I just learned of, and watched, the debate this week. The thing that surprised me the most is Hitchens's avoidance of Sharpton's repeated question on how one could possibly explain the universe independently of the supernatural. Although a thorough answer might be better suited for a science classroom than a live debate, here's a high-level overview that I think would have worked (and if any astronomers out there spot any errors in my summary, please let me know!):
PRE-BIG BANG: Because the evidence from physics informs us that neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed (although both can be changed to different forms of mass & energy, and energy can be converted to mass, and mass to energy), this suggests that the universe's mass & energy must have always existed.
THE BIG BANG: Some 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was made up of pure energy—photons and other massless or nearly massless particles, such as neutrinos—and was unimaginably dense and hot. With what we call the Big Bang, the universe began its current expansion (whether this was the universe's first expansion, or whether it has expanded and collapsed zillions of times, or whether we exist in just one of many universes, we don't know). As the universe expanded it became less dense and cool enough for electrons & protons & neutrons to hold together to form hydrogen atoms. While the universe was still fairly dense, some of the hydrogen fused into helium and trace amounts of other light elements.
THE GALAXIES, SOLAR SYSTEMS, & PLANETS: As the universe continued to expand, matter was distributed unevenly, and heat & gravitational attraction caused hydrogen and helium gas to clump together, and the clumps formed stars and galaxies. Stars are "on fire" because the temperature and pressure in a star's core causes internal nuclear reactions as hydrogen is fused into helium. Once a star's hydrogen is used up, the helium begins fusing, and the subsequent fusions create the heavier elements, such as carbon, iron, nickel, silicon, and zinc. Once the star exhausts its fuel supply, it collapses upon itself and explodes, and the explosion itself produces additional heavy elements. The clouds of gas and dust dispersed by the exploding star eventually turn into other stars and planets. (Our particular star, the Sun, was formed about five billion years ago, and has about another five billion years to go before it burns out of fuel. Our planet is about four and half billion years old.)
FINAL POINT ON THE "UNCAUSED CAUSE" ARGUMENT: which is more likely—that something as simple as pure energy could exist without a creator, or a massively infinitely complex & unevolved deity?
Todd Allen Gates, author of Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer
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