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Faith and Science

God’s One Biblical and Scientific Revelation of Creation

Abstract

The Biblical creation story was revealed to humans by the Holy Spirit in terms they could understand. This narrative differs from science’s description of creation, such as in the Big Bang theory. God’s revelations through science need not be inconsistent with the Genesis creation account, however, since quantum mechanics has become the bridge between the accessible world and the largely unrevealed world created by the Lord. Quantum states are states of knowledge, rather than states of reality, with information coming from God translated by quantum mechanics into perceivable reality. Information physics describes quantum information transmission, entanglement distillation and entanglement assisted communication, all of which helps to understand God’s introduction of information for the beginning and continuation of His creation and how that information can appear instantly in any part of the cosmos. God's initial creation was an empty and formless cosmos, a creation void and without light (energy). Science describes Genesis’ cosmic void and formlessness as the Higgs field, a symmetric lattice for transforming information into reality. In “letting there be light,” God introduced information – energy through His Word (The concept that energy equals information in the quantum is consistent with modern physics). Thereby, His Words’ interactions with the Higgs field created all forces, particles and waves. Symmetry was broken; time and space appeared. God’s information became encoded in perceivable reality, giving it both a consciousness and a material form (“crystallized thought”). The dynamics of fields and information shape reality’s effective meaning, the basis of which is events resulting from interactions. No created entity, whether microscopic or macroscopic, is without an ability for interaction with others. God creates the Higgs field with infinite expansibility into which He continues to introduce information (transcendence). (Information arising spontaneously out of a void, such as with “The Big Bang,” is counterintuitive to reason and common sense; it cannot be explained by chance). The changing of space’s geometry with time results from redistributions of information or the introduction of new information. Geometric changes also can develop with information losing its visibility (its manifestations in reality that are gained by interactions with the Higgs field) but information cannot be lost or destroyed. Black holes (remnants) storing information without its manifestations in reality change space geometry and represent areas where symmetry returns and space-time is lost. The only manifestation of this information is gravity. The gravitational effects of dark matter and dark energy are due to information—matter plays no role. Black hole remnants’ stored information can be released and used for ongoing cosmic creation and modification. The universe manifested in quantum bits shows a logical system where patterns emerge from chaos; universal logic is at the root of creation—universal logic systems that conserve information will last forever. Universal logic is at the root of creation that is manifested by God’s immanence and transcendence. Common sense compels us to believe that the consciousness of the creation has to be good and from that information all of perceived reality evolves.

            Creation stories attribute the universe’s beginnings to gods or in the case of the Hebrews to Yahweh or God. The stories were always told in terms that people of the time could understand. No human beings existed at the beginnings so the actual cause, prime mover, and events at the onset of creation had to be through revelations, and for the Hebrews and Christians that was done by the Holy Spirit. The early Christian fathers devoted their lives to listening to the Holy Spirit for greater understanding of how God created the universe. Theologians have done little to add to the understandings and interpretations of the early Christian fathers. Modern scientific theories also describe the events at the creation and they form an entirely different interpretation of creation’s events and causes.

Although science cannot be reliably used to verify historical events described in the Holy Bible, especially the oldest ones in the Book of Genesis, the creation story in Genesis 1:1 is not inconsistent with the scientific basis of cosmology. The foundation of Christian belief is established by what God reveals in the beginning of the Book of Genesis. This essential foundation can be more comprehensively known with an understanding of God’s ongoing scientific revelations. The relationship between science and God’s mighty act of creation can now be more fully understand because of modern physics—quantum mechanics has become the bridge between the accessible world and the largely unrevealed world created by the Lord.¹ Quantum states are states of knowledge rather than states of reality.² The states of knowledge are information coming from God and quantum mechanics translates it into perceivable reality. Information physics describes quantum information transmission, entanglement distillation and entanglement assisted communication,³ all of which helps to understand God’s introduction of information for the beginning and continuation of His creation and how that information can appear instantly in any part of the cosmos.

