582 lines
47 KiB
HTML
582 lines
47 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
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<title> </title>
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<meta name="generator" content="LibreOffice 4.2.8.2 (Linux)">
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<meta name="author" content="Amr Gharbeia">
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<meta name="created" content="20010831;0">
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<meta name="changed" content="20150722;204603655567381">
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<body lang="en-GB" text="#99ccff" link="#0000ff" dir="ltr" style="background: transparent">
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#993366"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><b>C<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_12" align="right" hspace="5" width="150" height="42" border="0">osmogony.</b></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">
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Contemporary cosmology may seem to pose a more serious challenge to
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spatiomaterialism than current theories about the basic particles.
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The prevailing belief is that the universe began with a big bang and
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has been expanding ever since, and if that is true, spatiomaterialism
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false. Indeed, if that is true, it is not possible to explain the
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natural world ontologically. There can be no such explanation in a
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world that begins with the big bang. (For a recent account of modern
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cosmological theories, see </span></font></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/ObjText/"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><u>Hawley</u></span></font></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">,
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1998.) </span></font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif">B<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_13" align="right" hspace="5" width="150" height="44" border="0">ig
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bang cosmogony.</font> According to the big bang theory, space and
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matter came into existence at some finite time in the past. (One
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group holds that it was about 20 billion years ago, and another group
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holds that it was closer to 10 billion years ago). Before that, there
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was nothing. No space. No matter. Not even time. At that first moment
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in time, matter is supposed to exist in a highly energetic state,
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something like a radiation field with very high energy photons
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(called gamma rays), and the pressure of this radiation is supposed
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to cause the expansion. The big bang might be likened to an
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explosion, except there was, of course, no space for it to expand
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into. Rather space came into existence with the expansion. That is
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when time began. Indeed, the theory assume that what exists besides
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energy is spacetime, not space, and thus, that spacetime was at the
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beginning tightly curved. The intense radiation field would include
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all the forces of nature, including the Higgs field, and the energy
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of those fields, being equivalent to mass, is supposed to have given
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rise to all the kind of basic particles. The big bang and the
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subsequent expansion of space is just the increase from zero in the
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separation of basic objects in spacetime, and since it is the
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expansion of spacetime itself, and not an event in spacetime, the
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expansion can be faster than the speed of light in space. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">As
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spacetime itself expanded, the temperature fell. At some point
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(between 10 and 100 billion degrees Kelvin), the temperature fell far
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enough for nucleons that had been used into the simplest nuclei to be
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stable. They were the nuclei of helium (with two protons and two
|
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neutrons each), deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen, with both a proton
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and a neutron), and a few other simple nuclei (such as helium-3 and
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lithium). </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">As
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space expanded further, there was a time about 100,000 years after
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the big bang when electrons coupled with protons and other nuclei to
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form atoms. As a result, photons could travel long distances through
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space without interacting with charged particles. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Subsequent
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expansion of space led somehow to the formation of galaxies of stars.
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||
Indeed, what formed were not only galaxies, but also clusters of
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galaxies and superclusters of galaxies. It is not at clear how this
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||
would happen, or even how stars would form, because when matter is
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distributed evenly throughout space, there are no net gravitational
|
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forces. Presumably, there was an uneven distribution of matter in
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||
space, but its origin is still obscure. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
|
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expansion of the universe continues to this day, though it is assumed
|
||
that the expansion is being slowed down by the gravitational
|
||
attraction among bits of matter throughout the universe. One of the
|
||
unresolved issues is whether there is enough matter in the universe
|
||
to bring its expansion to a halt at the end of time, as most
|
||
cosmologists would like to believe. A greater quantity of matter
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would stop the expansion in a finite period of time, causing a
|
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contraction which would draw all the matter in the universe (and
|
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presumably spacetime) itself back towards a gigantic collapse. But it
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now appears that the amount of matter (per unit volume) detected in
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the universe is only about 5 to 10% of what would be needed to stop
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the expansion, which would force cosmologists to believe that the
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universe will expand forever. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">There is a
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variant of the big bang theory, the so-called “inflationary”
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view, due to Alan Guth, which holds that there was a period of very
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rapid, accelerating expansion very early on (10<sup>-33</sup> seconds
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after the big bang). In one billionth the time it takes light to
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cross the diameter of an atomic nucleus, there was a huge expansion,
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increasing distances in space on the order of 10<sup>50</sup> times.
