Origins Quest
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        • First Discovery >
          • Mass and Weight of Energy
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        • Second Discovery
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          • The First Light
          • Separating Light from Darkness
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        • Teaching Children
        • The Idea the Word “Day” Expresses >
          • A Day Not The First Day
          • Not Literal 24-Hour Days
        • How Long Did the First Three Days Last?
        • Earth Rotation and the First Two Days
        • The Duration of the First Day
        • The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
      • Was There a Beginning? >
        • An Uncreated Unchanging Universe
        • Evidence for a Beginning >
          • Elements in the Stars
          • Natural Radiation from Space
          • Stars Consume Their Fuel
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        • Instability Determinism Uncertainty, Predestination >
          • Instability
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        • Einstein Science and Philosophy
        • Predestination versus Timely Intervention
    • Simple Elements and Morning Stars >
      • First Evening Energy and Particles >
        • The Energy of Different Kinds of Rays
        • The Most Energetic Rays
        • Natural Particle Production >
          • Simulating the Process
          • Particles from Darkness
        • Darkness in the Bible >
          • Why Darkness Comes First
          • Isaiah on Darkness and Light
      • First Morning-Simple Elements >
        • Doppler Shift Expansion and Cooling >
          • The Beginning of Nucleosynthesis
          • Four Forces
          • Forces Present in Empty Space
        • Nucleosynthesis >
          • The First Elements
          • The First Halt in Nuclei Production
          • Insufficient Complexity
        • The First Light Was Good >
          • The Immediate Cause of the First Light
          • Forming the Light
          • The Confirmation of Darkness and Light
    • Stars that Formed Complex Elements >
      • Second Evening-Expansion >
        • The Expanding Universe >
          • The Giant Atom that Exploded
          • Expansion Not a Big Bang Explosion
          • Expansion Preserves Order
        • Expanding Now But Later What? >
          • Expanding but Uncreated
          • Continuous Creation
          • The Cyclic Version of Continuous Creation
        • The Expanding Universe Prevails
      • Second Morning-Heavy Elements >
        • Heat and Light Make Heavy Elements >
          • Differences in Stellar Composition
          • Nuclear Binding Energy
        • Energy from Fusion and Fission >
          • The Proton-Proton Reaction
          • Nuclear Stability
        • Different Kinds of Fission
        • Burning Helium and Heavier Elements
    • Forming the Sun and Earth >
      • Third Evening-A Dusty Yellow Star >
        • Supernovas Begin the Third Evening
        • Extraterrestrial Water
        • Lighting the Sun
        • The Carbon to Oxygen Reaction
        • The Darkness of the Third Evening
      • Third Morning-The Earth Forms >
        • The Search for a Planet Suitable for Life
    • How Does God Create? >
      • Conditions at the Very Beginning >
        • Creation from Nothing
        • Can We Create Energy? >
          • God Works to Create Energy
          • The Work Necessary to Create the Universe
        • Denial of Creation
        • The Simplest Explanation
        • Creation in a Singularity >
          • Can We Investigate the Instant of Creation?
          • The First Light Has Fluctuations
      • The Next Three Days >
        • Structure in the Genesis Narrative >
          • Examples of Parallelism
          • Parallel Structure in the Creation Narrative
        • Day Four >
          • Not All Stars Formed on the Fourth Day
          • When Did the Stars and Sun Start to Shine?
          • Signs for Animals and People
      • What Is the Origin of the Universe?
    • Appendices >
      • Appendix A
      • Appendix B
  • Design or Luck?
    • Creative Design >
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        • Finches and Form Adaptation
        • Adaptive Behavior and Structure
        • Intelligence and Autonomy
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        • Small Improvements Are Merely Engineering
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          • Wide Coding Overcomes Noise
          • DNA is a Natural Language
          • Common Ancestry
          • Accepted Words Span the Space
        • Is Creative Design Consistent with Darwinism? >
          • Engineering Design
          • A Challenge for Darwinists
    • Thermodynamics >
      • Thermodynamics Information and Creation >
        • The First Law of Thermodynamics
        • Physical Law Keeps Life from Starting by Itself
        • Spontaneous-assembly-by-random-action >
          • Random action cannot produce living beings
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        • Does Gravity Organize Things?
        • The Second Law of Thermodynamics >
          • Entropy
          • Perpetual Motion
        • Information and Order >
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          • Multiplying Probability and Adding Entropy
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          • Structure and Breakdown--Death and Decay
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        • A Simple Example of a Thermodynamic Process
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          • The Limit of the Known Universe
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        • Living Organisms and Heat Engines >
          • The Thermodynamics of Life without Sunlight
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The Cyclic Version of Continuous Creation