Biblical creation revelation

The Biblical Book of Genesis describes the conditions and act of creating the cosmos: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void (empty), and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving (hovering) over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from darkness.” These activities concluded God’s work for the first “day.” With an appreciation and knowledge for science that was virtually nonexistent, the early church fathers studied and contemplated God’s creative actions that are described in these verses.⁴

            The Book of John adds more information on God’s creativity activity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” …”And the Word became flesh…” “Word” is a translation of Logos and is the agent of creation.⁵

            The Book of Hebrews indicates that through His Word God continues to act in His Creation: “For the word of God is living and active.” God is eternally transcendent.⁶

The Book of Psalms tells us: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” Thereby the psalmists give us a poetic summary of the first chapter of Genesis.⁷

Creating the heavens and the earth

            Before creating anything else God created an empty and formless cosmos, a creation void and without any light (energy). This initial act of creation was essential for all succeeding steps. It may seem that a creative act resulting in a void, empty and formless entity would produce something meaningless and useless. Modern physics theorizes the existence of an entity that fits the description of a created “void” that is essential for creating the universe as we know it. This entity is the Higgs field; before its creation the empty cosmos contained no fields. The postulated Higgs field in the void is a sort of hypothetical lattice that fills the universe.⁸ The Higgs field is characterized as a particularly simple one—it fills all space and has the same properties viewed from every direction, and in important respects it is indistinguishable from empty space. Thus, the field shows symmetry. Symmetry is found where thermal disorder is absent, at conditions of absolute zero temperature (where energy does not exist in any form). Since the creation was void, and thus without any energy, it existed at conditions of absolute zero temperature. This was before God had “let there be light,” before He introduced energy into His creation. The universe continued to be void and empty because it contained no particles or forces.

“Let there be light”

            God had now established the framework (Higgs field) for creating the universe. As already noted this “entity” was still empty and void, and with no energy the field’s temperature was true absolute zero. The field showed complete symmetry and contained no particles or waves, nothing with mass, force or energy.⁹ Then God said “Let there be light.” By His Word He introduced light into His creation. This was not the light produced by the sun and stars because that light was not created until the fourth day of creation.

In “letting there be light” God introduced information with His Word. Information appeared as energy (photons making up light) which caused cosmic temperature to rise and initiated symmetry-breaking.⁹ Interaction of information-energy with the already-created Higgs field resulted in the formation of particles and waves and endowed them with mass.⁸ Information became encoded in real physical objects (subatomic particles) such as neutrinos and electrons. All other subatomic particles arose from information’s quantization of the Higgs field. Information also appeared as gravity.¹⁰ Gravity was needed to provide and maintain order for the new creation. Gravity is not needed in a field with symmetry. God thereby created things that could interact, namely fields and information, and the appearance of “things” such as particles and waves developed from that interaction. Time and space appeared; space-time was not possible in the void of symmetry with absolute zero temperature.

God’s Word—information equals energy

The concept that energy equals information in the quantum is consistent with modern physics. Based on particle physics a quantum of energy is the amount representing one bit of information. In emergent systems, composite information having no energy represents a relative existence; it has no independent absolute existence. (Emergent phenomenon is the appearance of new characteristics in the whole which cannot be found in the separate parts.) Thus energy equaling information in the quantum manifests as a real and absolute existence; generated information manifests as energy and gravity. Thereby, all information from God is encoded in perceivable reality.

There are no fundamental fields or forces or space and time; there is only information about events and the logical relationships they exhibit and how that manifests our perceptions. Apparently, the universe is discontinuous. It manifests itself to us in quanta. Many experiments suggest a strong relationship between quanta and information.¹¹

Quantum information is stored in the “qubit” whose properties are independent of a subatomic particle’s specific physical representation as the spin of an atomic nucleus or the polarization of a photon.¹² A qubit can store an infinite amount of classical information and qubits can be entangled.¹²

God’s Word creates Reality

            The world’s reality is not known to us because of particles that have been discovered and described. Reality’s properties are determined by and belong to interactions. God did not create mere objects but to give properties to things that could interact such as fields and information. Properties are designed for interactions, not merely to be features of things, and we know properties by events which are the true representation of all reality. The dynamics of fields and information shape effective meanings for all reality. Fields and information are essential for creation of particles and waves in order that reality can materialize. Fields and information give reality a “consciousness” as well as material form; the cosmos becomes “crystallized thought.”¹³

            A cosmic explosion poorly explains the creation or appearance of information that follows from a void. Information arising spontaneously out of a void is counterintuitive to reason and common sense. That cannot be explained by chance. Chance happenings require “things” to act on, none of which are found in the void.

