Changes

Although many [[Atheism|atheists]] indicate that they do not know how the universe came into being, some prominent atheists claim that the universe came into existence from nothing.<ref>[http://canadafreepress.com/article/atheists-respond-to-my-challenge-to-put-up-or-shut-up/ Atheists Respond to my Challenge to Put Up or Shut Up!] by Dr. Don Boys</ref><ref>[https://dailyevidence.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/%E2%80%9Catheists-do-not-claim-that-nothing-created-everything-%E2%80%9D/ “Atheists do not claim that nothing created everything.”]</ref> For more information, please see:  [[Atheism and the origin of the universe]]

Although many [[Atheism|atheists]] indicate that they do not know how the universe came into being, some prominent atheists claim that the universe came into existence from nothing.<ref>[http://canadafreepress.com/article/atheists-respond-to-my-challenge-to-put-up-or-shut-up/ Atheists Respond to my Challenge to Put Up or Shut Up!] by Dr. Don Boys</ref><ref>[https://dailyevidence.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/%E2%80%9Catheists-do-not-claim-that-nothing-created-everything-%E2%80%9D/ “Atheists do not claim that nothing created everything.”]</ref> For more information, please see:  [[Atheism and the origin of the universe]]

As a theory which addresses the origins of the universe, the [[Big Bang]] has always carried theological implications, most notably, the concept of ''[[Creationism|creatio ex nihilo]]'', which stems from the [[Genesis creation narrative]].<ref name="Russell - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=IvlKa6frm2EC&pg=PA40&dq=rejected+God+Fred+Hoyle+big+bang&hl=en&ei=CdJuTaapN8m2tge6rKXvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=rejected%20God%20Fred%20Hoyle%20big%20bang&f=false|title =Cosmology: From Alpha to Omega|author=[[Robert J. Russell]]|publisher=[[Fortress Press]]|quote=Amazingly, some secularists attribute to t=0 a direct implication. The June 1978 issue of the ''New York Times'' contained an article by NASA's Robert Jastrow, an avowed agnostic, entitled "Found God?" Here Jastrow depicts the theologians to be "delighted" that astronomical evidence "leads to a biblical view of Genesis." Though claiming to be agnostic, he argued without reservation for the religious significance of t=0: It is beyond science and leads to some sort of creator.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Corey - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M8wYPYrKnHgC&pg=PA246&dq=big+bang+creation+ex+nihilo&hl=en&ei=kCtvTYfOH46atwfVr6WEDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20creation%20ex%20nihilo&f=false|title =God and the New Cosmology|author=Michael Corey|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|quote=Indeed, creation ''ex nihilo'' is a fundamental tenent of orthodox Christian theology. Incredibly enough, modern theoretical physicists have also speculated that the universe may have been produced through a sudden quantum appearance "out of nothing." Physicist Paul Davies has claimed that the particular physicis involved in the Big Bang ''necessitates'' creation ''ex nihilo''.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Lerner - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=IwNVDMOgQRQC&pg=PT469&dq=case+for+a+creator+big+bang&hl=en&ei=w9BuTeuiGcyUtwf56omJDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=case%20for%20a%20creator%20big%20bang&f=false|title =The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe|author=[[Eric J. Lerner]]|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|quote=From theologians to physicists to novelists, it is widely believed that the Big Bang theory supports Christian concepts of a creator. In February of 1989, for example, the front-page article of the ''New York Times Book Review'' argued that scientists argued that scientists and novelists were returning to God, in large part through the influence of the Big Bang.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Manson - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zCx4rICgN_EC&pg=PA277&dq=theological+implications+big+bang&hl=en&ei=DR9vTYLtJ4SWtweKw7iGDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=theological%20implications%20big%20bang&f=false|title =God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science|author=Neil A. Manson|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=The Big Bang theory strikes many people as having theological implications, as shown by those who do not welcome those implications.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Davis - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BorKXu51luYC&pg=PA26&dq=theological+implications+big+bang&hl=en&ei=MB9vTcC3NZGXtweS6oSdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=theological%20implications%20big%20bang&f=false|title =The Frontiers of Science & Faith|author=John Jefferson Davis|publisher=InterVarsity Press|quote=Genesis' concept of a singular, ''ex nihilo'' beginning of the universe essentially stands alone among the cosmolgies of the ancient world and exhibts, at this point, convergence with recent big bang cosmological models.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> In light of the theistic implications of the [[Big Bang]], [[Fred Hoyle]], an atheist scientist did not accept the Big Bang,<ref name="S.K. Basu">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ffNLyv3YV4UC&pg=PA186&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=qtRuTaelBZS5tgeJm9CCDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFEQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=creator%20big%20bang%20hoyle%20atheist&f=false|title =Encyclopædic Dictionary of Astrophysics|author=S.K. Basu|publisher=[[Global Vision Publishing House]]|quote=While having no argument with Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding, Hoyle disagreed on its interpretation. An atheist, he found the idea that the universe had a beginning to be philosophically troubling, as many argue that a beginning implies a cause, and thus a creator (see Kalam cosmological argument).