(美国阿拉斯加州播音）

World Christian Broadcasting

Shortwave Radio Station KNLS, Anchor Point, Alaska, USA

Recording Studios: Franklin, Tennessee, USA

宇宙膨胀的证据是在1929年由美国天文学家哈勃（Edwin Hubble）最先发现的。哈勃观察到，在地球上收测的来自各方星系的光波有不断增加的波长。这表明各方星系正快速离地球而去，换句话说，宇宙正在膨胀。我们都有这样的经验：在街上，如果有鸣笛的救护车向你开来，笛声会越来越刺耳，这是因为你听到的声波有不断缩短的波长。但当鸣笛的救护车擦身而过，离你远去的时候，笛声会变得低沉下来，这是因为你听到的声波有不断增加的波长。把这个例子中的声波换成光波，就是哈勃所观察到的现象。哈勃还发现，宇宙中的任何两个星球在相互离去时，如果其距离一样，离去的速度也一样。这说明全宇宙的膨胀速度是恒定的，各方星系的离去都可追溯到一个起因。物理学家伽莫夫（George Gamow）在1946年因此提出“大爆炸理论”，认为宇宙从一个大爆炸开始，至今一直在膨胀中，时间也随之而生。在1965年，美国科学家彭齐亚斯 (Arno Penzias) 和威尔逊 (Robert Wilson) 观测到微波背景辐射，这正与大爆炸理论所预言的宇宙间必充满爆炸的残余辐射相符。现在，绝大多数科学家都相信我们所在的宇宙和时间有一个共同的开始。

是谁开始的这一切呢？因微波背景辐射的发现而获1978年诺贝尔物理学奖的彭齐亚斯说，“天文学领着我们来到一个特殊的现实，宇宙是由无到有，被创造而来。所有天文学的观测数据都支持这一点。” 人在经历了千百年的曲折寻找之后，终于发现写在约三千五百年前的《圣经》早就用第一句话准确地描述宇宙和时间的起源：“起初，神创造天地。”（创世记：第一章第一节）《圣经》是受神的启示写成的，充满了真理。以神的话为生活指南的人会避免走人生的弯路。

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Seeking the Origin of the Universe and of Time

By Junhui Bian, Ph.D.

This vast and boundless universe has been attracting the curiosity of mankind since ancient times. Why does the universe exist? How did it come about?

Cosmology studies the origin and development of the universe and is the earliest branch of the natural sciences. Every ancient civilization had something to say about the origin of the universe. In Chinese mythology, Pangu was the first living being who separated the heaven and the earth. Ancient Egyptians believed that the separation of the heaven and the earth was due to the growing of mountains, and that the heaven was supported by high mountains in the four corners of the earth. After the beginning of the 17^th century, man was finally able to see this enormous universe filled with billions of stars, and has seen such even more clearly with the aid of more and more sophisticated space telescopes. Thus people began to guess about the origin of the universe.

The "steady state theory" has been the most popular for several hundred years. According to this theory, the structure of the universe has always been like this; its space has never changed; the universe, like time, has neither beginning nor end, therefore is eternal. The steady state theory had been accepted by most scientists since the astronomical observations made by ancient people appear repeatedly and it seems that the space of the universe is basically in a steady state. But, this consensus was broken unintentionally by the well-known scientist, Albert Einstein. In 1915, Einstein published the thesis General Relativity. Willem de Sitter, a Dutch astrophysicist, applied the relativity theory to cosmology and calculated that the universe was not in a steady state, but in a state of expansion. Einstein did not accept this calculation at first and subsequently added to his own equation a cosmology constant in order to arrive in a steady state universe when general relativity was applied to cosmology. Later, Einstein had to admit that this was the biggest error in his academic career. At the time, an expanding universe was inconceivable to most scientists including Einstein, since this would mean that the universe and time has a beginning. Who started all these?

The evidence of an expanding universe was discovered first in 1929 by Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer. Hubble observed that the light waves coming from galaxies in different directions received on earth have increasing wavelengths. This shows that these galaxies are moving quickly away from earth. In other words, the universe is expanding. We all have the following experience: on the street, if an emergency vehicle with sirens blaring is moving toward you, you feel that sirens are growing louder. This is because the sound waves are getting shorter in wavelength. But when the vehicle passes and moves away from you, you feel that sirens become low pitched. This is because the sound you hear is getting longer in wavelength. Substituting the sound wave in this example with the light wave would result in Hubble’s observation. Hubble also found that any two stars in the universe would depart from each other at the same speed if the distances between them would be the same. This shows that the entire universe expands at the same speed and the departure of any two galaxies is the result of a single event. Based on this, George Gamow proposed the "big bang theory" in 1946, believing that the universe began with a big explosion and has been in expansion ever since. Time began as well. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, American scientists, detected cosmic microwave background radiation in 1965. This discovery is consistent with the prediction of the big bang theory that the universe must be filled with the residual background radiation resulting from the explosion. Now, the majority of scientists believe that our universe and time have a common beginning.

Who started all of these? Penzias who won 1978 Nobel prize in physics for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation said, "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing… the creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far." After the hard searches which lasted hundreds of years, man finally discovers that the first verse of the Bible written about 3,500 years ago describes the origin of the universe and time accurately: "in the beginning, God created heavens and earth." (Genesis 1:1) The Bible was written with the inspiration of God and full of truth. Those who are guided by the Word of God can avoid the wicked paths in life.