All posts by Wintery Knight

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How the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation falsified atheism

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Prior to certain scientific discoveries, most people thought that the universe had always been here, and no need to ask who or what may have caused it. But today, that’s all changed. Today, the standard model of the origin of the universe is that all the matter and energy in the universe came into being in an event scientists call “The Big Bang”. At the creation event, space and time themselves began to exist, and there is no material reality that preceded them.

So a couple of quotes to show that.

An initial cosmological singularity… forms a past temporal extremity to the universe. We cannot continue physical reasoning, or even the concept of spacetime, through such an extremity… On this view the big bang represents the creation event; the creation not only of all the matter and energy in the universe, but also of spacetime itself.

Source: P. C. W. Davies, “Spacetime Singularities in Cosmology,” in The Study of Time III, ed. J. T. Fraser (Berlin: Springer Verlag ).

And another quote:

[A]lmost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the big bang.

Source: Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time, The Isaac Newton Institute Series of Lectures (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 20.

So, there are several scientific discoveries that led scientists to accept the creation event, and one of the most interesting and famous is the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Here’s the history of how that discovery happened, from the American Physical Society web site:

Bell Labs radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were using a large horn antenna in 1964 and 1965 to map signals from the Milky Way, when they serendipitously discovered the CMB. As written in the citation, “This unexpected discovery, offering strong evidence that the universe began with the Big Bang, ushered in experimental cosmology.” Penzias and Wilson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 in honor of their findings.

The CMB is “noise” leftover from the creation of the Universe. The microwave radiation is only 3 degrees above Absolute Zero or -270 degrees C,1 and is uniformly perceptible from all directions. Its presence demonstrates that that our universe began in an extremely hot and violent explosion, called the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.

In 1960, Bell Labs built a 20-foot horn-shaped antenna in Holmdel, NJ to be used with an early satellite system called Echo. The intention was to collect and amplify radio signals to send them across long distances, but within a few years, another satellite was launched and Echo became obsolete.2

With the antenna no longer tied to commercial applications, it was now free for research. Penzias and Wilson jumped at the chance to use it to analyze radio signals from the spaces between galaxies.3 But when they began to employ it, they encountered a persistent “noise” of microwaves that came from every direction. If they were to conduct experiments with the antenna, they would have to find a way to remove the static.

Penzias and Wilson tested everything they could think of to rule out the source of the radiation racket. They knew it wasn’t radiation from the Milky Way or extraterrestrial radio sources. They pointed the antenna towards New York City to rule out “urban interference”, and did analysis to dismiss possible military testing from their list.4

Then they found droppings of pigeons nesting in the antenna. They cleaned out the mess and tried removing the birds and discouraging them from roosting, but they kept flying back. “To get rid of them, we finally found the most humane thing was to get a shot gun…and at very close range [we] just killed them instantly. It’s not something I’m happy about, but that seemed like the only way out of our dilemma,” said Penzias.5 “And so the pigeons left with a smaller bang, but the noise remained, coming from every direction.”6

At the same time, the two astronomers learned that Princeton University physicist Robert Dicke had predicted that if the Big Bang had occurred, there would be low level radiation found throughout the universe. Dicke was about to design an experiment to test this hypothesis when he was contacted by Penzias. Upon hearing of Penzias’ and Wilson’s discovery, Dicke turned to his laboratory colleagues and said “well boys, we’ve been scooped.”7

Although both groups published their results in Astrophysical Journal Letters, only Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the CMB.

The horn antenna was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. Its significance in fostering a new appreciation for the field of cosmology and a better understanding of our origins can be summed up by the following: “Scientists have labeled the discovery [of the CMB] the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century.”8

It’s the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century.

In the New York Times, Arno Penzias commented on his discovery – the greatest discovery of the 20th century – so:

The best data we have [concerning the Big Bang] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the bible as a whole.

Just one problem with the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century: atheists don’t accept it. Why not?

Here’s a statement from the Secular Humanist Manifesto, which explains what atheists believe about the universe:

Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

For a couple of examples of how atheistic scientists respond to the evidence for a cosmic beginning, you can check out this post, where we get responses from cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, and physical chemist Peter Atkins.

You cannot have the creation of the universe be true AND a self-existing, eternal universe ALSO be true. Someone has to be wrong. Either the science is wrong, or the atheist manifesto is wrong. I know where I stand.

Positive arguments for Christian theism

News

Trump’s Supreme Court nominees deliver another 6-3 win for religious liberty

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Last Friday the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, pushing the regulation of abortion down to the individual states. All 3 of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, who were all opposed by #EvangelicalsForBiden, voted against abortion. On Monday, the Supreme Court delivered another huge win for conservatives. Again, all 3 of Trump’s judges voted in favor of religious liberty.

Here’s the story from Daily Wire:

On Monday morning, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that a public high school football coach in the state of Washington had his First Amendment rights violated after he was placed on administrative leave by the school district and banned from participating in the football program for praying on the field after games in view of students.

