View source for Religious interpretations of the Big Bang theory

{{short description|How various religious groups interpret the Big Bang theory and its implications}}
{{cosmology|expanded=history}}
Since the emergence of the [[Big Bang]] theory as the dominant [[physical cosmology|physical cosmological paradigm]], there have been a variety of reactions by religious groups regarding its implications for [[religious cosmology|religious cosmologies]]. Some accept the scientific evidence at face value, some seek to harmonize the Big Bang with their religious tenets, and some reject or ignore the evidence for the Big Bang theory.<ref>
{{cite web
 |last=Wright |first=E.L
 |date=24 May 2009
 |title=Cosmology and
 |url=http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmo-religion.html
 |work=Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial
 |access-date=2009-10-15}}
</ref>

==Background==
The Big Bang itself is a [[scientific theory]], and as such, stands or falls by its agreement with [[observation]]s.<ref name="Kragh">{{cite book | author = Kragh, Helge | title = Cosmology and Controversy | url-access = registration | publisher = Princeton University Press | date = 1996 | isbn = 978-0-691-00546-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/cosmologycontrov00helg/page/ ?] | url = https://archive.org/details/cosmologycontrov00helg/page/ }}{{page needed|date=February 2012}}</ref> However, as a theory which addresses the nature of the universe since its earliest discernible existence, the Big Bang carries possible theological implications regarding the concept of creation [[Ex nihilo|out of nothing]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Philosophy of Physics|pages=1183–1285|doi=10.1016/B978-044451560-5/50014-2|first=George F. R. |last=Ellis|chapter=Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology|date=2007|isbn=978-0444515605|arxiv=astro-ph/0602280|citeseerx=10.1.1.338.6650|s2cid=118897904}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| doi = 10.1016/0370-2693(82)90866-8
| issn = 0370-2693
| volume = 117
| issue = 1–2
| pages = 25–28
| last = Alexander
| first = Vilenkin
| title = Creation of universes from nothing
| journal = Physics Letters B
| date = 1982-11-04
| bibcode = 1982PhLB..117...25V
}}</ref><ref name="Manson - Theological Implications">
{{cite book
 |last=Manson |first=N.A.
 |date=1993
 |title=God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zCx4rICgN_EC&pg=PA277
 |publisher=[[Routledge]]
 |quote=The Big Bang theory strikes many people as having theological implications, as shown by those who do not welcome those implications.
 |isbn=978-0-415-26344-3
}}</ref> Many atheist philosophers have argued against the idea of the Universe having a beginning – the universe might simply have existed for all eternity, but with the emerging evidence of the Big Bang theory, both theists and physicists have viewed it as capable of being explained by [[theism]];<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=J.F. |last=Harris
 |title=Analytic Philosophy of Religion
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rx2Qf9ieFKYC&pg=PA129
 |date=2002
 |isbn=978-1-4020-0530-5
  |quote=Both theists and physicists have seen the big bang theory as leaving open such an opportunity for a theistic explanation.
 |publisher=[[Springer Press]]
}}</ref><ref name="Lerner - Theological Implications">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwNVDMOgQRQC&pg=PT469 |title =The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe|author=Eric J. Lerner|author-link=Eric J. Lerner|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|quote=From theologians to physicists to novelists, it is widely believed that the Big Bang theory supports Christian concepts of a creator. In February 1989, for example, the front-page article of the ''New York Times Book Review'' argued that scientists argued that scientists and novelists were returning to God, in large part through the influence of the Big Bang.|access-date = 2012-03-16|isbn=978-0307773548|date=2010}}</ref> a popular philosophical argument for the [[existence of God]] known as the [[Kalam cosmological argument]] rests in the concepts of the Big Bang.<ref>{{cite book
 |author=[[James Franklin Harris]]
 |date=2002
 |title=Analytic Philosophy of Religion
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rx2Qf9ieFKYC&pg=PA129
 |quote=THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT Perhaps the best known and most clearly formulated version of the cosmological argument that incorporates the fundamental concepts of big bang theory is found in the work of William Lane Craig.
 |publisher=[[Springer Science]]
 |isbn=978-1402005305
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 |first=A.E. |last=McGrath
 |author-link=Alister E. McGrath
 |date=2011
 |title=Science and Religion
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3b-A7g6Nq4C&pg=PT57
 |quote=It will be clear that this type of argument relates directly to modern cosmological research, particularly the "big bang" theory of the origins of the cosmos. This is also true of the ''kalam'' version of the cosmological argument, to which we now turn.
 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]
 |isbn=978-1-4443-5808-7
}}</ref> In the 1920s and 1930s, almost every major cosmologist preferred an eternal [[Steady state theory|steady state]] universe, and several complained that the beginning of time implied by the Big Bang imported religious concepts into physics; this objection was later repeated by supporters of the steady-state theory,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Kragh
 |first=H.
 |date=1996
 |title=Cosmology and Controversy
 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]
 |location=Princeton (NJ)
 |isbn=978-0-691-02623-7
 |url-access=registration
 |url=https://archive.org/details/cosmologycontrov00helg
 }}</ref> who rejected the implication that the universe had a beginning.<ref name="Cambridge - Theological Implications">
{{cite book
 |first=P. |last=Harrison
 |date=2010
 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mSCHC0QMUgC&q=%22a+proposition+that+for+some+had+unwelcome+religious+implications%22+%22initial+resistance+to+the+Big+Bang+theory+was+that+unlike+the+rival+Steady+State+hypothesis+it+proposed+that+the+universe+has+a+beginning%22
 |quote=One reason for initial resistance to the Big Bang theory was that, unlike the rival Steady-State hypothesis, it proposed that the universe has a beginning – a proposition that for some had unwelcome religious implications.
 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]
 |isbn=978-0-521-71251-4
 |page=9}}</ref><ref name="Helge Kragh - Speech">{{cite book
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB3Zst_4HLsC&pg=PA226
 |title =Entropic Creation
 |first=H. |last=Kragh
 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]
 |date=2008
 |isbn=978-0-7546-6414-7
 |page=226
  |quote=Andrei Zhdanov, Stalin's notorious chief ideologue, said in a speech in 1947 that Lemaître and his kindred spirits were 'Falsifiers of science [who] wanted to revive the fairy tale of the origin of the world from nothing ... Another failure of the 'theory' in question consists in the fact that it brings us to the idealistic attitude of assuming the world to be finite.'
}}</ref>