The Higgs field is created with a capability for infinite expansion. This allows God to select any dimensions for the universe and He can give it the appearance of continuous expansion if He so chooses. God equips His infinitely large cosmos with the introduction of information that can appear to be in all parts instantly; organization of the cosmos’ reality develops in no time.¹² According to the theory of general relativity, the geometry of space changes in time. With space being quantitized and with quantum states being states of knowledge, space-changes result from alterations in the distribution of information or in the introduction of new information. Science describes the cosmos as expanding. It is not clear whether parts are expanding when others are not, resulting in a net expansion of the cosmos or parts are changing by both expansion and contraction so that the cosmos remains the same size. (If we believe the cosmos’ dimensions are infinitely large, its size and dimensions cannot be comprehended and described.)

God’s transcendence—a continuing creation

The Book of Hebrews indicates that God’s Word continues to act in His Creation: “For the word of God is living and active.” Information introduced by God to create the cosmos persists (immanence) and for believers He continues to introduce information to meet human needs (transcendence). Persistence of information is in agreement with the physics principle that information is not lost or destroyed.¹⁴

Information is preserved in the energy (all forces) and particles of the cosmos. Information may appear to be lost when it seems to disappear or to become “invisible.” Information’s appearance changes during the evolutionary ending of stars to form black holes. Black holes show virtually zero volume and are proposed to have infinite density from the compaction of stellar mass; they are described as stable black hole remnants.¹⁵ Black holes have zero spin (show no rotation) and zero electrical charge. Their temperature is only one ten-millionth of a degree above absolute zero.¹⁶ At that temperature energy is essentially gone and the reversal of the creative process strips information-energy from particles so they no longer exist, leaving only information in the black hole remnant. Symmetry returns to this portion of the Higgs field where both time and space disappear. A remnant’s density, if it could be measured, has no basis for being infinitely large. Immense density is attributed to the black hole’s gravitational effects. But gravity is information and does not need density of particulate mass to show its effects. The black hole’s sequestered and invisible information manifests gravity.

The universe’s apparent continuing expansion can be explained by God’s introduction of new information and also by release of information stored in black hole remnants. Such information or energy can represent the “dark energy” which is explained by the cosmological constant or quintessence that opposes gravity and is responsible for “expansion” of the universe. Dark energy is “a property of space that seems to be pushing galaxies farther apart at an increasing rate….”¹⁷ Dark energy is called dark because it cannot be detected; it can only be calculated. (Calculations of the universe’s mass can account for only 5 percent of its total predicted mass. The remainder of the mass or the missing mass is explained by dark matter accounting for 25 percent of the universe and dark energy representing the remaining 70 percent.) What is dark energy? “The simplest explanation for dark energy is that it is simply the ‘cost of having space’: that is, that a volume of space has some intrinsic, fundamental energy.”¹⁷ This intrinsic, fundamental energy begins as information. Dark matter consists of elementary particles that can only be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter such as stars and galaxies. These invisible entities of dark energy and dark matter showing gravitational effects must begin as information, and need be no part of their effects.

Development and release of black hole remnant information can be God’s means for ongoing creation and modification of the cosmos by star collapse and information storage in remnants, representing a cycling of events that maintains and changes creation as He chooses.

Creative activity requires a logical system

            The universe manifested in quantum bits shows a logical system where patterns emerge from chaos; universal logic is at the root of creation. Moreover, universal logical systems that conserve information (zero entropy) will exist forever.¹⁷ (How can the world end if this is true.) Information is neither lost nor destroyed. In this sense there is nothing new under the sun. With God’s information the basis of all creation we must remember what John said: “No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.” (John 3:27) We trust in the Lord because He spoke and it came to be (Psalm 33:9) and He continues to speak to His creation. Human beings seek to find and understand logical systems. Logical systems must be designed to be good. Common sense compels us to believe that the consciousness of the creation has to be good and from that information all of perceived reality evolves.

