This lets theoreticians avoid, e.g., the quantum measurement problem, and
some other aspects of quantum weirdness.
Of course, it does pay a rather enormous price for this. Most physicists
find this to be truly egregious, a simple theory with an extraordinarily
bloated ontology (talk about needlessly multiplying hypothetical entities!),
but it's one way to avoid design, in theory at least.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: evolution-owner@udomo2.calvin.edu
> [mailto:evolution-owner@udomo2.calvin.edu]On Behalf Of Stephen Jones
> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 1998 3:42 PM
> To: evolution@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: Big crunch idea on universe exploded
>
>
> All
>
> Here is yet another study which concluded that the Universe will
> expand forever. This means that as far as the empirical evidence
> goes, this is the only Universe that has ever existed. So
> non-theists have to find other, non-empirical ways to account for a
> Universe which came into being out of nothing, as John Gribbin
> realised:
>
> "The biggest problem with the Big Bang theory of the origin of the
> Universe is philosophical-perhaps even theological-what was there
> before the bang? This problem alone was sufficient to give a great
> initial impetus to the Steady State theory; but with that theory now
> sadly in conflict with the observations, the best way round this
> initial difficulty is provided by a model in which the universe
> expands from a singularity [that is, a beginning], collapses back
> again, and repeats the cycle indefinitely" (Gribbin J., "Oscillating
> Universe Bounces Back", Nature 259, 1976, pp15-16, in Ross H., "The
> Creator and the Cosmos", 1993, pp55-56).
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Big crunch idea on universe exploded
>
> WASHINGTON
>
> Research by US astronomers has debunked the "collapsing universe"
> theory in favour of the belief that the universe will continue
> expanding forever
>
> THE "big bang" will not be followed by the "big crunch". That's the
> conclusion of five teams of astronomers who used different
> techniques to study the future of the universe.
>
> Ruth Daly, a Princeton University astronomer, summed up the
> findings: "It is quite clear now that the universe will expand forever."
>
> The astronomy teams were trying to determine if there was enough
> matter in the universe to force it to stop expanding and start
> collapsing inward.
>
> Their findings, presented to the American Astronomical Society
> suggest that there will never be a grand crunch.
>
> Most astronomers accept the idea that the universe began with a "big
> bang", a moment about 15 billion years ago when a superdense point
> exploded in the most gigantic bang imaginable.
>
> It is believed that since that moment, all matter in the universe has
> been expanding outward. The controversy among astronomers is
> whether the universe is "closed" or "open".
>
> In a closed universe the expansion should continue until gravity from
> the mass of matter cancelled the outward force and the motion
> reversed directions. In effect, the universe would then collapse inward
> until it was crammed into a single point of unimaginable density-"the
> big crunch".
>
> But astronomers
>
> from Princeton, Yale, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
> and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Institute reported that all
> of their studies showed the universe was "open". In effect, they found
> that it would continue to expand, and even accelerate, forever.
>
> Neta Bahcall, working with a second Princeton team, said her studies
> of the universe's biggest structures-immense clusters of hundreds of
> galaxies, each with billions of stars-showed the universe was too
> lightweight to "crunch" .
>
> "It has only about 20 per cent of the mass needed to close," she said.
>
> Peter Garnavich, of the Harvard-Smithsonian, Saul Perlmutter, of the
> Lawrence Berkeley, and Bradley Schaefer, of Yale, studied
> supernovae, which are exploding stars, to measure the rate of
> expansion of the universe.
>
> By looking deep into the universe, the astronomers could measure the
> rate of expansion early in the universe's history.
>
> Knowing the speed of the expansion was essential for estimating the
> density of matter in the universe and thus determining if the
> expansion would continue.
>
> Dr Garnavich said his team was 95 per cent certain that "the density
> of matter is insufficient to halt the expansion of the universe".
>
> Some of the supernovae studied by the astronomers are the farthest
> stellar explosions sighted.
>
> Dr Daly used a system which measured the distance and motion of
> radio "hot spots", intense sources of natural radio signals emitted
> from very hot stars.
>
> She said her data agreed with the others – the universe was open and
> would expand forever.
>
> However, that did not mean nothing would change. Eventually all the
> fuel in the stars would burn out and the universe would become cold
> and dark, "with nothing left but rocks".
>
> But relax, said Dr Schaefer. That would not happen for another 100
> billion years, give or take a few billion.
>
> ("Big crunch idea on universe exploded", The West Australian,
> Saturday January 10, 1998, p46)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> God bless.
>
> Steve
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net
> 3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Steve.Jones@health.wa.gov.au
> Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ Phone +61 8 9448 7439
> Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>