Particles, Waves, Radiation, Quantum Fields, Time
CREATION DAY 1
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:2-5)
WHAT IS LIGHT
Light is an electromagnetic (“EM”) wave as well as a stream of particles called photons which travel in harmonic waves at the fastest speed possible in the universe. The emission of electrons or other free carriers when light hits a material is called the photoelectric effect. The electrons emitted in this manner can be called photoelectrons. This phenomenon, known as the wave-particle duality of light, is fundamental to all of quantum mechanics.
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (“EMR”) refers to the waves (or their quanta, photons) of the electromagnetic field, radiating through space, carrying electromagnetic radiant energy. EMR is created when an atomic particle, such as an electron, is accelerated by an electric field, causing it to move. The movement produces oscillating electric and magnetic fields which travel in a bundle of light energy called a photon. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Light is also described in terms of field operators for creation and annihilation of photons—i.e. in the language of quantum electrodynamics (“QED”). QED is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved. QED mathematically describes all phenomena involving electrically charged particles interacting by means of exchange of photons and represents the quantum counterpart of classical electromagnetism giving a complete account of matter and light interaction.
THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND
The faint cosmic electromagnetic radiation that fills all of space is referred to as the cosmic microwave background (“CMB”). The universe would have initially been opaque (dark) because the free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds. But the particles were divided and the free electrons were absorbed to form neutral atoms, allowing the photons to radiate through and thereby causing the universe to suddenly become transparent.
Scientists use the CMB as the fundamental evidence for the Big Bang origin of the universe. Its accidental discovery in 1964 was predicted in the 1940s, and earned the scientists the Nobel Prize in Physics. The revised theory of the Big Bang is that the universe was created at once (very short period of time) through a series of mini explosions/events… which sounds really close to the record of creation given in the Bible - a series of events over 6 days.
Scientists detect the CMB as microwave photons travel through space to earth. When these microwave photons pass through galaxy clusters that contain high-energy electrons, they give the photons a tiny boost of energy. Detecting these boosted photons help astronomers to understand some of the fundamental properties of the Universe.
INFLATION
One of many issues that scientists have with creation being random explosions is in explaining how the temperature differences of the CMB were uniformly distributed across the universe. The temperature differences are too uniform, the distribution too uniform - there's too much perfection to be random. How could pieces of the universe that had never been in contact with each other have come to equilibrium at the very same temperature over billions of miles?
Scientists call this incredible burst of expansion, “inflation”. The pattern of energy distribution would have been transferred to the matter of the universe and would show up in the photons that began streaming away freely at the moment of recombination.
THE FABRIC OF TIME
Another significant point given to us in Genesis 1:5 is that when the light and dark were divided, God called the light “Day” and dark “Night” - before the creation of the sun. This tells us that LIGHT enabled the fabric of time.
As we’re told in the Bible and science confirms, time moves slower in space. This is what Einstein termed the “Theory of Relativity” - the faster you move, the slower time is - in addition to other factors such as gravity.
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by (Psalm 90:4)
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8)
Time slows 0.014 seconds per year on the International Space Station (“ISS”) which barely grazes space outside of our atmosphere. It’s hard to grasp how fast that translates God is moving if 1,000 years = 1 earth day.
SUMMARIZATION
Many scientists still struggle with the unanswered the question of what “intellectual energy” powered these recent discoveries of creation:
A DARK, OPAQUE environment,
Then a SUDDEN BURST AND EXPANSION OF LIGHT in perfect uniformity followed by the coupling of electrons with nuclei to form neutral atoms which allowed the light to pass through resulting in a transparent universe (DIVISION OF LIGHT FROM DARK)
But we were given the answer thousands of years ago:
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2)
Then God created light and divided the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3-4)
He called the light Day and the dark Night (Genesis 1:5)
“Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth … who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” (Isaiah 40:21-22)
[God asking Job] Do you know… By what way is light divided (Job 38:18, 24)
In a quantum nutshell - like the Bible states - light is the fundamental building material, its wavelengths the ‘transportation highway’ of creation, and its dimensions the fabric of time.
Science is the study of God’s creation and how He operates. His intellect and power is beyond what we can even imagine. His designs, processes, and governing laws of nature are all precisely done to make all things work together for good. And just to keep us humble, we consider someone genius if/when they are able to uncover and understand any tiny aspect of such workings.
The more advanced science becomes, the more the words of the Bible are proven true beginning with, “In the beginning…”
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