C. Edward Weisheimer
C. Edward Weisheimer is a member of DÎSCÎ. He lives in Ohio.
Hello Friends, I just finished reading Mortimer Adler’s little book, “How To Think About God.” It is an interesting book. A question arises for me out of his discussions. Do you think that the creation mythos in Genesis is necessarily the beginning of the physical world, or may it be something different, i.e. God giving order to the universe? This would be a creative act in and of itself, but it means that the material universe existed prior to God’s action of giving order through God’s “Word.” So, God and the material universe could co-exist eternally. What think ye of this proposition?
DISCI: Disciples' Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry 
If this universe is expanding, then the question becomes: Expanding from what? Assuming a steady rate of expansion – as we move back in time, the universe collapses all four dimensions to a single point called a singularity and immediately prior to which there is no time, no matter, no energy, no physical dimensions, no Newtonian laws, no relativity, no quantum mechanics. This scenario postulates that the universe has a beginning.
For the universe to be eternal, there can never be an alpha singularity. Previous to this incarnation, the universe did not maintain an accelerating rate of expansion. At some point the expansion stopped and then the universe began to collapse. POSSIBILITY 1) Before it reaches singularity, the universe is compressed beyond the density of a black hole, achieves a level of cosmic instability, and rebounds. POSSIBILITY 2) The universe races toward singularity at an accelerating rate. At the moment the compression rate reaches the speed of light, the universe recoils. POSSIBILITY 3) The universe races toward singularity at an accelerating rate that eventually exceeds the speed of light. This allows the material of the universe to move, from every direction, through the approaching material from the other direction and through the point of singularity and “out” the other side. POSSIBILITY 4) The previous three possibilities describe different possible states. It is only when the third possibility occurs that there will be the universe that we have currently – expanding at an accelerating rate, never to collapse again.