The above three lines of evidence were in place by 1992, but some people kept on trying to avoid the conclusion that there was a creation. In 1999 Hoyle and others proposed a cyclic version of the expanding universe.[i] They called their proposal a “quasi-steady-state cosmology.” Their proposal also incorporates the “bouncing universe.”

In the universe according to Hoyle the part of the universe we inhabit (and the only part we can observe) is presently in an expanding phase. Hoyle predicts that eventually gravity will halt the expansion and start pulling the galaxies back together again. He says that we are on the rebound from the last bounce, but if the human race lasts long enough our posterity may eventually be in a contracting phase that will lead to the next bounce. Everything will become as compressed as things were when the expansion started. The present phase began with an event others describe as a big bang, and the phase will eventually approach what others call a big crunch.

When all the ashes of the burned-out stars are horribly compressed, the known laws of physics say that the universe will become one huge black hole. However, at this point Hoyle and his colleagues invoke some new physics. They say, truly enough, that we cannot achieve in the laboratory the temperatures and pressures that would be reached in the big crunch. Therefore we don’t know by experiment or observation how matter behaves under such conditions. Given this ignorance, Hoyle speculates that there may be other laws of physics, unknown to us, that prevail at extremely high temperatures and pressures. Normally, irreversible processes cause the universe to move toward increasing disorder, but the new physics might work the other way. These new laws might produce a kind of renovation, creating a new, highly ordered state of matter and energy. New physical laws may, so to speak, reverse the burning process and make fuel again from ashes. New order may appear spontaneously.

If the new laws of physics are like this and all of this happens, there will be new fuel for the next bounce of the universe. The reason Hoyle gives for this fantastic hope is that the present phase of expansion may have emerged from a similar, past event.

Does science warrant this hope, or is it just incurable romanticism? Can the phoenix rise from its ashes? We must credit Hoyle with optimism. He thinks the universe can make new fuel by crushing its own ashes.

To our knowledge no one has found a way to discover, test, and confirm the kind of physics that can make fuel from ashes. Was proposing it a last desperate attempt to hold onto the cyclic or “bouncing” universe and to avoid the philosophical implications of a beginning?

[i] Burbidge, Geoffrey, Fred Hoyle, and Jayant V. Narlikar, “A Different Approach to Cosmology,” Physics Today, 52 (Number 4, April 1999), pp. 38–44.

​Can New Physics Recycle the Universe?

​Physics Today printed a reply immediately after the above proposal.[i] The author of the reply, Andreas Albrecht, noted that Hoyle and his coworkers “approach cosmology with a set of prior prejudices that take them far afield from the mainstream community of cosmologists. They hold on to views that, I must say, look pretty unreasonable to most of us working in the field. Nonetheless, I believe that convergence will eventually be possible.” The convergence Albrecht mentions is a convergence of views, not a convergence of the material of the universe into a Big Crunch. In September 1999 Physics Today printed one more exchange of replies and a rebuttal, without producing any notable difference in the opposing positions.[ii]

[i] Albrecht, Andreas, ‘Reply to “A Different Approach to Cosmology,”’ Physics Today, 52 (Number 4, April 1999), pp. 44–46.
[ii] “Letters: Proponents of Colliding Cosmologies Take Exotic Turns,” a letter by David M. Smith, a letter by C. Sivaram, and a reply by Burbidge, Hoyle and Narlikar, Physics Today, 52 (Number 9, September 1999), pp. 13, 15, and 78.