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This would transform submicroscopic distances into cosmic distances,
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and the reason for this late addition to the big bang theory is that
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it would explain why the temperature of the universe is the same no
|
||
matter how far we look in any direction from earth. Without this
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early inflation, the big bang would have results in a very lumpy
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universe. But it implies that the universe is much larger than the
|
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visible universe, though still finite.</font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>I<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_14" align="right" hspace="5" width="250" height="27" border="0">ncompatibility
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of spatiomaterialism with big bang cosmogony.</b></i> The big bang
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theory is incompatible with spatiomaterialism for two reasons, one
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because it contradicts its assumption about the infinity of time and
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the other because it contradicts its assumption about the nature of
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space. . </font></font></font>
|
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</p>
|
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>Time.</i>
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Part of what makes spatiomaterialism the best ontological explanation
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of the world is its assumption that existence itself is in time. That
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assumption about the nature of existence and time entails a certain
|
||
interpretation of ontological explanation, for an ontological
|
||
explanation of the world explains everything in the world and
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||
everything about the world by showing how it is constituted by
|
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substances, and to hold that existence is in time is to hold that the
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substances used as ontological causes endure through time. If
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substances never come into existence nor ever go out of existence,
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any world constituted by them will be temporally infinite in extent. </font></font></font>
|
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</p>
|
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">This is
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admittedly not the only way of taking ontology to be explanatory. We
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have acknowledged that it is possible to hold that time is just an
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aspect of what exists. That is what Einsteinians who take spacetime
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to be a substances assume about the ultimate nature of the world.
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Spatiotemporalism, as I called the Einsteinian ontology, is
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compatible with the belief that the universe had a beginning in time,
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for it implies merely that there is a limit to the temporal extent of
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spacetime as a substance that is not itself in time. That makes it
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possible for cosmologists to accept the big bang explanation of the
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origin of the world. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The same
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difference between substantivalism about space and substantivalism
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about spacetime arises concerning the end of the world. It is
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possible, according to the big bang theory that the universe might
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stop expanding and collapse back on itself, and some cosmologists
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hold that such an outcome would mean that time comes to an end. That
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would make time finite in the direction of the future as well as
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toward the past. Such a belief is compatible with Einsteinian
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ontology, because it would merely mean that the temporal dimension of
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spacetime as a substance comes to an end in both directions. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">There is,
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however, no way to reconcile spatiomaterialism with either a
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beginning or an end to the universe it time, because in either case,
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it would be to give up its view about the nature of existence and
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time and, thereby, the kind of ontological explanation it gives. To
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be sure, it is possible for ontologists to hold that existence is in
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time and to believe the universe had a beginning. That is the view
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that theists hold. The big bang could be just the way in which God
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||
created the world, and the need for such an explanation of the big
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||
bang explains why the Pope authorized discussion of the big bang
|
||
theory so early in its career. But theism gives up naturalism, which
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is the first of our basic assumption. Any God who could create the
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natural world would have to be outside space and time and, thus, not
|
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something that naturalism can accept. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>Space.</i>
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The other reason that spatiomaterialism cannot accept the big bang
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explanation of the origin and development of the universe is what it
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believes about space, and two aspects of its assumptions are at
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stake. One is its theoretical preference for believing that space is
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infinite, and the other is its basic assumption that space is a
|
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substance. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><i>Infinity.</i>
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Ontologists would prefer to believe that space is infinite in extent,
|
||
as well as in its divisibility, because that is the simplest theory.
