The most recent researches carried out at the Mullard Observatory at Cambridge under Professor Martin Ryle, and employing the method of radio astronomy, throw doubt on the ‘steady state’ hypothesis.  This work consists of recording radiation signals from outer space which have been travelling towards the earth for ages.  When the message of these signals is interpreted, they tell something about cosmic conditions before there was ever an eye to behold the starry heavens above.  If the ‘steady state’ theory is true, if the source of these signals, the radio active matter distributed throughout space, is always the same, then their record should present a regular picture; but it does not; there is a diminution of the signals, like the petering out of the flakes towards the end of a snow shower.  Of course, where such an immense recession into time in involved, and so little can be done in a short period in tabulating results, definite conclusions cannot be expected; but the indications there are show a falling off in the amount of signals being received, which would suggest a failure in the source.  Convincing support for the ‘steady state’ view is wanting; there is no real reason for thinking that the universe has eluded the sentence imposed by the Law of Entropy, which means that the most certain element in the scientific outlook is the end of the world.

Jeans postulated that the original state of things was a colossal volume of space suffused with radiation of extremely low density, while the hypothesis favoured today, the Abbè Lemaitre’s, is the exact opposite of this.  He assumes that in the beginning all the matter of the universe, at an inconceivably high density, was packed into a comparatively small space: time and events began with the violent disintegration of this mass.  Eddington was unable to reconcile himself to the idea that this ‘Big Bang’ was the absolute beginning; however plausible it seemed as an explanation of an expanding universe, he could not help feeling that something very different preceded it; matter must have reached this explosive state by a less spectacular process, although he had no notion of what it was.  The diminution observed in the later radio signals compared with the earlier ones may be due to their greater remoteness from the primal cosmic eruption.

Whether the eventual conclusion of science is that the universe had a beginning and will come to an end, or that it is everlasting, it has nothing to do with the real meaning of creation, the world’s dependent relation to God.  Some great Christian thinkers have been attracted by the idea that the course of the world is endless.  So long as it was thought of as created and sustained by God the question of its duration was indifferent, or at least not so important, and the belief in a limited time process was accepted as part of the Christian faith.  Nevertheless, it must also be recognised that the doctrine of a universe having a beginning and an end has close ties with the conviction which has supported the faith of Israel in times of testing such as no other people has undergone – that history has a purpose the substance of which is the giving and fulfilment of the divine promises.  Promise and fulfilment are the termini of a limited historical scheme, and since the raison d’etre of the world is to provide the scene for the working out of this scheme, it too is limited.  This is not the place to attempt tracing the influence of this conception on Jewish‑Christian tradition; but it will be a matter of considerable interest to see if science confirms the cosmology which went with it.

 

 

 

The following books are recommended for further reading with the reminder that the state of knowledge in the department of cosmology is fluid at the moment; but it is hoped that the answers to some important problems will be forthcoming within the next decade or so.

 

F.     Hoyle:                            The Nature of the Universe.
A. C. P. Lovell:     The Individual and the Universe.
W. de Sitter:                          Kosmos.
E. Whittaker:                         The Beginning and End of the World.
E. Whittaker:                         Space and Spirit.
Rival Theories of Cosmology (A discussion by H. Bondi, B. Bonnor, R. A. Lyttleton, and G. J. Whitrow).