The Creation Narrative Beginnings of the Universe and Life according to modern science David C. Bossard 19thpsalm.org 1

THE PLAN Preliminaries First Creation: The First Fifteen Minutes The Elements Milky Way Galaxy, Solar System and Earth Second Creation: First Life – Prokaryotes (Bacteria) Preparation of the Earth for Advanced Life Third Creation: Eukaryotes Fourth Creation: Animals and Plants [End of presentation – Website done to here] Fifth Creation: Humans 2

WHY THIS TALK?  To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement: Unfolding the Creation Narrative PRELIMINARIES 3

WHY THIS TALK? -- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement: Unfolding the Creation Narrative  To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science PRELIMINARIES "I have no need for that hypothesis" LaPlace, regarding the Stability of Planetary Orbits* 4 The "God Hypothesis"

WHY THIS TALK? -- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement: Unfolding the Creation Narrative -- To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science  To Counterbalance this with the findings of Science Itself. “I must confess that I was at first startled and alarmed by rumours of changes and discoveries which, I was told, were to overturn at once the science of geology as hitherto received, and all the evidences which had been drawn from it in favour of revealed religion… God with us, in the world of science henceforth to be no more!” Lydia Miller, 1869Lydia Miller, 1869* … She concluded the evidences are still there but "removed into a more distant and dimmer region.” PRELIMINARIES 5

"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.” SHARP POINTS Fred Hoyle, 1980 PRELIMINARIES 6

BEGINNING OF THE CREATION NARRATIVE – The First Genesis Age of the Universe: ± 0.12 Billion years -- NASA WMAP project (2010)NASA WMAP project -- EESA Planck Mission (2012)EESA Planck Mission -- Sloan Digital Sky SurveySloan Digital Sky Survey THE FIRST GENESIS LET THERE BE LIGHT: THE BIG BANG David C. Bossard Chapter 3 7

COSMIC INFLATION AND THE COSMIC BRAKE CREATION NARRATIVE "The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.” Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe* Barrow & Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Primordial density at a billionth of a second: 447,225,917,218,507,401,284,016± 0.2 gm/cc David C. Bossard Chapter 3 8

CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER CREATION NARRATIVE Annihilation of antimatter At 1 second: Creation of Protons and Neutrons (half-life 15 minutes) at 100 seconds: Creation of Deuterium by binary collision: Up to 15 minutes (as the universe cools further): Creation of Helium, Lithium and a bit of Beryllium Atomic numbers 1 to 4 David C. Bossard Chapter 3 9

CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER cont’d CREATION NARRATIVE Why didn’t heavier elements form at this time?  The Lithium Barrier - no stable elements with P+N = 5 or 8.  Can’t get past the barrier with binary collisions of lighter elements. 10

CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS CREATION NARRATIVE The First Nine Billion Years "It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of life; one might as well think of the origin of matter." Charles DarwinCharles Darwin, letter * The B 2 FH paper (1956) †B 2 FH paper (1956)  Described the origin of all elements. -- It has proved accurate in the 60+ years since 11

CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d) Monkeying with Physics CREATION NARRATIVE  Only H-burning lasts billions of years - Necessary for Advanced life  Hydrogen Burning and Long-lived Stars (e.g. the Sun) 12

CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d) Monkeying with Physics CREATION NARRATIVE  Helium Burning and the “impossible” triple collision Fred Hoyle’s ingenious prediction  Carbon Burning and the Brake on Oxygen Formation David C. Bossard Chapter 4 13

A “Habitable” Solar System and Earth CREATION NARRATIVE Galactic Habitable Zone Milky Way Solar System Habitable Zone David C. Bossard Chapter 5 14

A Hospitable Environment and the First Life CREATION NARRATIVE  Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!  Step 1: Oxidize the Reducing (acidic) early environment Time Needed: 2 Billion year Banded Iron ore iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ) = dark; silica (SiO 2 ) = light David C. Bossard Chapter 7 15

A Hospitable Environment and the First Life CREATION NARRATIVE  Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!  Step 2: Build an Ozone Layer to Shield from Cosmic Rays -Essential for life on Land and in Air - Time Needed: 3.6± Billion years (1.6 By after Atmospheric Oxygen Stabilized) David C. Bossard Chapter 7 16

A Hospitable Environment and the First Life CREATION NARRATIVE  Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!  Step 3: Prepare Organic Wastes worldwide - Most important: “Fixed” Nitrogen - Time Needed: 3+ Billion years David C. Bossard Chapter 7 17

A Hospitable Environment and the First Life CREATION NARRATIVE  Life Itself built the hospitable environment!! Summary time budget for building a hospital environment: Total time: ± 4 Billion years (BY) ± 0.5 BY from earth formation to the first Bacteria – Cooled earth, oceans. ± 2.0 BY more to first Eukaryotes (Oxygen based) – Oxygen atmosphere ready ± 1.5 BY more to first ocean animals – Waste food (nitrogen) in place ± 0.2 BY more to first land plants and animals – Ozone filter in place 18

A Hospitable Environment and the First Life CREATION NARRATIVE  Life Itself built the hospitable environment!! “The existence of large amounts of oxygen in a planet's atmosphere would be a strong indicator of life.” NASA  The Oxygen atmosphere is the result of life.  The available Nitrogen to support life is the result of life! 19