Cosmology And Creation

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and God saw that it was good.-Gen. 1:14-18 The universe was created with purpose and reason; and modern science with all of its experiments, exploration, and sophistication has never proven otherwise. In fact, as author Dr. Danny Faulkner makes plain, advanced science argues more for a created cosmology than a big bang. Written for the upper-level student through the well-read layman, Universe by Design explores the universe, explaining its origins and discussing the historical development of cosmology from a creationist viewpoint. Includes: Recent developments in cosmology Explanatory diagrams and illustrations Theories and facts on the origin and expansion of the universe The contributions of Ptolemy, Galileo, Brahe, Newton, Hubble, Einstein, and other famous scientists to the field Thorough discussion and problems with the big bang theory Many examples and analogies to help understand concepts of cosmology Difficulties and critiques of modern cosmology Chapter questions and answers for homeschool study As an excellent supplement to an upper-level homeschool curriculum or the library of an astronomer - amateur or advanced - this book will inform and enlighten the scientific mind.

In this fascinating look at the spiritual side of modern cosmology, the author of "The Greening of Faith: God, the Environment, and the Good Life" seeks to bridge the gap between the scientific and the spiritual, offering a vision of a "wider order of being".

Preliminary Material /E.O. James -- Introduction /E.O. James -- Middle Eastern Cosmology /E.O. James -- India and the Far East /E.O. James -- Iran and Anatolia /E.O. James -- Greece and Rome /E.O. James -- Christianity /E.O. James -- The Evolutionary Process /E.O. James -- Conclusion /E.O. James -- Bibliography /E.O. James -- Index /E.O. James.

(Peeters 1991)

Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future 'heat death', where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the 'entropic creation argument', thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this book. The heat death and the claim of cosmic creation were widely discussed in the period 1870 to 1920, with participants in the debate including European scientists, intellectuals and social critics, among them the physicist William Thomson and the communist thinker Friedrich Engels. One reason for the passion of the debate was that some authors used the law of entropy increase to argue for a divine creation of the world. Consequently, the second law of thermodynamics became highly controversial. In Germany in particular, materialists and positivists engaged in battle with Christian - mostly Catholic - scholars over the cosmological consequences of thermodynamics. This heated debate, which is today largely forgotten, is reconstructed and examined in detail in this book, bringing into focus key themes on the interactions between cosmology, physics, religion and ideology, and the public way in which these topics were discussed in the latter half of the nineteenth and the first years of the twentieth century.

Paul LaViolette reveals astonishing parallels between cutting edge scientific thought and early creation myths, and how these myths encode a theory of cosmology in which matter is continually growing from seeds of order that emerge spontaneously from chaos. Exposing the contradictions of the Big Bang theory, LaViolette leads us beyond the restrictive metaphors of modern science and into a new science for the 21st century.

“In a unique take on the cosmos, Gould makes the case that the emergence of a great many things are not only pre-ordained, but predictable.” (Forbes) We know the universe has a history, but does it also have a story of self-creation to tell? Yes, in Roy R. Gould’s account. He offers a compelling narrative of how the universe?with no instruction other than its own laws?evolved into billions of galaxies and gave rise to life. Far from being a random accident, the universe is hard at work, extracting order from chaos. Making use of the best current science, Gould turns what many assume to be true about the universe on its head. The cosmos expands inward, not outward. Gravity can drive things apart, not merely together. And the universe seems to defy entropy as it becomes more ordered, rather than the other way around. Strangest of all, the universe is exquisitely hospitable to life, despite its being constructed from undistinguished atoms and a few unexceptional rules of behavior. Universe in Creation explores whether the emergence of life, rather than being a mere cosmic afterthought, may be written into the most basic laws of nature. “A must-have for all avid popular science fans.” —Astronomy Now “Gould . . . proposes a fascinating thesis about life’s emergence in this eloquent debut” —Publishers Weekly “A joyous romp through a cosmos full of wonders.” —Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and author of Beyond the Finite “Exciting, original, and extremely well written.” —Avi Loeb, Harvard University, New York Times bestselling author of Extraterrestrial “Fascinating. . . . Gould artfully describes various . . . highlights in universal history, like the formation of stars and planets. Many of these moments are majestic.” —New Republic