Notes

1. Nick Herbert, Quantum Reality (New York: Anchor Books, 1985), 144.

2. Rod Spekkens. In defense of the view that quantum states are states of knowledge. http://www.iqi.caltech.edu/seminar_abstracts.html#2003oct

4. Andrew Louth, Marco Conti eds., Genesis I-II, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2001), 1-9. In the beginning God created; this refers to the beginning of time. God is outside of time and so existed before this. With this passage God only wishes to tell us that, after the invisible and intellectual world, the visible world, the world of senses, began to exist. (Ambrose) The earth that God made was invisible and without form before God arranged the forms of all things by ordering and distinguishing them (Augustine). The darkness and the deep signify the absence of the bodily light that had to be created by God (Augustine). “Water” is another definition of the formless matter to be arranged by God (Augustine). On the first day the creation was still incomplete. (Basil) Formlessness is suggested by words invisible, unorganized and darkness. Heaven was incomplete on the first day. (Basil) God laid the foundation first. (Ambrose). The Spirit moving over the face of the waters created…the universe. (Ambrose). ..matter was made from absolutely nothing. (Augustine) The Spirit hovered—creation was by the trinity. (Ephrem the Syrian). (the beginning of time—essentially space-time did not exist before creation)

Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:13 “All that is manifest is light.” God is the author of light. (Ambrose) “Let there be light” was spoken ineffably…—(too awesome, too sacred, or too inexpressible to be spoken). As the words themselves make sufficiently clear, we are told that this light was made. The light born from God is one thing; the light that God made is another. The light born from God is the very Wisdom of God, but the light made by God is something mutable, whether corporeal or incorporeal…(mutable—can be changed). (Augustine) “The light was good” ..The condition in the world before creation of light was not night but darkness .That which was opposed to the day was named night. (Basil) God approves His work….These ineffable things had to be said in this was by a man to men so that they might profit all….Day and night: “And God divided the light and the darkness, and God called the light day and he called the darkness night.” It did not say here “God made the darkness,” because darkness is merely the absence of light. Yet God made a division between light and darkness. …”He called the light day, and he called the darkness night” was said in the sense that he made them to be called, because he separated and ordered all things so that they could be distinguished and receive names. (Augustine)

… firmament in the midst of waters: For what fault have they to find with the vast creation of God, who out of the fluid nature of the waters formed the stable substance of the heavens? For God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” God spoke once for all, and it stands fast, never failing. (Cyril of Jerusalem) …water is merely a metaphor here…(Basil) ….separating the waters: The waters were divided so that some were above the firmament and others below the firmament. Since we said that matter was called water, I believe that the firmament of heaven separated the corporeal matter of visible things from the incorporeal matter of invisible things. (Augustine)

…the firmament is heaven….Although God had already previously made heaven, now he makes the firmament. For he made heaven first, about which he says, “Heaven is my throne.” But after that he makes the firmament, that is, the corporeal heaven. For every corporeal object is, without doubt, firm and solid; and it is this that “divides the water which is above heaven from the water which is below heaven.” (Origen)

How did God Create? As for the question of precisely how any single thing came into existence, we must banish it altogether from our discussion. Even in the case of things which are quite within the grasp of our understanding and of which we have sensible perception, it would be impossible for the speculative reason to grasp the “how” of the production of the phenomenon, so much so that even inspired and saintly men have deemed such questions insoluble. For instance, the apostle says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen are not made of things which do appear .”….Let us, following the example of the apostle, leave the question of the “how” in each created thing without meddling with it at all but merely observing incidentally that the movement of God’s will becomes at any moment that he pleases a fact, and the intention becomes at once realized in nature. (Gregory of Nyssa)

5. Word (Logos) was used in different ways by Jews and Greeks. In Psalms 33 the Hebrew writers show that Word was an agent of creation and in Hebrew thought Word was another expression for God. In Greek philosophy Word was the principle of reason that governed the world, or the thought still in the mind giving the universe a “consciousness.” Philo believed the function of Logos is restricted to the creation and preservation of the universe derived from divine reason and thought. He does not identify Logos with the Messiah. John believed Logos is the real personal God in Jesus Christ (Logos) who acted with God in making all things in the act of creation (Hebrews 1:3). In Hebrews 4:12 God’s word is living, life-changing and dynamic as it works in people. (also Ps 107:20, 147:15, and Isa 55:11)

6. Hebrews 4:12.

7. Psalm 33:6.

8. Gordon Kane, “The mysteries of mass” Scientific American, (July 2005): 41-48. All creation came from information which is equivalent to energy-gravity. The Standard Model lets us calculate that nearly all the mass of protons and neutrons is from the kinetic energy of their constituent quarks and gluons (the remainder is from the quarks’ rest mass). ….almost all the familiar matter around us comes from the energy of motion of quarks and gluons in protons and neutrons. The Higgs field is a quantum field and all elementary particles arise as quanta of a corresponding quantum field. The masses of the quarks and electrons are produced by the Higgs field. Those masses would vanish without the Higgs—without the Higgs field the energy of a “particle” is pure kinetic energy, which in quantum field theory implies that its mass is zero. The Higgs field becomes a background field that becomes locally distorted whenever a particle moves through it. The distortion, the clustering of the field around the particle, generates the particle’s mass. The distinction between particle and wave is unclear because entities can appear in both forms. They both have energy which always bears information. As an example an electron has mass and can be described as a particle or wave with energy that is information and with the information-energy moving through the Higgs field the “Light” creates the universe. The Higgs field may or may not have an unidentified boson, the Higgs particle.