“SCOTUS sides with a high school football coach in a First Amendment case about prayer at the 50-yard-line,” SCOTUS Blog tweeted Monday morning. “In a 6-3 ruling, SCOTUS says the public school district violated the coach’s free speech and free exercise rights when it barred him from praying on the field after games.” The case was ruled along ideological lines.

The case was ruled along ideological lines, with all 3 of Trump’s judges favoring religious liberty, and all 3 of the judges favored by Obama and Biden voting against religious liberty.

Remember that Neil Gorsuch was one of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.

Here is what he wrote in the majority opinion:

“Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance doubly protected by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. And the only meaningful justification the government offered for its reprisal rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress,” Gorsuch wrote. “Religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination.”

But not every Christian supports religious liberty. Some of them oppose religious liberty. How do we know that? You have to look at who they support during elections.

Understanding #EvangelicalsForBiden

Consider this article from 2016, where The Gospel Coalition argues against voting for Trump.

The title is: “Evangelical Leaders: Tell Us to Vote for Clinton“:

Trump’s nomination has presented evangelical Christians with a difficult choice: support Trump, support Hillary Clinton, vote for a third alternative who is unlikely to win, or don’t vote at all. To their credit, many evangelical leaders have ruled out that first option – they recognize just what an unacceptable candidate Trump is and what harm he would do to our country as president.

That’s in The Gospel Coalition. They should rename their website The Secular Leftist Coalition.

It’s shocking that these woke evangelicals opposed Donald Trump in 2016. BUT THEY EVEN OPPOSED HIM IN 2020, when his record of judicial nominations was known to all. That shows what they really believe about abortion and religious liberty. Given the choice between Trump’s SCOTUS nominees, and the Women’s Health Protection Act / Equality Act combo, they supported Biden. They want the Democrats – secular leftists – to pick the Supreme Court judges. Remember that in November.

News

Disney offers to pay for employees’ abortion expenses

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I’ve always been confused about why so many prominent “conservative” Christians major in entertainment and make-believe.  They know a lot about professional sports, popular movies, and fiction books. They love their entertainment, especially Star Wars and Disney. But are those entertainment-makers respectful of Christian views and values?

Here’s a report from Life News about one of those entertainment-making corporations – Disney – which is very popular with many conservative Christians.

Excerpt:

Walt Disney World, a company founded to bring joy and entertainment to children, told employees Friday that it will pay their travel expenses to have their unborn babies aborted.

The news came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic ruling Friday morning. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision means states may protect unborn babies by banning abortions again,.

The Orange County Register reports Walt Disney World announced the new employee “benefit” in direct response to the high court ruling.

The company, which employs about 80,000 people in Florida, described the killing of unborn babies in abortions as “quality healthcare” and told Reuters that it is “committed” to ensuring its employees have access to abortions, according to the report.

A new Florida law that bans abortions after 15 weeks is scheduled to go into effect July 1. Though not a total abortion ban, pro-life advocates believe the law will save thousands of unborn babies from mid- and late-term abortions every year.

The facts of that article were also picked up in other places, like the New York Post, but I prefer to link to Life News.

There’s a longer list of companies who will pay for their employees’ abortion expenses here.

Here’s an article by The Federalist, talking about the Disney employee who does the voice of the main character in a recent Disney movie:

In response to the criticisms of the bigots who complain about the presence of a same-sex kiss in a film for children, Evans, the voice of this version of Buzz Lightyear, spoke bluntly in a recent interview with Reuters Television, insisting that those who oppose LGBTQIA characters in children’s films are not worthy of your concern. Their complaints will perish with them. Their bigotry will be swept into the dustbin of history. You simply need to wait for them to enter extinction.

Previously, I wrote about how Disney opposed a religious freedom bill, and about how they supported grooming children with LGBT propaganda. But none of this seems to bother the “conservative” Christian leaders, who just don’t want to fight a “culture war” over trivial things like the complementarity of sexes, the definition of marriage, or the right to life of the unborn. It takes work to read books on pro-marriage apologetics and pro-life apologetics. Much better to skip those books and watch the latest entertainment produced by the secular left.

I try not to buy anything from Disney and related companies like ESPN, because I don’t want to give money to people who war against my Christian worldview and values. But it seems like in the church, people know more about Star Wars and Disney than they know about the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. It’s astonishing, but it’s true. There’s all this emphasis on fun activities and worship songs, but no one can give a defense of the most basic Christian truth claims. “Don’t Judge!” is the new religion of the woke elites.  Star Wars is their Bible. And Disneyland is their Mecca.

Whenever I hear someone talk about Star Wars or Disney, I immediately think “this person’s real religion is entertainment, not Christianity”. I once accidentally let that slip out to one of my co-workers, and he shrieked “how can you say that about Matt? He is a rock star Christian – he’s married and he has children.” Yes, he even has a Calvinist beard, and is very rugged and manly! A real Christian for sure! That’s where we are now – Christianity isn’t about worldview or debate, it’s about looking the part that the church wants you to play to suck other people into the fun-loving community.