I don’t agree with you about what you said answering why you don’t believe in God(no offence), but I suppose I sort of

Question: I don't agree with you about what you said answering why you don't believe in God(no offence), but I suppose I sort of understand. Could you please tell me how you think the world began? If you believe the big bang theory and evolution, could you explain it to me, because I just don't see how it could work? Thanks.
- Keywords:
  big bang
Asked by ltomaschek to Sarah, Derek on 21 Jun 2011.
- Sarah Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2011:
  
  Thanks for being so understanding, I really appreciate it. Having different beliefs is one of the things that makes us who we are, makes us unique. Everyone sees the world through different eyes and interprets their experiences differently.
  
  I do think that the big bang theory and the theory of evolution are justifiable theories to explain our existence.
  
  I would like to start by saying that the big bang theory is NOT about the origin of our universe. Instead, it describes the development of the universe over time. The big bang theory states that in the distant past, the universe was very dense and very hot. And that since then, the universe has expanded and cooled. When the universe was hot and under high pressure and expanding rapidly, all kinds of particles came together and this is said to be where matter comes from. Gravity is the force where mass attracts mass, so as more matter was formed, it begans to accummulate together to make planets and stars and moons.
  
  I think that Derek will be able to explain the scientific evidence behind the big bang far better than me, but it’s safe to say that people who know and understand far more that I do about space and cosmology, can take measurements of radiation and distant galaxies, and they say that this evidence supports the big bang theory. I trust these people so I believe that what they say is true, even though I don’t necessarily understand the evidence myself.
  
  Darwin’s theory of evolution states that all life is related and descended from common ancestors. The idea is that more complex species evolve from more simplistic ones. As genetic mutations occur within an organism that aid survivial, these mutations are passed on to their offspring in a process Darwin called “Natural Selection – survival of the fittest”. Over time, all these beneficial mutations build up until an entirely new species is made.
  
  We know that natural selection does occur in our world because this is where new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria come from and new viruses – this is evolution of bacteria and viruses and it is easier for us to see it because these organisms are so short-lived, they are evolving much faster than we are.
  
  There is also evidence for evolution within our DNA. There are sequences in the DNA of related organisms that match for example: the DNA of wolves and dogs contains many sequences that are the same, which suggests that dogs and wolves are related, and share a common ancestor.
  
  Genetics is something that I studied at uni and so the theory of evolution is something that makes sense to me.
  
  But I try to keep an open mind. I try to look at what’s going on in the world around me, and the scientific evidence I can understand, and that’s really where my beliefs come from.
  
  Hope to hear from you soon, it would be really nice if you could comment and tell us what your opinions are 🙂
- Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 21 Jun 2011:
  
  Sarah has given a good explanation of natural selection and evolution, so let me pick up on the Big Bang instead.
  
  The start of this theory goes back to about 1912 when Vesto Slipher discovered the first redshift of other galaxies. Redshift is a property of the light, which tells us that a galaxy is moving away from us. It is equivalent to the “doppler effect” that exists for sounds.
  
  Anyway, it was noted that all the galaxies were moving away from us. They were also moving away from each other. In 1927, Georges Lemaître (I had to look up the spelling on his name!) combined the observations from Vesto Slipher and the theory of Albert Einstein to suggest that if everything is moving away from everything else, then that is exactly the same as what particles do in an explosion. In other words, the universe is one big explosion.
  
  And, if that is the case, then it must has started from something very small. Lemaître called this the “primeval atom”. This idea was backed up in 1929 by Edwin Hubble (after whom the telescope is named). Hubble’s observations showed that indeed, just like an explosion, the further out you go, the faster things are moving.
  
  Since then, countless astronomers have been measuring the speeds of other galaxies and, yes, they are consistent with the idea that were was an explosion about 13.7 billion years ago.
  
  From the debris of this explosion, the stars and galaxies formed. Planets formed around the stars; some were large, others (made from the remains of dead stars) were small and rocky. One of those planets was the Earth and, in the complex chemicals on its surface the first self-replicating molecules formed by chance. The rest is evolution.
  
  The Big Bang theory is the best theory we have at explaining and predicting what we see in the universe. However, it is not perfect. There are complexities with the way that the measurements are made and there are suggestions that we are missing something. Some astronomers think that there is “dark matter” and “dark energy” – things that we cannot see directly, but which affect the universe as a whole. Others are not so sure and think that maybe some corrections need to be made to the theories Albert Einstein to get them to work better. This is an active area of scientific research.
  
  In any case, until something better is worked out, the Big Bang theory current does the best job at explaining what we see… much better than any other explanations that we have.