==Hinduism==
The view from the [[Hindu]] ''[[Puranas]]'' is that of an eternal universe cosmology in which time has no absolute beginning, but rather is infinite and cyclic, as opposed to a universe which originated from a Big Bang.<ref name="SanatanDharma1">
{{cite book
 |author=Sushil Mittal
 |author2=G. R. Thursby
 |date=2004
 |title=The Hindu World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fz6KBkgEacAC&q=hindu+big+bang&pg=PA284 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]]
 |quote=In the Vedic cosmogonies, the question of what caused the primordial desire does not arise; like the Big Bang of modern cosmology, the primal impulse is beyond all time and causation, so it makes no sense to ask what preceded it or what caused it. However, in the Hindu cosmology which we find in the Puranas and other non-Vedic Sanskrit texts, time has no absolute beginning; it is infinite and cyclic and so is ''kama''.|isbn=978-0203644706
 }}</ref><ref name="SanatanDharma2">
{{cite book
 |author=John R. Hinnells
 |date=2010 |title=The Routledge companion to the study of religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyuJ_BfJki8C&q=hindu+big+bang+eternal+universe&pg=PA118|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]
 |quote=There are also other cosmological models of the universe besides the Big bang model, including eternal universe theories – views more in keeping with Hindu cosmologies than with traditional theistic concepts of the cosmos.
 |isbn=978-0415473286}}</ref> However, the ''[[Encyclopædia of Hinduism]]'', referencing ''[[Katha Upanishad]]'' 2:20, states that the Big Bang theory reminds humanity that everything came from the [[Brahman]] which is "subtler than the atom, greater than the greatest."<ref name="SanatanDharma3">
{{cite book
 |author=Sunil Sehgal
 |date=1999|title=Encyclopædia of Hinduism: T–Z, Volume 5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3OhTtBUBdgC&q=hindu+big+bang&pg=PA297|publisher=Sarup & Sons
 |quote=The theory is known as the 'Big Bang theory' and it reminds us of the Hindu idea that everything came from the Brahman which is "subtler than the atom, greater than the greatest" (Kathopanishad-2-20).
 |isbn=978-8176250641}}</ref> It consists of several "Big Bangs" and "Big Crunches" following each other in a cyclical manner.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein|author=Moring, G.|date=1999|publisher=DK Publishing|isbn=978-0786542659|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JC4Km4_GUqUC&pg=PA341|page=341|access-date=2015-08-20}}</ref><ref name="huffingtonpost">{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gadadhara-pandit-dasa/hinduism-science-spirituality-intersect_b_967628.html?ir=India|title=Hinduism: Where Science and Spirituality Intersect&nbsp;&#124;&nbsp;Gadadhara Pandit Dasa|publisher=huffingtonpost.com|access-date=2015-08-20|date=2011-09-20}}</ref><ref name="huffingtonpost2">{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/are-eastern-religions-mor_b_628533.html?ir=India|title=Are Eastern Religions More Science-Friendly?&nbsp;&#124;&nbsp;Philip Goldberg|publisher=huffingtonpost.com|access-date=2015-08-20|date=2010-07-05}}</ref>

