Now that we've considered a bunch of the options for interpreting creation in Genesis, we are moving to look at astronomy. In today's episode Will Barlow moves into his home territory--physics. You'll learn about the weird nature of light, how particles do strange things at the quantum scale, and how the big bang model actually leads to belief in God. If you've ever been curious how to talk to science-minded friends and relatives about belief in God, today's episode should help!

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiRc2q_RFX4&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&index=6

See below for notes.

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—— Notes ——

Overview of Modern Physics

• Light• General Relativity• Quantum Mechanics• The Big Bang

Light

• Perhaps the most interesting and necessary to support life• Comes in many forms• Can act as a wave or a particle (unique!)• Light can act like a wave (ex: sound or water)• Light can act like a particle (ex: basketball)• Light seems to know the fastest path through a material• The speed of light is a well-known quantity and is considered the “speed limit of the Universe”

General Relativity

• Has been verified enough to use in everyday items like GPS• Gravity can bend light and make “impressions” in space-time

Quantum Mechanics

• Useful when talking about microscopic things• Shows that electrons do not orbit a nucleus like a planet around the Sun• Gives probabilities for direction and location at any given time

Imagine that you reach your hand out to touch a table:

• On a microscopic level, what you feel as “solid” is actually the electrons in your hand repelling the electrons in the table• Theoretically, your hand could pass through the table if you could line up the electrons in your hand with the electrons in the table (quantum tunneling)

The Big Bang

• Some ancient pagans (like Aristotle) believed that the