Chapter 2/How Did Our Universe Get Here?- The Controversy -Evidence Pointing to a Beginning

All the individual stars you see are the Milky Way galaxy. Until the 1920's, that seemed to be the only galaxy. You probably know, though, that observations with larger telescopes have since proved  otherwise.  Our universe contains at least 50,000,000,000 galaxies, each with billions of stars like our sun. Yet, it was not the staggering quantity of huge galaxies that shook scientific beliefs in in the 1920's. It was that they are all in motion.

Astronomers discovered a remarkable fact:  When galactic light was passed through a prism, the light waves were seen to be stretched, indicating motion away from us at great speed.  The more distant a galaxy, the faster it appeared to be receding. That points to an expanding universe!

Even if we are neither professional astronomers nor amateurs, we can see that an expanding universe would have profound implications about our past-and perhaps our personal future too.  Something must have started the process-a force powerful enough to overcome the immense gravity of the entire universe.  You have good reason to ask, 'What could be the source of such dynamic energy?'  

Although most scientists  trace the universe back to a very small, dense beginning (a singularity), we cannot avoid this key issue:  "If at some point in the past, the Universe was once close to a singular state of infinitely small size and infinite density, we have to ask what was there before and what was outside the Universe. . . . We have to face the problem of a Beginning." -Sir Bernard Lovell. 

This implies more than just a source of vast energy. Foresight and intelligence are also needed because  the rate of expansion seems very finely tuned.  "If the Universe has expanded one million millionth part faster," said Lovell, "then all the material in the Universe would have dispersed by now. . . . And if it had been a million millionth part slower, then gravitation forces would have caused the Universe to collapse within the first thousand million years or so of its existence. Again, there would have been no long-lived  stars and no life."

Next time: How Did Our Universe Get Here?-The Controversy - Attempts to Explain the Beginning 

From the book Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?