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The Concepts of “Beginning” and “Creation” In Cosmology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jayant V. Narlikar
Jayant V. Narlikar*
Affiliation:
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Abstract

The paper is inspired by the arguments raised recently by Grünbaum criticizing the current approaches of many cosmologists to the problem of spacetime singularity, matter creation and the origin of the universe. While agreeing with him that the currently favored cosmological ideas do not indicate the biblical notion of divine creation ex nihilo, I present my viewpoint on the same issues, which differs considerably from Grünbaum's. First I show that the symmetry principle which leads to the conservation law of energy is violated when the time axis is terminated at t = 0. Next I discuss why this epoch (t = 0) is more a mathematical artifact whose supposed significance may disappear when one goes beyond the classical relativistic cosmology. This is illustrated by the example of quantum cosmology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 361 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Send reprint requests to the author, IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, INDIA.

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