|
||
The essential nature of each part of space can be defined as having
|
||
three-dimensional geometrical relations to every other part of space,
|
||
for each part would have such relations to a different, ordered set
|
||
of other parts of space. But if space is finite, each part must have
|
||
a different essential nature, because each part will have a different
|
||
spatial relation to the edge of space. And that is not to mention the
|
||
problem in explaining how space could have an end. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">If space is
|
||
infinite in extent, it is hard to see how space could expand, because
|
||
there would be, so to speak, no room for more space. All the places
|
||
in space would already exist. How could ontologists make any sense of
|
||
the notion?</font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Cosmologists
|
||
assume that they can take space to be finite in extent without
|
||
encountering any problems about the end of space by holding that
|
||
spacetime throughout the universe is curved. If spacetime contains
|
||
enough matter, then Einstein’s general theory of relativity implies
|
||
that a spacetime universe will curve back on itself. If we use
|
||
two-dimensional space to represent three-dimensional space, then this
|
||
possibility is supposed to be modeled by the geometry of the surface
|
||
of a sphere (or Riemannian geometry). But that is not a possible form
|
||
of spatiomaterialism, because spatiomaterialism replaces the belief
|
||
in curved spacetime with the belief in the acceleration of the
|
||
inherent motion in absolute, three dimensional space. Apart from
|
||
Einstein’s general theory of relativity, there is no reason to
|
||
believe that space is curved. Indeed, there is no reason to believe
|
||
that curved space is even possible, if space is a substance. The
|
||
ability to construct a formal axiom system for curved space does not
|
||
show that it is ontologically possible. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><i>Substantivalism.</i>
|
||
Though it is possible for space to be finite in extend in a
|
||
spatiomaterial world, it is not possible for space to expand. To be
|
||
sure, if space were finite, the lack of room for the expansion of
|
||
space would not be a problem. But there would still be an insuperable
|
||
ontological objection to assuming that it expands, because if space
|
||
is a substance, the expansion of space would be just another way for
|
||
something to come from nothing. The measure of space is the distance
|
||
between parts of space in three dimensions, and if distances were
|
||
actually increasing, there would have to be more spatial substance
|
||
separating the points. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Since
|
||
the big bang theory contradicts spatiomaterialism, it is relevant for
|
||
ontological philosophy to consider the reasons for believing in the
|
||
big bang, for they may provide reasons for doubting that
|
||
spatiomaterialism can be used to do philosophy in this new way. There
|
||
are two kinds of reasons for believing in big bang cosmogony and the
|
||
subsequent expansion of the universe, one theoretical and the other
|
||
empirical, and as we shall see, neither is a good reason for doubting
|
||
that this is a spatiomaterial world. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>T<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_15" align="right" hspace="5" width="250" height="33" border="0">heoretical
|
||
foundation of big bang cosmogony. </b></i>The theory behind big bang
|
||
cosmogony is Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In 1917,
|
||
shortly after completing his general theory of relativity and before
|
||
Hubble had discovered evidence of the expansion of the universe,
|
||
Einstein himself turned his attention to cosmology. Einstein used the
|
||
basic equation of his general theory of relativity to represent the
|
||
entire universe, assuming, in effect, that the universe contains a
|
||
finite quantity of mass and is finite in extent. A finite universe
|
||
was not implausible to Einstein, because he believed in spacetime,
|
||
rather than space enduring through time, and a finite spacetime
|
||
universe can contain enough mass and energy for spacetime to curve
|
||
back on itself, giving the universe as a whole a spherical geometry.
