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Srila Prabhupada[Posted Oct 4, 2008]

Theories that leave God out of the equations



A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Scientists' guessing games rigged to disallow evidence admitting God's role in creation
big bang or bounce Scientific American October, 2008 - MARTIN BOJOWALD

Big Bang or Big Bounce?: New Theory on the Universe's Birth



Our universe may have started not with a big bang but with a big bounce—an implosion that triggered an explosion, all driven by exotic quantum-gravitational effects.

Einstein's general theory of relativity says that the universe began with the big bang singularity, a moment when all the matter we see was concentrated at a single point of infinite density. But the theory does not capture the fine, quantum structure of spacetime, which limits how tightly matter can be concentrated and how strong gravity can become. To figure out what really happened, physicists need a quantum theory of gravity.

According to one candidate for such a theory, loop quantum gravity, space is subdivided into "atoms" of volume and has a finite capacity to store matter and energy, thereby preventing true singularities from existing.

If so, time may have extended before the bang. The prebang universe may have undergone a catastrophic implosion that reached a point of maximum density and then reversed. In short, a big crunch may have led to a big bounce and then to the big bang.
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Behind the Big Bang
Conjecture and Speculation Add Up to Bad Astronomy Indeeed A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Explosion is going on, but behind that all these explosions, all these transformations, is the Supreme Lord. That is here. And it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita:

"This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again." [Bg. 9.10]

They do not see who is behind this explosion. That is their ignorance or poor fund of knowledge. We have got practical experience that no explosion takes place without the touch of a human being. Similarly, even there was explosion going on, but there is a touch of the Supreme Being. That is the statement in the Bhagavad-gita. We are seeing the explosion. Just like child sees the explosion. He does not know that there, behind the explosion, there is a management of a superior being. This is childish observation. Because in shastra [Bhagavad-gita] we see that behind everything the hand of the Supreme Being is there, and by our practical experience also, we see that matter does not act automatically without being touched by a living being, so how we can accept this argument, that the explosion is going on automatically? What is the evidence? There is no evidence. more

Endless speculation without acknowledging God as creator


excerpt from lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.1-3, San Francisco, March 28, 1968

The atheist class of men, they do not agree to accept that this material world is created by God. They give some reason of their own way of thinking, and most of the arguments are "perhaps like this, perhaps like this, perhaps like this." What is this nonsense, "perhaps"? Is that science? "Perhaps"? So they have no sufficient reason that there is no creator. In everything, we find there is a creator. Anything you take. Take for example this table. There is a creator. Somebody has manufactured it. Or this microphone, somebody has created it. Anything you take, you have to find out some creator. And such a vast, gigantic thing, going on so nicely and punctually... The sun is rising punctually, the moon is rising punctually, the fortnight is going on, the season is coming punctually—everything. Why there should be no creator or no superintendent? That answer is there in the Bhagavad-gita. Mayadhyakshena prakritih suyate sa-characharam [Bg. 9.10]. "Under My superintendence." So if you accept this, then the whole problem is solved. But if we don't accept it, then we have to speculate. But we never to come to the right conclusion, how this creation began. That is not possible to understand by such way.


Constant change and destruction


purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.33

Philosophers and scientists have been trying to study the entire cosmic situation and have been theorizing and calculating in different ways for millions and millions of years. However, the speculative research work of a so-called scientist or philosopher is always interrupted when he dies, and the laws of nature go on without regard for his work.

For billions of years changes take place in the material creation, until at last the whole universe is dissolved and remains in an unmanifested state. Constant change and destruction (bhutva bhutva praliyate [Bg. 8.19]) is perpetually going on in nature, yet the material scientists want to study natural laws without knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the background of nature. As Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita (9.10):

mayadhyakshena prakritih
suyate sa-characharam
hetunanena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate


"This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again."

Now the material creation is manifest, eventually it will be annihilated and remain for many millions of years in a dormant state, and finally it will again be created. This is the law of nature.


Antimaterial worlds the source of the cosmic manifestation


excerpt from Easy Journey to Other Planets, "Antimaterial Worlds"

The nature of the material world is destructive. According to the Bhagavad-gita, there is some partial truth to the assumption of the physical scientist that there is annihilation of the material and antimaterial worlds when they chance to clash. The material world is a creation of changing modes of nature. These modes (gunas) are known as sattva (goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). The material world is created by the mode of rajas, maintained by the mode of sattva, and annihilated by the mode of tamas. These modes are omnipresent in the material world, and as such, at every hour, every minute, every second, the process of creation, maintenance and annihilation is taking place all over the material universe. The highest planet of the material universe, Brahmaloka, is also subjected to these modes of nature, although the duration of life on that planet, due to the predominance of the mode of sattva, is said to be 4,300,000 x 1,000 x 2 x 30 x 12 x 100 solar years. Despite this long duration, however, Brahmaloka is subject to destruction.

Although life on Brahmaloka is fantastically long compared to life on Earth, it is only a flash in comparison to the eternal life of the nonmaterial worlds. Consequently, the speaker of the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Sri Krishna, asserts the importance of the antimaterial universe, which is His abode.

Lord Krishna instructs that all the planets within the material universe are destroyed at the end of 4,300,000 x 1,000 x 2 x 30 x 12 x 100 solar years. And all the living beings inhabiting these material planets are destroyed materially along with the destruction of the material worlds. The living entity, however, is constitutionally an antimaterial particle. But unless he elevates himself to the region of the antimaterial worlds by cultivation of antimaterial activities, he is destroyed materially at the annihilation of the material worlds and is subject to take rebirth in a material shape with the rebirth of a new material universe. In other words, he is subject to the pains of repeated birth and death. Only those living entities who take to the loving service of the Personality of Godhead during the manifested stage of material life are undoubtedly transferred to the antimaterial worlds after quitting the material body. Immortality is obtained only by those who return to Godhead by practice of antimaterial activities.

What are these antimaterial activities? They are medicines. For example, when a man falls ill, he goes to a physician who prescribes medicines which eventually cure the suffering patient. Similarly, the materialist is ailing, and he should consult an expert transcendentalist-physician. What is his ailment? He is suffering the tribulations of repeated births, deaths, diseases and old age. Once he agrees to put himself under the "back to Godhead" treatment, he is able to transfer himself to the antimaterial world, where there is eternal life instead of birth and death.

Annihilation of the material world takes place in two ways. Partial annihilation occurs at the end of every 4,300,000 x 1,000 solar years, or at the end of each day of Brahmaloka, which is the topmost planet in the material world. During that time of partial annihilation, the topmost planets such as Brahmaloka are not annihilated, but at the end of each duration of 4,300,000 x 1,000 x 2 x 30 x 12 x 100 solar years, the entire cosmic manifestation is merged into the antimaterial body from whence the material principles emanate, manifest and merge after annihilation. The antimaterial world, which is far removed from the material sky, is never annihilated. It absorbs the material world. It may be that a "clash" occurs between the material and antimaterial worlds, as suggested by the scientists, and that the material worlds are destroyed, but there is no annihilation of the antimaterial worlds. The eternally existing antimaterial world is unmanifested to the material scientist. He can simply have information of it insofar as the principles of its existence are contrary to the modes of the material world. Full details of the antimaterial universe can be known only from the infallible source of liberated authorities who have thoroughly realized the constitution of the antimaterial principle. This information is received by aural reception by a submissive disciple of the Personality of Godhead.


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