|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> preferring a model that did not have a single epoch of [[creation]] which would eliminate the need for a creator.<ref name="Clark & Clark">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gAKPW0VBG4wC&pg=PA138&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=OtRuTdr7J8-2tgeW2byFDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=creator%20big%20bang%20hoyle%20atheist&f=false|title =Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe|author=David H. Clark, Matthew D. H. Clark|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|quote=Hoyle wanted a universe without a beginning and without an end, a universe that had always existed and would always exist, a universe that did not have a single epoch of creation and therefore would not need a "creator"–a univserse that was truly eternal. Hence Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold produced their "steady state" hypothesis as an alternative to the big bang. The steady state universe was indeed envisaged as being eternal.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> As a result, Fred Holyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi developed the [[steady state theory]], which appealed to atheist cosmologists because it avoided a creation event and the religious implications associated with one.<ref name="Don O'Leary">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5tieP7-FuYsC&pg=PA163&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=3tRuTcy0Ns6_tgf7rKj_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Roman Catholicism and Modern Science: A History|author=Don O'Leary|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|quote=Several eminent scientists, especially those who were resolutely atheistic, repudiated the Big Bang theory. In 1948, Fred Holyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold proposed an alternative explanation. Their steady state theory envisaged that the universe was unchanged in time and was uniform in space. matter was spontaneosly and continuously generated to fill the extra space caused by cosmic expansion. In the 1950s and early 1960s steady state theory offered a robust challenge to the idea of the Big Bang. Its appeal to atheistic cosmologists was that it avoided a creation event–with all its concomitant religious implications.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> s such, English physicist and statistical thermodynamicist, Peter Theodore Landsberg, has written that this tension is often seen as that between a [[Judeo-Christian|Christian-Judaic]] Big Bang and a communist-atheist steady-state model of the universe.<ref name="Peter Theodore Landsberg">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=p07MKkf_ENsC&pg=PA236&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=gcZuTanlBImbtwf1g8T-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20atheist%20communist%20science&f=false|title =Seeking Ultimates: An Intuitive Guide to Physics, Second Edition|author=Peter Theodore Landsberg|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|quote=Some people seem to have felt that there was a struggle between a Christian-Judaic Big Bang and a communist-atheist steady-state model of the universe.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="Isaĭ Shoulovich Davydov, Joseph Davydov">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DGtEzsIjffIC&pg=PA185&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=gcZuTanlBImbtwf1g8T-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCA#v=snippet&q=creation%20atheist&f=false|title =God Exists: New Light on Science and Creation|author=Isaĭ Shoulovich Davydov, Joseph Davydov|publisher=Schreiber Publishing, Inc.|quote=It is the "theory" of the steady-state (and not the evolutionary) Universe which depicts the latter as eternal and unchanged and thus tries to refute the Biblical model of the creation of the world.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="Polly Jones">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yRa7_CqeTGsC&pg=PA263&dq=Lysenkoism+atheism&hl=en&ei=qh1wTYRDgYqXB7qclDc&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=big%20bang&f=false|title =The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era|author=Polly Jones|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=The theory of the 'Big Bang' was to be desisively repudiated.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> According to the ideology of the Soviet communism, as it was forumulated in the late 1930s, cosmologial models with heat death, and hence a finite upper time scale, were rejected as well because of their theistic implications.<ref name="Helge Kragh - Rejection of Cosmological Models">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GB3Zst_4HLsC&pg=PA226&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=pMZuTZfLAc-2tgeW2byFDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20atheist%20communist%20science&f=false|title =Entropic Creation|author=Helge Kragh|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|quote=In part because of Engels's opposition to finite space and time, and because of the long tradition of associating these concepts with idealism, clericalism and bourgeois thought, infinite space and time became incorporated in twentieth-century dialectical materialism and in this way obtained status as official doctrines in communist thinking. According to the ideology of the Soviet communism, as it was forumulated in the late 1930s, cosmologial models with heat death, and hence a finite upper time scale, had to be rejected because of their theistic implications.  

