Oscillating Universe

l Only 10-20% of matter needed for collapse (open universe)
l A collapse would lead to "Big Crunch" instead of bounce

Slide 12 of 22

Oscillating Universe - The Big Bang implies a universe which is created, therefore the need for a creator. Scientists who didn't want to acknowledge the need for a creator developed the oscillating universe model to attempt to get around the creation of the universe. This model stated that the universe explodes, contracts, then explodes and contracts, ad infinitum. Although this theory did not completely eliminate the need for a creator, it could put this creation event into an almost infinite past. Many eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and New Age) state that everything, including the universe undergoes reincarnation. The Hindu scriptures state that the universe is successively born every 4.32 billion years. Given the age of the universe (15-18 billion years), this value is off by a factor of only 4, which looked very attractive to scientists in the 1970's. The ability of the universe to oscillate is dependent upon a certain critical mass. This critical mass is required to slow the expansion of the universe and force a contraction. If this total mass is not present, which seems likely, then the universe will continue to expand into eternity. Even if there were enough mass to cause the universe, the result of that collapse would be a "Big Crunch" as opposed to another Big Bang (see next slide for explanation).