David Miller. http://www.phy.uct.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs3.htm The Higgs field is needed in order for scientists to explain why the Z and W particles which carry the weak interactions are so heavy while the photon which carries electromagnetic forces is massless.

Information-energy introduced may have been in the form of photons. A photon is one of the elementary particles and is a quantum of the electromagnetic field. Light is formed from a large number of photons, with the intensity of brightness related to their number. Photons have no mass and no charge. They are the particles that enable other particles to interact with each other electromagnetically and with the electromagnetic field. Photons are waves of energy (light and energy are synonymous) which can be absorbed by particles to increase their energy. This energy can be released from particles undergoing decay. Annihilation of particles meeting anti-particles to release pure energy may give rise to energetic neutral force-carrier particles, such as gluons, photons or Z-bosons. Conversely, energetic force-carrier particles can give rise to matter particle/anti-particle pairs (pair production). The cosmic wave background represents about 99 percent of the photons in the universe and is proposed to result from particle/anti-particle annihilations.

Photons introduced as information by God’s Word, decouple and split to electron pairs (in the Higgs field) with their energy divided between structural stability of the electron and the electrons’ electric field. Most of that energy remains with the electron so that it can bind to other particles with the strong nuclear force. The neutrino is able to transform electromagnetism of the electron into the strong nuclear force and become the glue in particle-binding to form particle masses. The neutrino originates from the cyclic photon which would leave the photon as a single information-energy source introduced in God's creative Word. The properties of photons become properties of the particles created with some of their energy invested in particle stability. The constituents of all particles must be without mass and charge. Only photons and neutrinos are known to have these properties and they are components of particles. In essence the photon has the potential to form all the constituents of particles and their interactions—properties of the photon transform to the properties of particles. Conditions where no energy-motion exists such as at a temperature of absolute zero show disappearance of all particles and structure.

The neutrino is the information; remove it and particles disappear. Remove one of the basic building blocks of subatomic particles, neutrinos or photons, and particles disappear. Neutrinos transform electromagnetism into the strong nuclear force and serves as seeds to form particles and bind them together. The Yang-Mills theory treats the electron and the neutrino symmetrically as one “family” with the electron and the neutrino being two sides of the same coin. Electrons and neutrinos are “partners.” The neutrino mass is less than a millionth the size of the next smallest mass, the electron mass. Both may acquire their masses from interactions with the Higgs field. A much smaller mass would be consistent with the idea that neutrinos bear information and require little mass for that function. Neutrinos are the only known particle that are not significantly attenuated by their travel through the interstellar medium suggesting that makes them the best candidate for being messengers. Supernovae are known to release approximately 99% of their energy in a rapid (10 second) burst of neutrinos—information in the information-energy of the stellar mass is preserved and maybe manifested only by its gravitational effects. The stellar system that actually “lost” information evaporated into perceived nothingness. The lost information is not lost but becomes “invisible” in gravity.

11. The Nature of Information and the Information of Nature. http://www.informationphysics.com/InformationPhysics.html

13. Danny Keith Hawkmoon Alford. Reality Mind and Language as Field Wave and Particle. http://www.enformy.com/dma-rml.htm

14. The idea of information being destroyed contradicts a fundamental tenet of modern physics, which says information cannot be destroyed. David Whitehouse, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1hi/sci/tech/3913145.stm Since quantum interactions are reversible no information is really lost. Perceived loss, however, is real, and what counts.

16. Why is the temperature of a black hole so much less that the background temperature of the cosmos which is 2-3 K? (Can the rapid expansion of particles preceding black hole formation result in great decreases in temperature as is known with laws of general physics?)

17.Information physics.  http://www.informationphysics.com/wiki/index.php/InformationPhysics

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