As a theory which addresses the origins of the universe, the [[Big Bang]] has always carried theological implications, most notably, the concept of ''[[Creationism|creatio ex nihilo]]'', which stems from the [[Genesis creation narrative]].<ref name="Russell - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=IvlKa6frm2EC&pg=PA40&dq=rejected+God+Fred+Hoyle+big+bang&hl=en&ei=CdJuTaapN8m2tge6rKXvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=rejected%20God%20Fred%20Hoyle%20big%20bang&f=false|title =Cosmology: From Alpha to Omega|author=[[Robert J. Russell]]|publisher=[[Fortress Press]]|quote=Amazingly, some secularists attribute to t=0 a direct implication. The June 1978 issue of the ''New York Times'' contained an article by NASA's Robert Jastrow, an avowed agnostic, entitled "Found God?" Here Jastrow depicts the theologians to be "delighted" that astronomical evidence "leads to a biblical view of Genesis." Though claiming to be agnostic, he argued without reservation for the religious significance of t=0: It is beyond science and leads to some sort of creator.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Corey - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M8wYPYrKnHgC&pg=PA246&dq=big+bang+creation+ex+nihilo&hl=en&ei=kCtvTYfOH46atwfVr6WEDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20creation%20ex%20nihilo&f=false|title =God and the New Cosmology|author=Michael Corey|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|quote=Indeed, creation ''ex nihilo'' is a fundamental tenent of orthodox Christian theology. Incredibly enough, modern theoretical physicists have also speculated that the universe may have been produced through a sudden quantum appearance "out of nothing." Physicist Paul Davies has claimed that the particular physicis involved in the Big Bang ''necessitates'' creation ''ex nihilo''.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Lerner - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=IwNVDMOgQRQC&pg=PT469&dq=case+for+a+creator+big+bang&hl=en&ei=w9BuTeuiGcyUtwf56omJDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=case%20for%20a%20creator%20big%20bang&f=false|title =The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe|author=[[Eric J. Lerner]]|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|quote=From theologians to physicists to novelists, it is widely believed that the Big Bang theory supports Christian concepts of a creator. In February of 1989, for example, the front-page article of the ''New York Times Book Review'' argued that scientists argued that scientists and novelists were returning to God, in large part through the influence of the Big Bang.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Manson - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zCx4rICgN_EC&pg=PA277&dq=theological+implications+big+bang&hl=en&ei=DR9vTYLtJ4SWtweKw7iGDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=theological%20implications%20big%20bang&f=false|title =God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science|author=Neil A. Manson|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=The Big Bang theory strikes many people as having theological implications, as shown by those who do not welcome those implications.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Davis - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BorKXu51luYC&pg=PA26&dq=theological+implications+big+bang&hl=en&ei=MB9vTcC3NZGXtweS6oSdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=theological%20implications%20big%20bang&f=false|title =The Frontiers of Science & Faith|author=John Jefferson Davis|publisher=InterVarsity Press|quote=Genesis' concept of a singular, ''ex nihilo'' beginning of the universe essentially stands alone among the cosmolgies of the ancient world and exhibts, at this point, convergence with recent big bang cosmological models.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> In light of the theistic implications of the [[Big Bang]], [[Fred Hoyle]], an atheist scientist did not accept the Big Bang,<ref name="S.K. Basu">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ffNLyv3YV4UC&pg=PA186&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=qtRuTaelBZS5tgeJm9CCDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFEQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=creator%20big%20bang%20hoyle%20atheist&f=false|title =Encyclopædic Dictionary of Astrophysics|author=S.K. Basu|publisher=[[Global Vision Publishing House]]|quote=While having no argument with Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding, Hoyle disagreed on its interpretation. An atheist, he found the idea that the universe had a beginning to be philosophically troubling, as many argue that a beginning implies a cause, and thus a creator (see Kalam cosmological argument).|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> preferring a model that did not have a single epoch of [[creation]] which would eliminate the need for a creator.