|
||
There would be no edges of space to explain, because traveling far
|
||
enough in any direction would bring one back to where one started.</font></font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Einstein
|
||
soon discovered, however, that even in a universe with spherical
|
||
geometry, gravitation, being a universal attractive force, would
|
||
quickly lead to the collapse of the universe. The tendency toward
|
||
gravitational collapse is even greater than in the Newtonian
|
||
counterpart of Einstein’s way of representing the universe (which
|
||
takes the universe to be a finite sphere of material objects in
|
||
infinite space all attracting one another). On its own, Einstein’s
|
||
universe would crash in on itself in about the time required for
|
||
light to cross the universe. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">In
|
||
order to keep his equation from predicting the collapse of the
|
||
universe, Einstein introduced the so-called “cosmological
|
||
constant.” It was a perfectly legitimate move, because it was a
|
||
constant of integration. That is, his general relativity equation had
|
||
to be integrated in order to represent the universe, and Einstein
|
||
initially set the constant of integration as zero. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The left
|
||
side of Einstein’s equation in the general theory is a differential
|
||
equation that represents the metric of curved spacetime, while the
|
||
right side of his equation represents the presence of mass and energy
|
||
in spacetime. To set the constant of integration on the right side
|
||
equal to zero was to assume, in effect, that the force of gravitation
|
||
falls to zero at great distances. That is what led to the problem of
|
||
collapse of the universe.</font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">It was also
|
||
possible to set the constant of integration at something other than
|
||
zero. That would represent a repulsive force between material objects
|
||
at great distances from one another. It would be a very small force
|
||
at short range, such as the solar system, but the repulsive force
|
||
would increase with distance. Hence, it would be the dominant force
|
||
at large scales, and his general relativity equation would no longer
|
||
predict the collapse of the universe. This was the origin of the
|
||
cosmological constant. It suggested that there is a form of negative
|
||
energy associated with the vacuum, and it could make the universe
|
||
static by canceling out the gravitational attraction at great
|
||
distances. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
|
||
cosmological constant was destined, however,, however, to be
|
||
rejected, because it implied that the universe is unstable. Though it
|
||
could be used to represent a static state in which gravitation and
|
||
long-range repulsion are equal, it was inevitably a precarious
|
||
balance. The problem is that gravitation falls off with the square of
|
||
distance, while the repulsive force represented by the cosmological
|
||
constant increases linearly with distance. Thus, a slight contraction
|
||
in the universe would make the gravitational force stronger than the
|
||
repulsive force could resist and the universe would collapse. On the
|
||
other hand, a slight expansion of the universe would make the
|
||
repulsive force stronger than gravitation, and the universe would
|
||
expand faster and faster. In either case, it was not likely to remain
|
||
the same size. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">When Edwin
|
||
Hubble’s evidence for the expansion of the universe became known in
|
||
1929, it seemed that Einstein’s mistake was the attempt to
|
||
represent the universe as static. If the universe is expanding, the
|
||
size of the universe must be a dynamic phenomenon. Since his
|
||
equations had told him, in effect, that the universe is not static,
|
||
Einstein retracted his cosmological constant. He called it his
|
||
“biggest blunder,” which big bang cosmologists rarely fail to
|
||
mention, taking comfort in his agreement. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
|
||
equation from Einstein’s general theory of relativity was adapted
|
||
for big bang cosmogony, because it could be used to represent a
|
||
universe in which the initial pressure and outward momentum of the
|
||
expansion is countered by the universal gravitational attraction. The
|
||
“Einstein-de Sitter model of the universe” is one such theory. It
|
||
holds that gravitation will bring the expansion of the universe to a
|
||
halt at the end of eternity. Preference for this view has posed a
|
||
problem for cosmologists, because all indications are that there is
|
||
far less matter in the universe than such a limit to its expansion
|
||
would require. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>Spatiomaterialists
|
||
critique.</i> Ontological philosophy has a different way of
|
||
interpreting Einsteinian cosmology which is based on its ontological
|
||
explanation of the truth of Einstein’s general theory of
|
||
relativity. Spatiomaterialism assumes that space is an infinite,
|
||
three dimensional substance enduring through time, and it explains
|
||
why Einstein’s general relativity equation yields true predictions
|
||
of gravitational phenomena by holding that the accumulation of matter
|
||
at any location in space causes an inbound acceleration of the
|
||
inherent motion in the surrounding space. On this view, space is
|
||
assumed to be infinite, and the so-called called the “curvature of
|
||
spacetime” turns out to be just an acceleration of the inherent
|
||
motion of space (that is, an acceleration of the ether, as an aspect
|
||
of space). If that effect of matter accumulation of space is what
|
||
makes Einstein’s equation true, then there much to criticize in its
|
||
use as the theoretical underpinning for big bang cosmology. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
|
||
most basic objection to Einsteinian cosmogony is the use of
|
||
Einstein’s question to represent the entire universe. That is to
|
||
assume that the universe contains only a finite amount of mass and
|
||
energy (that is, matter) and that spacetime is finite. But thus far
|
||
in this ontological argument, we have still found no reason to
|
||
believe that space is finite in extent or that the total quantity of
|
||
matter is finite. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">This
|
||
is not to deny that Einstein’s general relativity equation can be
|
||
used to represent a sizable chunk of the universe. Indeed, the truth
|
||
of that representation is what was explained ontologically in the
|
||
<font face="Arial, sans-serif">General theory of relativity</font>.