The ''[[Nasadiya Sukta]]'', the ''[[Hymn of Creation]]'' in the ''[[Rigveda]]'' (10:129), mentions the world beginning from nothing through the power of heat.<ref>{{Cite book| title=World scriptures: an introduction to comparative religions| last=Kramer| first=Kenneth| isbn=978-0-8091-2781-8|date=1986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzUAu-43W5oC&pg=PA34 |page=34| publisher=Paulist Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Human Being in Depth: A Scientific Approach to Religion|author=Swami Ranganathananda |author-link=Ranganathananda |publisher=SUNY Press|date=1991|isbn=978-0-7914-0679-3 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0vfFZh9BIIC&q=Big+Bang+theory+and+Indian+philosophy&pg=PA21 }}</ref> This can be seen as corresponding to the Big Bang theory.

{{Quote|THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?|Rig Veda X.129.1}}

{{Quote|Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever|Rig Veda X.129.2}}

Several prominent modern scientists have remarked that Hinduism (and also [[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]] by extension as all three faiths share most of these philosophies) is the only religion (or civilization) in all of recorded history, that has timescales and theories in astronomy (cosmology), that appear to correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology, e.g. [[Carl Sagan]],<ref name="goodreads">{{cite web|url=http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/601581-the-hindu-religion-is-the-only-one-of-the-world-s|title=Quote by Carl Sagan: "The Hindu religion is the only one of the world..."|publisher=goodreads.com|access-date=2015-08-20}}</ref> [[Niels Bohr]], [[Erwin Schrödinger]], [[Werner Heisenberg]],<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age|author=Hammer, O.|date=2003|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004136380|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZYsPQgBNioC&pg=PA283|page=283|access-date=2015-08-20}}</ref><ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA60|page=60|access-date=2015-08-20|date=1994}}</ref><ref name="google4">{{cite book|title=Spooky Physics|author=Diem-Lane, A.|publisher=MSAC Philosophy Group|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jPWlgmlCmMQC|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jPWlgmlCmMQC/page/n41 42]|access-date=2015-08-20|date=2016-01-11}}</ref> [[Robert Oppenheimer]],<ref name="google5">{{cite book|title=Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect|author=Thorpe, C.|date=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226798486|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC&pg=PA54|page=54|access-date=2015-08-20}}</ref> [[E. C. George Sudarshan|George Sudarshan]],<ref name="thehindu">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/all-i-know-is-how-to-do-physics/article4340225.ece|title='All I know is how to do physics' – The Hindu|publisher=thehindu.com|access-date=2015-08-20|location=Chennai, India|first=Anand|last=Narayanan|date=2013-01-24}}</ref> [[Fritjof Capra]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fritjofcapra.net/shiva.html |title=Fritjof Capra - Shiva's Cosmic Dance at CERN |access-date=2012-09-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216202819/http://www.fritjofcapra.net/shiva.html |archive-date=2013-12-16 }}</ref> etc. Sir [[Roger Penrose]] is among the present-day physicists that believe in a cyclical model for the Universe, wherein there are alternating cycles consisting of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, and he describes this model to be "a bit more like Hindu philosophy" as compared to the Abrahamic faiths.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/what-does-the-penrose-big-bang-theory-mean-for-religions/ |title=What does the Penrose Big Bang theory mean for religions? |first=Adam |last=McDowell |date=December 5, 2010 |newspaper=National Post}}</ref>

