i'm not going to take sides right now, but i do recall a certain model that we used in my Earth Science class a couple semesters ago. (it relates to uniformity, hold on!)
imagine the universe as a loaf of raisin bread. a really BIG loaf.
the BB theory is sort of like watching the cooking channel--you don't worry about where all the stuff comes from, you just worry about what it does once it's arrived. theories of pre-BB origins are something else.
anyway, for the rest of this i'll quote from my book. (yes i kept it...partly cause the bookstore ordered a new edition. darn bookstore! also cause i'm a "nerd" though. :-? )
here goes:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by motm's science book
"To help visualize the nature of this expanding universe, we will employ a popularly used analogy. Imagine a loaf of raisin bread that has been set out to rise for a few hours. As the dough doubles in size, so does the distance between all of the raisins. However, the raisins that were originally farther apart travelled a greater distance in the same time span than those located closer together. We therefore conclude that, in an expanding universe, as in our analogy, those objects located farther apart move away from each other more rapidly."
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i'll pause here to explain the diagram. (figure 22.24) there is a picture of a small loaf and a raised loaf. in the small loaf there are many raisins, three marked. one is the "local cluster" galaxy in the analogy. raisin two is two centimeters away. raisin three is five centimeters away.
in the raised loaf, we still see just as many raisins. the "home" raisin is marked, but raisin two is now three times farther away--six centimeters. raisin three is also three times farther away--fifteen centimeters. in the same three hours one raisin moved four centimeters and one moved ten. this is due to the dough growing at a uniform rate of one centimeter an hour (slow bread, but hey). the difference also grew constantly. the original difference of distance was 3centimeters (5cm-2cm). the new difference is three times that--9cm (15cm-6cm).
anway, onto the second (and last) paragraph:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by motm's book, part 2
"Another feature of this expanding universe can be demonstrated using the raisin bread analogy. No matter which raisin you select, it will move away from all the other reasons. Likewise, no matter where one is located in the universe, every other galaxy (except those in the same cluster)"
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(cluster=raisin here)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by and to conclude
"will be receding. Edwin Hubble had indeed advanced our understanding of the universe..."
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and it goes on to talk about Hubble and the BB in more detail.
all quotes taken from "Earth Science", ninth edition, by Tarbuck and Lutgens. page 622, paragraphs 3-4.
now as i said, i'm not going to jump on one bandwagon or the other. Hubble was a pretty smart guy. not to be dismissed lightly as far as i can tell. so is God from what i can tell. i'm sort of stuck in the middle as to how to resolve the apparent differences between them. bit by bit though i find hints. some are good, some awful, still others painful or joyful. science is an ongoing process, as am i. someday i may have a complete answer, but until then i'm going to keep trucking away! anyway, enough of me, your eyes are probably tired of reading by now so i'll let you go--for now. maybe more later if i think of it.