When setting out to discuss the origin and evolution of the universe, we are at once confronted with three clear-cut alternatives. They are:

1. The universe began at a definite moment. This was also the beginning of time, so that there was no ‘before’. It will also cease to exist at a definite moment, so that there will be no ‘after’.

2. The universe has always existed, in which case we must accept a period of time which extends back for ever. It will always exist, so that there will be no ‘end’.

3. The universe began at a definite instant, which was also the beginning of time, so that there was no ‘before’. It will continue to exist for ever, so that there will be no ‘end’.

To explain any of these precepts in plain English is not easy, even for someone with the brain of a Newton or an Einstein!

TIMESCALE

The timescale of the universe was not appreciated until comparatively modern times. The age of the Earth itself was wildly underestimated by almost all scientists of the nineteenth century, and only gradually did the evidence provided by fossils and radiometric dating show that our world must be thousands of millions of years old.

James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh (1581–1656) held very definite views. By basing his chronology upon key events recorded in the Bible, he found that the moment of the Creation was nine o'clock on Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC. Even today we find people who genuinely believe that everything in the Bible is literally true – and Creationism, re-named Intelligent Design, is so widespread in parts of the United States that some schools teach it as a serious alternative to Darwinian evolution!