==Christianity==
{{Further|Christianity and science}}
The Big Bang theory was partly developed by a [[Catholicism|Catholic]] priest, [[Georges Lemaître]], who believed that there was neither a connection nor a conflict between his religion and his science.<ref>{{cite web|title=Georges Lemaître, Father of the Big Bang |url=http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/essaybooks/cosmic/p_lemaitre.html |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117044852/http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/essaybooks/cosmic/p_lemaitre.html |archive-date=17 January 2013  }}</ref> At the November 22, 1951, opening meeting of the [[Pontifical Academy of Sciences]], [[Pope Pius XII]] declared that the Big Bang theory does not conflict with the Catholic concept of creation.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Ferris|first=T.
 |date=1988
 |title=Coming of age in the Milky Way
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8nuAAAAMAAJ
 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|Morrow]]
 |pages=274, 438
 |isbn=978-0-688-05889-0
}}, citing {{cite book
 |last=Berger |first=A.
 |date=1984
 |title=The Big bang and Georges Lemaître: proceedings of a symposium in honour of G. Lemaître fifty years after his initiation of big-bang cosmology, Louvainla-Neuve, Belgium, 10–13 October 1983
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYHvAAAAMAAJ
 |page=387
 |publisher=[[D. Reidel]]
 |isbn=978-90-277-1848-8
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/speeches/1951/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19511122_di-serena_it.html
 |title=Ai soci della Pontificia Accademia delle Scienze, 22 novembre 1951 – Pio XII, Discorsi
 |language=it
 |date=1951-11-02
 |access-date=2012-02-23
 |author=Pope Pius XII
 |author-link=Pope Pius XII
 |publisher=Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana
}}</ref>
Some [[Evangelicalism|Conservative Protestant]] [[Christian denominations]] have also welcomed the Big Bang theory as supporting a historical interpretation of the doctrine of [[Creationism|creation]];<ref name="Russell - Protestant">
{{cite book
 |last=Russell |first=R.J.
 |date=2008
 |title=Cosmology: From Alpha to Omega
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvlKa6frm2EC&q=rejected+God+Fred+Hoyle+big+bang&pg=PA40
 |publisher=[[Fortress Press]]
 |quote=Conservative Protestant circles have also welcomed Big Bang cosmology as supporting a historical interpretation of the doctrine of creation.
 |isbn=978-0-8006-6273-8
}}</ref> however, adherents of [[Young Earth creationism]], who advocate a very literal interpretation of the [[Book of Genesis]], tend to reject the theory.<ref>{{cite book
 | chapter=The Scientific Enterprise and Teaching about Creation
 | first=Michael | last=Poole
 | year=2007 | volume=277 | pages=75–88
 | title=Teaching About Scientific Origins: Taking Account of Creationism
 | publisher=Peter Lang AG | jstor=42979075 }}</ref>

==Baháʼí Faith==
{{Further| Baháʼí Faith and science}}
Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the [[Baháʼí Faith]], has taught that the universe has "neither beginning nor ending".<ref>{{Cite book |author = Esslemont, J.E. |author-link = John Esslemont |date = 1980 |title = Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era |edition = 5th |publisher = Baháʼí Publishing Trust |location = Wilmette, Illinois |isbn = 978-0-87743-160-2 |url = http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/je/BNE }}</ref> In the ''[[Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas|Tablet of Wisdom]]'' (''"Lawh-i-Hikmat"'', written 1873–1874). Bahá'u'lláh states: "That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different." The terminology used here refers to [[ancient Greek]] and [[Islamic philosophy]] ([[al-Kindi]], [[Avicenna]], [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]] and [[Shaykh Ahmad]]).<ref name = "rafati">Rafati, Vahid. ''[http://bahai-library.com/rafati_hikmat_agents_patients Lawh-i-Hikmat: The Two Agents and the Two Patients]''. `Andalib, vol. 5, no. 19, pp. 29-38.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Taherzadeh |first = A. |author-link = Adib Taherzadeh |date = 1987 |title = The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 4: Mazra'ih & Bahji 1877-92 |publisher = George Ronald |place = Oxford, UK |isbn = 978-0-85398-270-8 | pages = 42 | url = http://www.peyman.info/cl/Baha'i/Others/ROB/V4/Cover.html}}</ref> In an early text, Bahá’u’lláh describes the successive creation of the four natures heat and cold (the active force), dryness and moisture (the recipients), and the [[Classical element|four elements]] fire, air, water and earth.<ref name = "rafati" /> About the phrase "That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today," [['Abdu'l-Bahá]] has stated that it means that the universe is evolving.<ref name = "rafati" /> He also states that "the substance and primary matter of contingent beings is the ethereal power, which is invisible and only known through its effects... Ethereal matter is itself both the active force and the recipient... it is the sign of the Primal Will in the phenomenal world... The ethereal matter is, therefore, the cause, since light, heat, and electricity appear from it. It is also the effect, for as vibrations take place in it, they become visible...".<ref name = "rafati" />

