Page 114 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 5 “DOUBLE” AND A MESSAGE OF SYMMETRY
CHAPTER 5 “DOUBLE” AND A MESSAGE OF SYMMETRY 93 93

To sum up, the space-time environment of our observed universe contains
symmetries that make every point in space, every “there,” equivalent to any other
“there,” as far as the laws of nature are concerned. And any movement within this

space, in whatever direction and in any time point specified, would still cause the
observer to see the same laws of nature.

But there is another, no less profound symmetry , confirmed by recent
observations. It relates to the cosmic microwave background radiation. More
than four decades ago, scientists discovered that the universe is suffused with
microwave radiation—long-wavelength light that is a cool relic of the initial con-
ditions just after the big bang (refer to sections 11.2 and 14.2). As the story is told

in Greene (2004, 227), the temperature of this radiation is just 2.7°K (Kelvin)
above absolute zero (–273.15°C). An essential property of this radiation, revealed
by precision satellite measurements over the past decade, is that it is extremely uni-
form throughout space. In fact, the temperature of the radiation in one part of the
sky differs from that in another part by less than a thousandth of a degree. That
means that anywhere in space where measurements are taken, these measurements

will be in agreement by four significant digits. This uniformity of radiation not
only implies that the young universe, at its earlier stages, had been homogenous,
but also that the evolution of the universe since the big bang, on average, must
have been nearly identical anywhere across the cosmos.
The last assertion implies that not only is the cosmos symmetrical with respect
to space, as revealed by the constancy of the laws of nature and of the cosmo-
logical constants (irrespective of your place in the universe, the direction of your
measurement devices, or the type of motion you are having—moving at con-

stant speed, accelerating or decelerating, or in a rotational speed), symmetry is
noticeable also with respect to the history of the evolving universe. Everywhere in
the cosmos, the evolution is identical from a macro perspective, as shown by the
extraordinary uniformity of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Note
that an exploration of various specified segments of the sky would obviously reveal

locally varied cosmos, as different planets, stars and galaxies reside in different seg-
ments of space. However, in macro perspective, the evolution to the present state
essentially followed a history that is identical anywhere in the universe.
In summary, a most fundamental conclusion of present-day cosmologies, sup-
ported by most recent precise observations, is that any direction you point in
the sky it is essentially the same. Space is symmetric and homogenous in any
sense that you may think of. This conclusion obviously stands in sharp contrast
to our intuitive everyday experience of the sky as a “screen” inhabiting a variety of
different stories that are concurrently projected on it.