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16 January 2003
Today Big Bang/Inflationary cosmology is the prevailing
theory of the evolution of the Universe. In this view, the Universe (including
space and time) sprang into being 15 billion years ago in a 'big bang.'
Immediately following in an instant, the Universe underwent a superluminal
expansion ('inflation'). The result was a Universe which was homogeneous
and flat with fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies and large-scale
structure. However, recently, a new paradigm has been proposed by Paul
Steinhardt (Princeton) and Neil Turok (Cambridge); namely, a cyclic universe
theory. In this view space and time exist forever. The big bang is a bridge
to a pre-existing contracting era. The Universe undergoes an endless sequence
of cycles in which it contracts in a big crunch and re-emerges in an expanding
big bang, with trillions of years of evolution in between. It is anticipated
that it will be possible to test these two models empirically. In a broader
science and religion context, some religious scholars have seen the standard
cosmological model as consonant with the religious cosmological views
of the Abrahamic traditions, while some classical western philosophies
and some eastern religious traditions have cyclic cosmological views more
consonant with the emerging alternative paradigm.
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