Accelerating Expansion

​​Before Hoyle published his paper, evidence from the work of Saul Perlmutter[i] and others had already shown that the expansion of the universe, rather than decelerating under the action of gravity, is actually accelerating.
​

[i] Perlmutter, Saul, “Supernovae, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe,” Physics Today, 56 (Number 4, April 2003), pp. 53–60.
No Big Crunch and No New Physical Laws
​Some results reported in April 2001 still allowed a faint hope for a Big Crunch and perhaps even a cyclic universe. The coup de grace came when the project scientists of WMAP released 13 papers to Science on 11 February 2003. All teams unanimously concluded that there never will be a Big Crunch. That means that there will never be a chance for any new physics of extreme temperatures and pressures to turn ashes into fuel again and renew the universe.

Hoyle did not live to see these results. He died on 20 August 2001. What makes this especially sad is the seriousness with which Hoyle sought to deny that the universe had a beginning.

The Expanding Universe Prevails
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  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • The First Three Days of the Earth
    • Reconciling Science and the Bible >
      • Precise Science Confirms the Bible
      • Moses Foresaw Three Discoveries >
        • First Discovery >
          • Mass and Weight of Energy
          • Transformations and Materialization
          • Different Kinds of Rays and Materialization in Empty Space
          • Was Energy the Source of Material
        • Second Discovery
        • Third Discovery >
          • The First Light
          • Separating Light from Darkness
        • Early Ideas about the Beginning
        • An Up-to-Date Ancient Cosmology
        • The Confirmation
        • A Challenging Question
      • Cycles of Darkness and Light >
        • Teaching Children
        • The Idea the Word “Day” Expresses >
          • A Day Not The First Day
          • Not Literal 24-Hour Days
        • How Long Did the First Three Days Last?
        • Earth Rotation and the First Two Days
        • The Duration of the First Day
        • The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
      • Was There a Beginning? >
        • An Uncreated Unchanging Universe
        • Evidence for a Beginning >
          • Elements in the Stars
          • Natural Radiation from Space
          • Stars Consume Their Fuel
        • Cosmology and Relativity
        • Instability Determinism Uncertainty, Predestination >
          • Instability
          • Stability and Determinism
          • Predestination Indeterminacy Uncertainty
        • Einstein Science and Philosophy
        • Predestination versus Timely Intervention
    • Simple Elements and Morning Stars >
      • First Evening Energy and Particles >
        • The Energy of Different Kinds of Rays
        • The Most Energetic Rays
        • Natural Particle Production >
          • Simulating the Process
          • Particles from Darkness
        • Darkness in the Bible >
          • Why Darkness Comes First
          • Isaiah on Darkness and Light
      • First Morning-Simple Elements >
        • Doppler Shift Expansion and Cooling >
          • The Beginning of Nucleosynthesis
          • Four Forces
          • Forces Present in Empty Space
        • Nucleosynthesis >
          • The First Elements
          • The First Halt in Nuclei Production
          • Insufficient Complexity
        • The First Light Was Good >
          • The Immediate Cause of the First Light
          • Forming the Light
          • The Confirmation of Darkness and Light
    • Stars that Formed Complex Elements >
      • Second Evening-Expansion >
        • The Expanding Universe >
          • The Giant Atom that Exploded
          • Expansion Not a Big Bang Explosion
          • Expansion Preserves Order
        • Expanding Now But Later What? >
          • Expanding but Uncreated
          • Continuous Creation
          • The Cyclic Version of Continuous Creation
        • The Expanding Universe Prevails
      • Second Morning-Heavy Elements >
        • Heat and Light Make Heavy Elements >
          • Differences in Stellar Composition
          • Nuclear Binding Energy
        • Energy from Fusion and Fission >
          • The Proton-Proton Reaction
          • Nuclear Stability
        • Different Kinds of Fission
        • Burning Helium and Heavier Elements
    • Forming the Sun and Earth >
      • Third Evening-A Dusty Yellow Star >
        • Supernovas Begin the Third Evening
        • Extraterrestrial Water
