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Georges
Lemaitre, a pioneer in scientific creation theory. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Case For The Creator. Lee Strobel was sure God did not exist. Only science could be trusted. Then his wife's conversion to Christianity set him on an intensive search for the truth. What do biology, physics, cosmology, and astronomy really tell us about our origins?
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ne day in the middle of his career, Georges
Lemaitre paused in a lecture. A loud voice had interrupted his flow of
words. "Very beautiful, very beautiful indeed," cried a man from the audience.
Lemaitre knew that voice. So did everyone else in the room; indeed, so
did millions around the world. It was Albert Einstein. He had just atoned
for snubbing Lemaitre's "firecracker" creation theory earlier.
Lemaitre was a Belgian Jesuit. He was perhaps the first man to show scientific
and mathematical proof that the universe had a distinct beginning. Throughout
human history, the majority of mankind have either believed that the universe
was created out of existing stuff or that it always existed. Einstein
himself did not want to believe that the universe was expanding. When
someone pointed out that this is what his equations showed, he added a
term that would keep the universe from growing.
The Belgian priest wasn't buying it. He saw problems with Einstein's
thinking. If the universe is running down, as the second law of thermodynamics
states, then it must be finite. There has to be a time when its state
of decay was lower than now. Thinking backward through space and time,
Lemaitre realized that the universe had expanded from an earlier state.
Indeed, Lemaitre electrified the world by coining the term "the expanding
universe." His equations were ignored at first, because they were printed
in a journal that few people read.
But Lemaitre's ideas could be tested. He thought cosmic rays were evidence
for it, but physics quickly debunked that. Lemaitre's theory was like
a rough draft. Nonetheless, his math was so persuasive that the biggest
name in astronomy, Sir Arthur Eddington, championed it. Others reworked
the priest's equations and the Big Bang theory was born. (Astronomer Fred
Hoyle, who wanted to believe in an eternal universe, gave it that name
in mockery, but it stuck.)
Scientists now agree with the Bible that the universe had a distinct
beginning and will have an end. They have shown that literally dozens
of conditions in the early universe had to be exactly right for the universe
to support life. This led some astronomers to see the hand of God at work.
As odd as it may sound, Lemaitre was upset when Pope Pius XII endorsed
his theory. He felt that approval from the pope would make his science
less acceptible to skeptics. Still, Lemaitre had recognized the religious
implications of his theory all along. In an unpublished paper written
in 1922, he wrote that he believed that the universe had begun in light
"as Genesis suggested it." (His scientific theory was not published until
nine years later.)
Lemaitre rose through the ranks of his church, published theological
works, and served as president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in
Rome. He earned the first Arthur Stanley Eddington Medal and numerous
other honors and prizes. As he lay dying, he rejoiced to hear that background
radiation had been discovered. This confirmed the basic idea behind his
theory.
Georges Lemaitre died on June 20, 1966. He was 71. His ideas forever
altered astronomy. He had helped science catch up with Scripture.
Resources:
- Big Bang and Georges Lemaître, the: proceedings of a symposium
in honour of G. Lemaître fifty years after his initiation of big-bang
cosmology, Louvainla-Neuve, Belgium, 10 - 13 October 1983; edited
by A. Berger. Dordrecht; Boston: D. Reidel Pub. Co.; Hingham, Massachusetts,
1984.
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Editor Charles Coulston
Gillispie. New York: Scribner's, 1970. Supplement.
- Graves, Daniel. Scientists of Faith. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Kregel, 1996.
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