Jean-Marc Lepain, Robin Mihrshahi, Dale E. Lehman and Julio Savi suggest a possible relation of this statement with the Big Bang theory.<ref>Lepain,  Jean-Marc (2015) [2002]. ''[http://bahai-library.com/lepain_terry_archeology_god The Archeology of the Kingdom of God]''.</ref><ref name="mihrshahi">{{cite journal | last = Mihrshahi | first = Robin | date = 2002| title = Ether, Quantum Physics and the Baháʼí Writings | journal = Australian Baháʼí Studies Journal | volume = 4 | pages = 3–20 | url = http://bahai-library.com/mihrshahi_ether_quantum_physics}}</ref><ref>Lehman, Dale E. (2005). ''[http://www.planetbahai.org/cgi-bin/articles.pl?article=222&print=Y Cosmology and the Baháʼí Writings] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128221137/http://www.planetbahai.org/cgi-bin/articles.pl?article=222&print=Y |date=2014-11-28 }}''.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | title = The Eternal Quest for God: An Introduction to the Divine Philosophy of 'Abdu'l-Bahá | first = Savi | last = Julio | publisher = George Ronald | location = Oxford, UK | isbn = 978-0-85398-295-1 | date = 1989 | pages = 134 | url = http://bahai-library.com/pdf/s/savi_eternal_quest.pdf }}</ref>

==Islam==
{{Further|Islamic attitudes towards science}}
Writing for the [[Kyoto University|Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies]], Haslin Hasan and Ab. Hafiz Mat Tuah wrote that modern scientific ideas on cosmology are creating new ideas on how to interpret the Quran's cosmogonical terms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hasan |first1=Haslin |last2=Mat Tuah |first2=Ab. Hafiz |date=2014 |title=Quranic Cosmogony: Impact of Contemporary Cosmology on the Interpretation of Quranic Passages Relating to the Origin of the Universe |url=http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kias/pdf/kb7/11ea2_Haslin.pdf |journal=Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies |pages=122–140 |access-date=October 28, 2016 |quote=Our study shows that modern scientific findings do indeed influence modern Muslims’ understanding of the Quran’s cosmogonical terms, concepts and narratives by modifying the older Tafsir sources, even deviating from them altogether and offering fresh ideas. |archive-date=October 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029044226/http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kias/pdf/kb7/11ea2_Haslin.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In particular, some modern-day Muslim groups have advocated for interpreting the term ''al-sama'', traditionally believed to be a reference to both the sky and the [[seven heavens]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia|editor=Oliver Leaman|page=258|year=2005|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> as instead referring to the universe as a whole.

[[Mirza Tahir Ahmad]], head of the [[Ahmadiyya]] community, asserted in his book ''[[Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth]]'' that the Big Bang theory was foretold in the [[Quran]]. He referenced the verse 30 of the [[Al-Anbiya|Sūrat al-Anbiyāʼ]], which says that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity:<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ahmad|first1=Mirza Tahir|title=The Quran and Cosmology|url=https://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_4_section_5.html|website=Al Islam|access-date=7 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.school-for-champions.com/religion/big_bang_theory_and_religion.htm#.WG71SvDhDIU|title=Big Bang Theory and Religion by Ron Kurtus – Succeed in Understanding Religion: School for Champions|website=www.school-for-champions.com|access-date=2017-01-06}}</ref>

{{quote
 | Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?
 | {{cite quran|21|30|style=ref}}
}}