        • Lighting the Sun
        • The Carbon to Oxygen Reaction
        • The Darkness of the Third Evening
      • Third Morning-The Earth Forms >
        • The Search for a Planet Suitable for Life
    • How Does God Create? >
      • Conditions at the Very Beginning >
        • Creation from Nothing
        • Can We Create Energy? >
          • God Works to Create Energy
          • The Work Necessary to Create the Universe
        • Denial of Creation
        • The Simplest Explanation
        • Creation in a Singularity >
          • Can We Investigate the Instant of Creation?
          • The First Light Has Fluctuations
      • The Next Three Days >
        • Structure in the Genesis Narrative >
          • Examples of Parallelism
          • Parallel Structure in the Creation Narrative
        • Day Four >
          • Not All Stars Formed on the Fourth Day
          • When Did the Stars and Sun Start to Shine?
          • Signs for Animals and People
      • What Is the Origin of the Universe?
    • Appendices >
      • Appendix A
      • Appendix B
  • Design or Luck?
    • Creative Design >
      • Darwin and Adaptive Variation >
        • Finches and Form Adaptation
        • Adaptive Behavior and Structure
        • Intelligence and Autonomy
      • Biological Structure and Reproduction
      • Adaptive Form
      • Darwin and Darwinism >
        • The Development of the Sciences
        • Contrasting Darwinism and Thermodynamics
        • Darwinism Today
      • The Limits of Automatic Design
    • Why Are Not All Darwinists Rich? >
      • Automatic Design: Artificial and Natural >
        • The Automatic Lens-Design Program
        • Company Top Secret
        • Comparing Evolution and Lens Design
        • My Colleagues Reacted
      • Conclusion-Darwinism Does Not Work >
        • Can Design Be Automatic?
        • Darwinism and Automatic Design
      • How Far Can Small Steps Take Us? >
        • Small Improvements Are Merely Engineering
        • The Vastness of Hyperspace
        • Primordial Alphabet Soup >
          • Wide Coding Overcomes Noise
          • DNA is a Natural Language
          • Common Ancestry
          • Accepted Words Span the Space
        • Is Creative Design Consistent with Darwinism? >
          • Engineering Design
          • A Challenge for Darwinists
    • Thermodynamics >
      • Thermodynamics Information and Creation >
        • The First Law of Thermodynamics
        • Physical Law Keeps Life from Starting by Itself
        • Spontaneous-assembly-by-random-action >
          • Random action cannot produce living beings
        • Prigogine’s Explanation of His Method
        • Reasons for Not Applying Thermodynamics
        • Does Crystallization Defeat the Second Law?
        • Does Gravity Organize Things?
        • The Second Law of Thermodynamics >
          • Entropy
          • Perpetual Motion
        • Information and Order >
          • Entropy Probability and Information
          • Multiplying Probability and Adding Entropy
          • Probability and Information
        • Structure Design Intelligence and Creativity >
          • Structure and Breakdown--Death and Decay
          • Perfection and Beauty
      • Earth-Sun Thermodynamics >
        • A Simple Example of a Thermodynamic Process
        • The Example Applied to the Sun and Earth
      • Another Error about Thermodynamics >
        • A Darwinist Argument about Thermodynamics
        • Sunlight and Earth Temperature
        • What Makes Sunlight Suitable?
      • The Night Sky Is Dark >
        • Olbers and his Paradox
        • A Black Forest and the Stars >
          • Seeing to the Far Limit of the Universe
          • The Limit of the Known Universe
          • Ordinary Darkness
      • A Planet Suitable for Life
      • The Thermodynamics of Life >
        • Living Organisms and Heat Engines >
          • The Thermodynamics of Life without Sunlight
        • Entropy Thermodynamics and Prigogine >
          • Darwinism and Thermodynamics
      • Thermodynamics and the Universe >
        • Formless and Dark but Energetic and Orderly >
          • Entropy and Penrose
        • Creative Agencies and Their Characteristics
    • Complex Order-Life-Intelligence >
      • Random Action and Complexity
      • Does Matter Organize Itself?
      • Complexity Can Be Specified
      • Information and Physical Laws
      • Did Our Life Begin Elsewhere?
      • Discovering Alien Life Will Change Nothing
      • Creative Design Suits the Universe for Life
    • The Quest Continues
  • Creationism that Scientists Can Accept
  • About
  • Contact
  • DVD
  • Booklet