Science and Religion

by Albert Khabbaza M.D. Great Neck, NY

I would like to compliment Hakham Ezra Dangoor, the grandfather of Naim Dangoor in his statement: "When the world was created, Time itself was created". He arrived at this conclusion, which both science and religion now agree, without the need of high mathematics and physics. However, time is only one aspect of the Theory of Relativity which is much more complex than that, although Einstein himself once said: "the hardest thing in the world to understand is not my theory but the income tax." (he referred to the U.S.A. tax forms).

When the Bible says that in the beginning God created the Heaven and earth, that means that science agrees with that without mentioning the Creator. Both religion and science also agree that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, before there were planets, stars and galaxies beyond end.

But here, scientists play with the word "nothing" which they interpret as "primal void".

The universe, scientists say, began infinitely small, infinitely hot and infinitely dense particle called singularity which exploded about 15 billion years ago. This mathematical concept is difficult to be understood by many people. By definition this particle (singularity) was in fact so small that it was approaching zero but never equal to zero. It was so dense that it contained all the amount of matter in the universe including, 100 billions of galaxies each containing 100 billion stars with their planets.

In the Scribe number 69 the size of this singularity was estimated to be 10-30 of the size of a pea. This is not an accurate estimation and it might have been much smaller. Neither Albert Einstein nor Stephen Hawking tried to define the size of the singularity by an absolute number.

What Hawking did, was to prove in perfectly straight face, that 10-35 second after the Big Bang, the universe inflated to double its size (whatever that size was and continued to do so every 10-35 of a second).

Does science agree with the Bible that there will be an end to the world? The answer is yes and no - depending on what is meant by the word "world" (OLAM). If the meaning of the world is referred to Earth and life as we know it, the answer is definitely yes. The sun which is about 300,000 times bigger than the Earth burns its hydrogen as its fuel and turns it to helium with emissions of heat in the form of radiation. Once the sun consumes its hydrogen fuel, it will start burning helium, turning it to another heavier element with tremendous heat radiation. It will increase in size and appear red and hot called Red Giant until it will engulf the earth and other planets. But before that can happen, the Earth will become so hot that all the oceans will be evaporated and life will be impossible. Eventually, the sun itself and with it the planets will become just a small piece of charcoal.

On the other hand, if the end of the world means the end of the universe, scientists differ in opinions and there are now three theories based on how much dark or invisible matter is there in the Universe.

1. The inflation Theory which simply states that the universe is open, started to expand from the time of the Big Bang and will continue to expand forever.

2. The universe is flat and will reach a maximum size and stay there.

3. The universe closed and will eventually stop expanding and then collapse on itself with what is called Big Crunch which is another Big Bang when again there will be nothing in the universe. But before that can happen the world will be unfamiliar to us, if we still survive, and the laws of nature and physics must change. People will never recall anything from the past but can remember the future!

Break a glass of water, collect the pieces in your hand and you will see that the pieces will form spontaneously the original unbroken glass as the Law of Disorder must be violated. Place your hand in a hot oven and your hand will freeze, as the second law of Thermodynamic will not be held any more.

But most scientists today, relying on their new observation and the pictures sent by the Humble Telescope in space, believe in the theory of inflation: that the universe will continue to expand.