This view that the Qu'ran references the initial singularity of the Big Bang is also accepted by many Muslim scholars outside of the Ahmadiyya community such as [[Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri]], who is a [[Sufi]] scholar, and [[Muhammad Asad]], who was a nondenominational Muslim scholar.<ref name=ResearchFoundation/><ref name = "Asad">{{Cite book |url=http://muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf |last = Asad |first = Muhammad |author-link = Muhammad Asad |date = 1984 |title = The Message of the Qu'rán |publisher = Dar al-Andalus Limited |location = Gibraltar, Spain |isbn = 978-1904510000 |page=676}}</ref> Further, some scholars such as Faheem Ashraf of the Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc. and Sheikh [[Omar Suleiman (imam)|Omar Suleiman]] of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research argue that the scientific theory of an [[Metric expansion of space|expanding universe]] is described in [[adh-Dhariyat|Sūrat adh-Dhāriyāt]]:<ref name=ResearchFoundation>{{cite web|url=http://www.irfi.org/articles2/articles_3951_4000/islamic%20concept%20of%20creation%20of%20universehtml.htm|title=Islamic Concept of Creation of Universe Big Bang and Science-Religion Interaction|first=Faheem|last=Ashraf|access-date=3 March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://islam-science.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/EVOLUTION-AND-ISLAM’S-QUANTUM-QUESTION.pdf|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|first=Nidhal|last=Guessoum|publisher=I.B.Tauris|date= 2010|access-date=3 March 2017|isbn=978-0857730756|page=351}}</ref>

{{quote
 | And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander.
 | {{cite quran|51|47|style=ref}}
}}

==Judaism==
"That the universe had a definite starting point" was addressed in a 2014 article with the title "New Big Bang evidence supports Biblical creation, says Orthodox physicist."<ref name=IsraTimes2014>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Times of Israel]]
|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-new-big-bang-evidence-creation-is-a-fact
|title=New Big Bang evidence supports Biblical creation, says Orthodox physicist
|author=David Shamah |date=19 March 2014 |access-date=July 11, 2024}}</ref> Harvard's John Kovac called it a "smoking-gun signature."<ref name=Ritter2014>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Times of Israel]]
|title=Scientists hail a first glimpse of 'the beginning of time'
|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/scientists-hail-a-first-glimpse-of-the-beginning-of-time
|author=Malcom Ritter |date=18 March 2014}}</ref>

[[BBC]] asked and answered "Is the Big Bang theory compatible with Judaism."<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zw9ky4j/revision/2
|title=Is the Big Bang theory compatible with Judaism}}</ref> [[Chabad|Chabad/Lubavitch]]'s website writes that it is science that caught up to the [[Torah]]'s teachings regarding what today is called Big Bang.<ref>{{citation
|url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4421686/jewish/How-the-Universe-Came-to-Be-Torah-and-Science.htm
|title=How the Universe Came to Be: Torah and Science
|author=Daniel Friedmann}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Leeming, David Adams, and Margaret Adams Leeming, ''A Dictionary of Creation Myths''. Oxford University Press (1995), {{ISBN|0-19-510275-4}}.
* Pius XII (1952), "Modern Science and the Existence of God," ''The Catholic Mind'' 49:182–192.
* Ahmad, Mirza Tahir, ''Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth'' Islam International Publications Ltd (1987), {{ISBN|1-85372-640-0}}. [http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_4_section_5.html The Quran and Cosmology]
* Wickman, Leslie, "God of the Big Bang: How Modern Science Affirms the Creator," Worthy Publishing (2015), {{ISBN|978-1617954252}}.

== External links ==
* [http://www.focus.org.uk/gbb1video.php God and the Big Bang:] featuring Professors Peter Bussey, [[Gerald Gabrielse]], [[Owen Gingerich]], Nick Saunders, and [[Jennifer Wiseman]]. It discusses the connection between the Big Bang and God from a Christian perspective
* [http://www.school-for-champions.com/religion/big_bang_theory_and_religion.htm Big Bang Theory and Religion, by Ron Kurtis, Physicist]
* [https://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1995/PSCF9-95Philippidis.html.ori Cosmic Controversy: The Big Bang and Genesis 1] published by the [[American Scientific Affiliation]], an organisation of Christians in the sciences
* {{cite web |last=Oliver |first=Simon |title=Creation and Science |url=http://www.bibledex.com/verses/genesis_beginning.html |work=Bibledex Verses |publisher=[[Brady Haran]] for the [[University of Nottingham]]}}

{{Cosmology topics|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Religious Interpretations Of The Big Bang Theory}}
[[Category:Big Bang]]
[[Category:Religious cosmologies]]
[[Category:Religion and science]]