Exploring the Universe: From Eternity to the Big Bang

For over two millennia, the prevailing scientific belief was that the universe had always existed, a view originating from ancient Greek philosophy and persisting until modern science challenged it in 1965. This perception contradicted the explicit biblical assertion that the world was created. The stability of celestial arrangements observed throughout millennia seemed to reinforce the idea of an eternal, unchanging universe. As a result, until recently, this theory was considered scientific fact. Indeed, as late as 1960, Professor H. Bondi included the concept of an eternal universe in his book "Cosmology" published by Oxford University Press, as an unquestionable scientific fact. However, in 1965, American scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, while measuring specific radio waves with a particularly sensitive antenna, discovered a faint electromagnetic radiation coming from all directions in outer space.

This discovery generated considerable excitement in the scientific community because it recalled the Big Bang Theory proposed by scientist George Gamow and his colleagues about 20 years earlier, in 1946. According to this theory, the universe emerged from a sudden burst of light—a massive concentration of energy—coming out of nothing. At that time, no atom could exist because the intense heat would disassemble any atom instantly. Only after this hot ball cooled did matter form as we know it today. [The Big Bang Theory was enabled by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which established that matter could transform into energy and vice versa, with a small amount of matter able to produce an enormous amount of energy (as demonstrated by the atomic bomb), while producing even a small amount of matter requires vast amounts of energy.

Einstein's formula is:E = Mc². Where E represents energy, M represents mass (matter), and c represents the speed of light. The formula provides a high conversion ratio for matter to energy—c²]. Prior to this radiation discovery, the Big Bang Theory was not taken seriously by scientists mainly because it required the existence of a special light-filled universe post-cooling, and due to technological limitations at the time, it wasn't possible to test this fundamental prediction of the theory. This is why the scientific community was so thrilled when Penzias and Wilson discovered this radiation in 1965. It truly overthrew the long-held scientific consensus that the world was eternal, providing definitive scientific proof that the universe was not always here but rather created ex nihilo! This new theory of creation also received further validation through another prediction.

According to the theory, all galaxies in the universe should be moving away from each other at a rapid pace due to the initial explosion.

Indeed, this "escaping" of galaxies was confirmed by the famous American astronomer Edwin Hubble. (The Hubble Space Telescope is named in his honor, as is the rate of cosmic expansion referred to as "Hubble's Constant"). The Jewish people never needed electromagnetic radiation or escaping galaxies to know that the world was created ex nihilo. Nor were we perturbed by the condescending and even dismissive attitudes of researchers who labeled us as primitive for our belief in the biblical account of creation. Their "irrefutable" claim was that such spontaneous creation from nothing contradicted all physical laws! Yet, to their astonishment, our sages and ancestors remained calm and confident in their knowledge, as they knew the Torah, the source of this information, was written by the Creator of the universe.

 Who better than Hashem to know how the world was fashioned! Let us remember that even now, Israel is ahead of scientific recognition. While scientists have only recently discovered creation ex nihilo, they remain puzzled and cannot explain how it began or what triggered the emergence of creation. Meanwhile, the people of Israel know the full truth: ''In the beginning, Hashem created the heavens and the earth'' (Genesis 1:1).