RE: Big crunch idea on universe exploded

John E. Rylander (rylander@prolexia.com)
Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:14:22 -0600

Just as background, probably the preferred way to avoid the issue of design
now is adopt the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which
(as I understand it, though there are probably variations) every quantum
possibility is actualized in individual spatio-temporally disconnected
universes. So every femtosecond, an unimaginably large quantity of
universes is coming into being, said quantity increasing exponentially with
each passing femtosecond.

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)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>