|
||
But when we recognize that it represents only a region of space and
|
||
the matter contained by that region, we can see that Einstein’s
|
||
introduction of a cosmological constant was not a mistake at all, but
|
||
merely a way of representing the infinity of the space and matter
|
||
outside that region.</font></font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Einstein
|
||
introduced the cosmological constant as a constant of integration in
|
||
the integration of his general relativity equation. But he introduced
|
||
it on the right-hand side of that equation. Since that side
|
||
represents the mass and energy contained in the region, the
|
||
cosmological constant that was needed to make the universe static
|
||
seems to represent a repulsive force which is counteracting
|
||
gravitational attraction. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">However,
|
||
the constant of integration could have been introduced on the left
|
||
hand side of Einstein’s general relativity equation, which
|
||
represents the metric of spacetime. That may seem like a mere
|
||
mathematical correction to the geometry of curved spacetime. But it
|
||
could be interpreted as representing the infinity of space and matter
|
||
beyond the region covered by the equation. If the universe is
|
||
infinite, rest of the universe is, in effect, tugging at the edges of
|
||
the finite region of spacetime represented by the equation, keeping
|
||
its overall curvature flat. The cosmological constant does not
|
||
represent a negative force that increases with distance, but simply a
|
||
constant of integration that must be included in order to take into
|
||
account the rest of the infinite universe. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Thus,
|
||
ontological philosophy would lead us to see Einstein’s greatest
|
||
blunder, not as introducing the cosmological constant, but as giving
|
||
it up. For that concession comes from failing to recognize that what
|
||
is described by his general theory is just a gravitational force that
|
||
works through space in a world in which space is an infinite
|
||
substance enduring through time, that is, in which space and time are
|
||
absolute. Einstein’s mistake was to believe in spacetime. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Thus,
|
||
we conclude that the truth of Einstein’s general theory of
|
||
relativity gives us no reason to think that the universe might be
|
||
expanding and, thus, no reason to believe that it began with a big
|
||
bang. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>E<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAHgAAAANCAMAAABVVVqSAAAAYFBMVEXjx5vVu5HHroi4on6qlXSciWqOfGF/cFdxY01jV0MybUFVSjpGPjA4MSYqJR14AABzAABmAABdAAAcGBMNDAkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHwq2AAAABHklEQVR4nMWTUXOEIAyEA4QYRkLPtv7/v9oF5K62zpz30LoPK8kyfGNEui3vV2iht/UaAUxXaKUbwF5VeddnX10ejVQtmNAvpf4Iu+0nwAvAPHMn3eXddtiQNXMHR9j9EQ7SE2AuuSSbSbNlUmYzMZJSZMKqHR8+LYhZQMFKH7kE5GY0oyfIsL2lc3n+7iutFWwYNSfSiDNhKbQSBXiOotr2xkSFfO7gUs1q08m8rXrqxhSeg5Wa4UNbNWWAdQPTrPwAW+825gBjKDqCYa+MeoA1FrqDJcYc5Rs4KqbMeYBrVjhhAOytpy+A2632XO+yAKweK5Qo3DR5pyz9xsLcBKtfAgW2tKyVrF56Kmfudwfv9OPH+iMdgP9HFXyNvgDs8ifp7IMggwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" name="TtsOtkCLCos_16" align="right" hspace="5" width="250" height="27" border="0">mpirical
|
||
foundation of big bang cosmogony.</b></i> Though Einstein’s general
|
||
theory of relativity is the main theoretical reason for believing in
|
||
a big bang, it is probably not the most important reason. The most
|
||
persuasive reasons are empirical. It seems to be the best explanation
|
||
of three phenomena: the apparent explanation of the universe, the
|
||
proportion of helium in the universe, and the background radiation.
