Two astrophysicists, Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin, members of the American Astronomical Society, presented research to the society that suggested what will be the final destiny of the universe. An article appearing January 16, 1997, in The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, "Long, Dark Night Seen For Cosmos, " page 2A, reported the result of the work of these two scientists who had "applied new physical understanding to the future of the universe."
The Future For the Universe
According to the report, the result of their findings indicates a bleak ending for the universe: "The stars, the sun, the Earth . . . (will evaporate) into radiation. There is no light, just a vast soup of subatomic particles."
". . . the universe that mankind knows, with stars and planets and life, is only temporary and actually rather young."
In comparative time they calculated, "At 20 billion to 30 billion years the sun explodes and winks out. The Earth is incinerated but may continue to exist as a lifeless chunk of burned rock. Everything known about this planet, and everything on it, are wiped out and gone.
Concerning the stars they concluded they will "die off as they burn up their nuclear fuel."
After this, "A human eye would observe the universe to be dark and black."
"Protons, the subatomic particles at the center of the nuclei of atoms" will decay. "Without protons, matter evaporates into radiation. Carbon-based life is not possible, because carbon does not exist without protons."
After black holes have sucked in all matter resulting in everything being "radiated away," then, "the universe will consist of a diffuse sea of electrons, positrons, neutrinos and radiation." The universe will then be "totally black."
The preceding description of the future of the universe almost reads like passages from the Bible.
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away" (Matt. 24: 35 ASV).
Peter wrote, "(T) the heavens will pass away with the roar and the elements will be burned up. . . (T)the heavens will be destroyed with burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!" (2 Pet. 3:10, 12).
How could such knowledge of the end of the universe been so accurately described before the discoveries of modern science? Could it be that the One who began it all has also revealed how it all will end. The Bible may not be a book of science but it contains amazing scientific accuracy that modern scientific methods are just recently confirming.
Surely ancient man would have had difficulty drawing such conclusions based on the information they had. Would it not seem likely that a superior mind, like that of God, directed them in what they wrote?
If the end of the universe will be brought about by its nuclear energy being used up, then it has not been here forever. If it had been here forever, then all matter after evaporating into radiation, would have been sucked into black holes that finally would have radiated away, leaving only darkness. With the decay of the nuclei of atoms matter would no longer exist because "without protons, matter evaporates into radiation."
The fact that the energy of the universe is being used up must mean that at some time in the past it was energized. If the universe would have eternally been using its fuel, it would already have used up all its energy. As was stated by Adams and Laughlin, the universe is "rather young," which means that it has used very little of its energy. Some time in the past someone or something gave it its fuel. It had a beginning.
Since matter is expending its energy and does not have the ability to refuel itself, matter cannot be the source of the beginning of the universe. The most reasonable conclusion is that God created it all.
The Bible expresses this truth by simply stating, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 ASV).
The calculated end of our universe suggests that it had a beginning.
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