The Immensity of the Huge Universe and God

Light travels 186,282 miles per second (see www.space.com/15830-light-speed.htm), which means that if it could follow the curvature of the earth, a burst of light would flash 7.5 times around the earth in a second. This burst of light travels 11.2 million miles per minute and about 6 trillion miles per year.

The distance from the sun to the earth is 94.119 million miles, equivalent to only 8.3 light minutes. If a burst of light could ping-pong back and forth between the sun and the earth, it would make the trip about 63,325 times in a year.

In July 2022, NASA released some stunning photos of distant galaxies. Below are two of them (Sources: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet and https://cdm.link/2022/07/nasas-webb-telescope-could-transform-how-we-imagine-digital-art-along-with-our-cosmos/main_image_galaxies_stephans_quintet_sq_nircam_miri_final-5mb/)

Taken with the James Webb Space Telescope, this first image is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It shows a galaxy cluster far away: the light generated by this cluster is estimated to have traveled 4.6 billion years—one way—which is some 27.6 billion-trillion miles. I suppose that if the telescope is pointed in the opposite direction, it would find other galaxies that are a similar distance from the earth.

How unimaginably immense is the space that we call the universe.

Which brings us to the big bang theory. NASA (https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/big-bang/en/) explains it in this way:

“The big bang is how astronomers explain the way the universe began. It is the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching!”

A little more explanation is found at here (https://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html):

“The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation for how the universe began. Simply put, it says the universe as we know it started with an infinitely hot and dense single point that inflated and stretched — first at unimaginable speeds, and then at a more measurable rate — over the next 13.8 billion years to the still-expanding cosmos that we know today.

Existing technology doesn't yet allow astronomers to literally peer back at the universe's birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang comes from mathematical formulas and models.”

Which brings us to the question where it all came from and who or what is behind it all.

Beyond describing the start of it all as a “dense single point,” we cannot really figure how this dense object could have existed already for who knows how long and why it then suddenly “inflated.” We understand the effect, but what was the cause? Was there anything or anyone who gave it cause? Was there someone, whom we might call God, who said: “Okay, go!”?

Suppose there was not. Then there is no God now either—or if there is a God now, he/she/it arose after the natural forces unleashed themselves to generate what we now call the universe. Such a God would be smaller than those natural forces, would originate from them, would be a derivative of them, would not be in control of them, would be subject to them. If so, the natural forces would be supreme—and might as well be considered equivalent to some sort of God instead. However, they are mere natural forces, not with a mind or emotions or intelligence or purpose, not a God who rules.

By implication, any God who is worshiped now is worth worshiping only if he/she/it oversaw the big bang also. A religion that has no place for an event like the big bang is a mere narrative.

That leaves us with two options. Either God set the universe in motion from matter that appeared out of what he only knows at the big bang moment, or there is no God, not now and not ever. And if there is no God, what is the point of that big bang, of the vastness of space, of those galaxies, or of us here in 2022?

Which brings us back to the universe and all those lightyears of distance. We are so, so, so small! The God who rules over it all this deserves the capital G.