The Big Bang Never Happened

by Eric J. Lerner at: http://nowscape.com/big-bang.htm

Lerner lays bare some painful and embarrassing features of the Big Bang Theory. He covers the history of science in a nutshell, and ventures into other fields related to the human condition, fields that may yet be accessible to inquiry by the scientific method -- the nature of life and other self-organizing systems, Quantum Mechanics and the idea of free will, and the role of echo systems in filtering energy in a cooperative and competitive-cooperative, game-of-life, Gaia world.

Wait

until you examine with Lerner his step-by-step exposition of these themes. He begins by mentioning the problems with current Cosmology, the not-so-often advertised problems of Big Bang. Here are some: The recent COBE satellite's picture of a homogeneous, smooth background radiation (it's apparently not like "looking at the hand of God", after all, contrary to the furor in the press). The missing matter that scientists have postulated and for which they are now searching. ("Cosmologists decided to represent the density of the universe as a ratio to the density needed to stop the expansion, a ratio they termed 'omega'. If there were just enough matter to stop the expansion, omega would equal 1. It appeared, however, that omega was really about .01 or .02 -- only a few hundredths of the matter needed to stop the expansion of the universe, and far too little to magnify the fluctuations fast enough to form galaxies.") Since this edition of Lerner's book was published, 1995 Hubble data show that so-called brown dwarf stars and smaller ones, which could have helped to supply a substantial amount of matter, do not seem exist in sufficient quantity. The similarity of Big Bang on to the creation of Genesis, both finite in space and time, both from the void. And both, the author shows, are at odds with observation. The author describes how the abundance of Helium, Deuterium and Lithium is at odds with observation and provides a better hypothesis. The (usual) absence of anti-matter. The existence of extremely large-scale structures, such as the recently, partially mapped 'Great Wall'.

The author first describes the Cosmic Tapestry, the structure of the known universe, its organization. Diagrams and photos make accessible, for example, the scale of stars and their separation, and that of other objects. Galaxies, groups of stars, belong to Clusters, which in turn are parts of Superclusters. Lerner maintains that the Big Bang's parameters are arbitrary, hypothetical entities, such as are the posited cosmic strings of string theory. They exist just to make things come out right for the theorists, and that fact contradictory evidence leads him else where -- to a plasma alternative. Lerner draws heavily on the work of Swedish Nobel laureate Hannes Alfven, and on his own work, to show that eddies, or vortexes in plasma are sufficient to explain the genesis of all the observed structure of the universe. The cover of the paper back book depicts the action of magnetic plasma filaments, which feature prominently on all scales of the cosmos; the example shown is the center of our very own galaxy, the milky way. Lerner's universe is infinite in time and space, and 'avoids' the creation from nothing to which we have become so accustomed. The fact that the Big Bang of Hubble and Einstein have gained such immediate popularity, Lerner ascribes to the culturally 'accessible' mind-set that we have inherited from Western tradition's most influential thinkers, Plato and Aristotle. The influence of these philosophers is well entrenched in our culture.

It was not until Kepler and Galileo put to rest the perfect, spherical, bounded crystal-sphere universe of Ptolemeus, that the modern view took hold: "Today Big Bang theorists see a universe much like that envisioned by the medieval scholars--a finite cosmos created ex nihilo, from nothing, whose perfection is in the past, which is degenerating to a final end. The perfect principles used to form this universe can be known only by pure reason, guided by authority, independent of observation. Such a cosmic myth arises in periods of social crisis or retreat, and reinforces the separation of thought and action, ruler and ruled. It breeds a fatalistic pessimism that paralyzes society." Lerner offers alternatives from the plasma perspective, which some readers may find strange at first. But he takes us through his exposition, step by step, with many examples of both scale and kind. Much of the first part of the book, is devoted to the elucidation of Big Bang, and to the enumeration of its problems. The book's second part is a book in itself; at length is discussed the flow of time, the history of entropy, and how its common usage in science came about. The evolution of the universe, and how order comes about out of chaos is described (without once mentioning the word fractal!). Amongst other things, Lerner delves into the history of life, mass extinctions, even infinity and free will. Lerner offers alternatives from the plasma perspective, which some readers may find strange at first. But he takes us through his exposition, step by step, with many examples of both scale and kind. Much of the first part of the book, is devoted to the elucidation of Big Bang, and to the enumeration of its problems. The book's second part is a book in itself; at length is discussed the flow of time, the history of entropy, and how its common usage in science came about. The evolution of the universe, and how order comes about out of chaos is described (without once mentioning the wordfractal!). Amongst other things, Lerner delves into the history of life, mass extinctions, even infinity and free will. Lerner speculates on problems with -- the structure and behavior of atoms and molecules. He even offers some thought about the light at the end of the quantum tunnel. Lerer describes Alain Aspect's photon pair experiment which shows that under some instances superluminous information flow has been proved. In a later chapter, Lerner addresses the interplay of theology and science more directly. I found this treatise irksome. He mentions various religious authorities and how their doctrines clash with reason, observed facts, and with pure logic. He has mentioned the influence of Plato on science throughout the book, and that is well deserved, I think, but now he belabors the point: "Such events are not limited to the Old World. In the U.S. the two leading bookstore chains stopped selling Salman Rushdie's novel 'The Satanic Verses' after it was condemned by the Ayatollah as blasphemous, and its author condemned to death in absentia. The chains restored the book only after mass protests from writers' organizations. During the furor over the book, the New York Times printed a letter from the president of the Pakistan League of America, who argued that he had a constitutional right to murder Rushdie: "The United States Constitution grants freedom to all religions," he writes. "If my religion calls for the death penalty for blasphemy, wouldn't I be renouncing my religion to deny it?" Humorous though this may be for some, the downright odiousness of this and similar occult beliefs is driven home ad nauseam, as well as how religionist apologists often use out-of-context science to bolster their faith(1), and that of others. In short, Lerner, with this book, exposes why, in English writing, we have come to capitalize Big Bang and Inquisition.

"The Big Bang Never Happened" by Eric J. Lerner.

Part one--COSMOLOGICAL DEBATE A History of Creation The Rise of Science The Strange Career of Modern Cosmology The Spears of Odin The Plasma Universe Part Two--IMPLICATIONS The Endless Flow of Time Matter Infinite in Time and Space Cosmos and Society
Appendix, Bibliography, Index