<ref name="Clark & Clark">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gAKPW0VBG4wC&pg=PA138&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=OtRuTdr7J8-2tgeW2byFDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=creator%20big%20bang%20hoyle%20atheist&f=false|title =Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe|author=David H. Clark, Matthew D. H. Clark|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|quote=Hoyle wanted a universe without a beginning and without an end, a universe that had always existed and would always exist, a universe that did not have a single epoch of creation and therefore would not need a "creator"–a univserse that was truly eternal. Hence Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold produced their "steady state" hypothesis as an alternative to the big bang. The steady state universe was indeed envisaged as being eternal.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> As a result, Fred Holyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi developed the [[steady state theory]], which appealed to atheist cosmologists because it avoided a creation event and the religious implications associated with one.<ref name="Don O'Leary">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5tieP7-FuYsC&pg=PA163&dq=creator+big+bang+hoyle+atheist&hl=en&ei=3tRuTcy0Ns6_tgf7rKj_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Roman Catholicism and Modern Science: A History|author=Don O'Leary|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|quote=Several eminent scientists, especially those who were resolutely atheistic, repudiated the Big Bang theory. In 1948, Fred Holyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold proposed an alternative explanation. Their steady state theory envisaged that the universe was unchanged in time and was uniform in space. matter was spontaneosly and continuously generated to fill the extra space caused by cosmic expansion. In the 1950s and early 1960s steady state theory offered a robust challenge to the idea of the Big Bang. Its appeal to atheistic cosmologists was that it avoided a creation event–with all its concomitant religious implications.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> As such, English physicist and statistical thermodynamicist, Peter Theodore Landsberg, has written that this tension is often seen as that between a [[Judeo-Christian|Christian-Judaic]] Big Bang and a communist-atheist steady-state model of the universe.<ref name="Peter Theodore Landsberg">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=p07MKkf_ENsC&pg=PA236&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=gcZuTanlBImbtwf1g8T-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20atheist%20communist%20science&f=false|title =Seeking Ultimates: An Intuitive Guide to Physics, Second Edition|author=Peter Theodore Landsberg|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|quote=Some people seem to have felt that there was a struggle between a Christian-Judaic Big Bang and a communist-atheist steady-state model of the universe.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="Isaĭ Shoulovich Davydov, Joseph Davydov">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DGtEzsIjffIC&pg=PA185&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=gcZuTanlBImbtwf1g8T-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCA#v=snippet&q=creation%20atheist&f=false|title =God Exists: New Light on Science and Creation|author=Isaĭ Shoulovich Davydov, Joseph Davydov|publisher=Schreiber Publishing, Inc.|quote=It is the "theory" of the steady-state (and not the evolutionary) Universe which depicts the latter as eternal and unchanged and thus tries to refute the Biblical model of the creation of the world.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="Polly Jones">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yRa7_CqeTGsC&pg=PA263&dq=Lysenkoism+atheism&hl=en&ei=qh1wTYRDgYqXB7qclDc&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=big%20bang&f=false|title =The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era|author=Polly Jones|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=The theory of the 'Big Bang' was to be desisively repudiated.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> According to the ideology of the Soviet communism, as it was forumulated in the late 1930s, cosmologial models with heat death, and hence a finite upper time scale, were rejected as well because of their theistic implications.<ref name="Helge Kragh - Rejection of Cosmological Models">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GB3Zst_4HLsC&pg=PA226&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=pMZuTZfLAc-2tgeW2byFDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20atheist%20communist%20science&f=false|title =Entropic Creation|author=Helge Kragh|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|quote=In part because of Engels's opposition to finite space and time, and because of the long tradition of associating these concepts with idealism, clericalism and bourgeois thought, infinite space and time became incorporated in twentieth-century dialectical materialism and in this way obtained status as official doctrines in communist thinking. According to the ideology of the Soviet communism, as it was forumulated in the late 1930s, cosmologial models with heat death, and hence a finite upper time scale, had to be rejected because of their theistic implications.  

|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref>

|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref>