theories.
>
> Now, let us take a brief look at the scientific developmental process
> through which the universe came about.
>
> THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
>
> In 1929, in the California Mount Wilson observatory, an American
> astronomer by the name of Edwin Hubble made one of the greatest
> discoveries in the history of astronomy. While he observed the stars
> with a giant telescope, he found out that the light from them was
> shifted to the red end of the spectrum and that this shift was more
> pronounced the further a star was from the earth. This discovery had
> an electrifying effect in the world of science, because according to
> the recognized rules of physics, the spectra of light beams travelling
> towards the point of observation tend towards violet while the spectra
> of the light beams moving away from the point of observation tend
> towards red. During Hubble’s observations, the light from stars was
> discovered to tend towards red. This meant that they were constantly
> moving away from us.
>
> Before long, Hubble made another very important discovery: Stars and
> galaxies moved away not only from us, but also from one another. The
> only conclusion that could be derived from a universe where everything
> moves away from everything else is that the universe constantly
> ‘expands’.
>
> To better understand, the universe can be thought of as the surface of
> a balloon being blown up. Just as the points on the surface of a
> balloon move apart from each other as the balloon is inflated, so do
> the objects in space move apart from each other as the universe keeps
> expanding.
>
> In fact, this had been theoretically discovered even earlier. Albert
> Einstein, who is considered the greatest scientist of the century, had
> concluded after the calculations he made in theoretical physics that
> the universe could not be static. However, he had laid his discovery
> to rest simply not to conflict with the widely recognized static
> universe model of his time. Later on, Einstein was to identify his act
> as ‘the greatest mistake of his career’. Subsequently, it became
> definite by Hubble’s observations that the universe expands.
> What importance, then, did the fact that the universe expands have on
> the existence of the universe?
>
> The expansion of the universe implied that if it could travel
> backwards in time, the universe would prove to have originated from a
> single point. The calculations showed that this ‘single point’ that
> harbored all the matter of the universe should have ‘zero volume’ and
> ‘infinite density’. The universe had come about by the explosion of
> this single point with zero volume. This great explosion that marked
> the beginning of the universe was named the ‘Big Bang’ and the theory
> started to be so called.
>
> It has to be stated that ‘zero volume’ is a theoretical expression
> used for descriptive purposes. Science can define the concept of
> ‘nothingness’, which is beyond the limits of human comprehension, only
> by expressing it as ‘a point with zero volume’. In truth, ‘a point
> with no volume’ means ‘nothingness’. The universe has come into being
> from nothingness. In other words, it was created.
>
> The Big Bang theory showed that in the beginning all the objects in
> the universe were of one piece and then were parted. This fact, which
> was revealed by the Big Bang theory was stated in the Qur’an 14
> centuries ago, when people had a very limited knowledge about the
> universe:
>
> Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined
> together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder? We
> made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (Surat
> al-Anbiya, 30)
>
> As stated in the verse, everything, even the ‘heavens and the earth’
> that were not yet created, were created with a Big Bang out of a
> single point, and shaped the present universe by being parted from
> each other.
>
> When we compare the statements in the verse with the Big Bang theory,
> we see that they fully agree with each other. However, the Big Bang
> was introduced as a scientific theory only in the 20th century.
>
> The expansion of the universe is one of the most important pieces of
> evidence that the universe was created out of nothing. Although this
> fact was not discovered by science until the 20th century, Allah has
> informed us of this reality in the Qur’an revealed 1,400 years ago: It
> is We who have built the universe with (Our creative) power, and,
> verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it. (Surat adh-Dhariyat,
> 47)
>
> THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE BIG BANG THEORY
>
> As clearly seen, the Big Bang theory proved that the universe was
> ‘created from nothing’, in other words, that it was created by Allah.
> For this reason, astronomers committed to the materialist philosophy
> continued to resist the Big Bang and uphold the steady-state theory.
> The reason for this effort was revealed in the following words of A.
> S. Eddington, one of the foremost materialist physicists:
>
>     ‘Philosophically, the notion of an abrupt beginning to the present
> order of Nature is repugnant to me.’(2)
>
> Sir Fred Hoyle was one of those who were disturbed by the Big Bang
> theory. In the middle of the century, Hoyle championed a theory called
> the steady-state which was similar to the ‘constant universe’ approach
> of the 19th century. The steady-state theory argued that the universe
> was both infinite in size and eternal in duration. With the sole
> visible aim of supporting the materialist philosophy, this theory was
> totally at variance with the ‘Big Bang’ theory, which held that the
> universe had a beginning.
>
> Those who defended the steady-state theory opposed the Big Bang for a
> long time. Science, however, was working against them.
>
> Some scientists, on the other hand, looked for ways to develop
> alternatives.
>
> In 1948, George Gamov came up with another idea concerning the Big
> Bang. He stated that after the formation of the universe by a big
> explosion, a radiation surplus should have existed in the universe
> left over from this explosion. Moreover, this radiation ought to be
> uniformly diffused across the universe.
>
> This evidence which ‘ought to have existed’ was soon to be found.
>
> MORE EVIDENCE: COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION
>
> In 1965, two researchers by the name of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
> discovered ...
>
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