|
||
However, in a spatiomaterial world, as we shall see, there is another
|
||
possible explanation of those same phenomena, and it is far more
|
||
plausible. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>H<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAEcAAAAOCAMAAABKOfGJAAAAYFBMVEXjx5vVu5HHroi4on6qlXSciWqOfGF/cFdxY01jV0MybUFVSjpyMSZlMSZGPjA4MSYqJR18AAB2AABmAAAcGBMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABrlwRxAAAAz0lEQVR4nK2T4W5DIQiFAUG5sQO71vd/1eH1rmu3Zv1RT8jBEPPlECOc1wjOfYngs8MCdbgMDjEA0z5J+cFuLbS95LACKO+TcbyzWwv5a07lURowbtZwmsLmDTGhuU9Oc8NKyaDSc46r+sFRkHIYGWuJzYyOPFScc94cf0fr0H/2+uawHjbwY9u8tUFyalKZapVS/+Mkl8Zs7GmaYhORyFPY0uCkGDNYgWv+w7l/LylClCPCtCgtEQTzfIO8X4CojM85b2slZ82/uJw+Fuj0BVp/HHNn5UQmAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" name="TtsOtkCLCos_17" align="right" hspace="5" width="150" height="29" border="0">ubble’s
|
||
law. </i>In 1929, Hubble published the result of his work at the
|
||
Mount Wilson gathering evidence about the spectra of distant
|
||
galaxies. He reported that galaxies are moving away from earth, and
|
||
moving away faster the farther away they already are. That is
|
||
Hubble’s law.</font></font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Hubble
|
||
found a red-shift in the electromagnetic radiation from distant
|
||
galaxies, that is, a shift of radiation from known sources toward
|
||
longer wavelengths, and as far as he could measure (about 10 million
|
||
light years), the red-shift increased directly with the galaxy’s
|
||
distance. Such a shift could be explained as a Doppler effect. It is
|
||
well established that the wavelength of a signal sent from an object
|
||
moving away is elongated. Assuming that the red-shift he had observed
|
||
is a Doppler effect, Hubble argued that the galaxies he had observed
|
||
were moving away from earth, and his data indicated that the farther
|
||
galaxies were away from earth, the faster they were moving. Hubble’s
|
||
law states that the recession velocity of a galaxy increases directly
|
||
with its distance, and the constant of proportionality is Hubble’s
|
||
constant. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Hubble’s
|
||
own calculation of his constant is now though to have been off by a
|
||
factor of two, though to this day, there is still considerable
|
||
uncertainty about what it is. Current measurements seem to cluster
|
||
around two different values. (One group finds that galaxies have
|
||
about 15 kilometers per second of additional velocity for every
|
||
million years of additional distance from earth, while another group
|
||
finds them to have about 25 kilometers per second of additional
|
||
velocity for every million years of additional distance from earth.) </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
|
||
correlation between the distance to a galaxy and the velocity its
|
||
recession suggests that the whole universe is expanding, because that
|
||
is how it would appear not only from earth, but everywhere, if the
|
||
universe were expanding. Though strictly speaking, the red-shift of
|
||
distant galaxies would not be a Doppler effect, because their
|
||
recession velocity does not come from moving through space, but
|
||
rather from the expansion of space itself, it is assumed to come to
|
||
the same thing quantitatively. (The wavelength of a photon is
|
||
supposed to increase with the expansion of the space it is crossing.)
|
||
</font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Hubble’s
|
||
law makes it possible to calculate the age of universe, because if
|
||
galaxies are all receding from one another as that law describes,
|
||
there must have been some time in the past at which they were all
|
||
located together at the same point. Current estimates tend to cluster
|
||
on either an age of about 20 billion years or 10 billion years,
|
||
depending on which value of the Hubble constant one accepts. There is
|
||
considerable room for error. First, it is necessary to separate out
|
||
the “peculiar motion” of galaxies which is caused by local
|
||
gravitational effect (and that is a significant factor, since nearby
|
||
galaxies are the ones mainly used to measure Hubble’s constant).
|
||
And if the expansion of the universe has been slowing down because of
|
||
the gravitational attraction between galaxies, as cosmologists
|
||
assume, then the estimate of the age of the universe should be
|
||
considerably lower (by as much as one-third).</font></font></p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>N<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_18" align="right" hspace="5" width="150" height="27" border="0">ucleosynthesis.</i>
|
||
The measured expansion of the universe supports the idea that the
|
||
universe began with a big bang, but that idea was first proposed by
|
||
George Gamow in 1947. The evidence Gamow offered for such a beginning
|
||
is the prediction of the proportion of helium and other light
|
||
elements in the universe, which has been confirmed. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Gamow
|
||
thought of the initial state of the universe as being nothing but an
|
||
intense radiation with a very high temperature. He assumed that the
|
||
objects with rest mass would be created by high energy photons.
|
||
(Since most of the rest mass in the universe is now composed of
|
||
baryons, that would not explain what happened to all the antibaryons
|
||
that must have been created at the same time.) And Gamow assumed that
|
||
the pressure of radiation at such a high temperature was responsible
|
||
for the expansion the universe, though without any space outside into
|
||
which it could expand, it had to create its own space. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Particles
|
||
would be created, and as the expansion continued, the temperature
|
||
would fall. Gamow recognized that at some point the density of
|
||
nucleons and the energy of their interaction would be enough for
|
||
nucleons fused into small nuclei to be stable (between 10 and 100
|
||
billion degrees Kelvin). He explained the proportion of helium (with
|
||
two protons and two neutrons) that is found in the universe (about 25
|
||
to 28 percent by weight). Similar reasons can be given for the
|
||
proportion of matter in the form of deuterium (one proton and one
|
||
neutron), helium-3 (two protons and one neutron), and some lithium
|
||
and boron. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Since there
|
||
is no other plausible explanation of their relative abundance in the
|
||
universe, this is good empirical evidence of a period in the past
|
||
during which the temperature of the universe was once much higher
|
||
than it is now and that is has been falling since then. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>B<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCLCos_19" align="right" hspace="5" width="150" height="48" border="0">ackground
|
||
radiation.</i> In 1966, Arno Penzias and Robert W. Wilson, discovered
|
||
radiation coming from all directions in space, day and night, every
|
||
season of the year in the microwave region of the electromagnetic
|
||
spectrum. It was the wavelength that one would expect of an object
|
||
with a temperature of 2.7 degrees above absolute zero. They
|
||
recognized that the radiation must have a cosmic source, and they
|
||
argued that it must have been caused by the big bang and the
|
||
subsequent expansion of the universe. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
|
||
radiation must come from a period long after the nucleosynthesis
|
||
discovered by Gamow, because for a long period of time, the
|
||
electromagnetic radiation would have been sufficiently energetic to
|
||
break any bonds that electrons might form with the nuclei bouncing
|
||
around at the time. About 100,000 years after the big bang itself the
|
||
universe would have expanded enough for the temperature to fall to a
|
||
level that would allow atoms to be stable. Neutralizing the charges
|
||
of electrons and nuclei in that way allowed photons to pass
|
||
unhindered for great distances. The period at which the universe
|
||
became transparent would explain the origin of the cosmic background
|
||
radiation. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">These
|
||
empirical reasons for believing in the big bang are independent of
|
||
general relativity. Even though spatiomaterialism can reject
|
||
Einsteinian cosmology because of the assumptions it makes, these
|
||
observations are still evidence for the big bang. But since they are
|
||
just observations, they support the belief that the universe has been
|
||
expanding ever since a big bang only if that is the best explanation
|
||
of them. Thus, the empirical foundation for contemporary cosmogony
|
||
can be undermined by offering a better explanation of those
|
||
observations. There is at least one way that spatiomaterialism can do
|
||
just that.</span></font></font></font></p>
|
||
</body>
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||
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