One
In Which the Universe Forms,
Which Seems Like a Very Good Place to Start
In the beginning, about 13.7 billion years ago, to be reasonably precise, there was a
very, very small dot. 1 The dot, which was hot and incredibly heavy, contained
everything that was, and everything that ever would be, all crammed into the tiniest
area possible. The dot, which was under enormous pressure due to all that it
contained, exploded, and it duly scattered everything that was, or would be, across
what was now about to become the Universe. Scientists call this the “Big Bang,”
although it wasn’t really a big bang at all because it happened everywhere, and all at
once.
Oh, and just one more thing about that “age of the universe” stuff. There are
people who will try to tell you that the Earth is only about 10,000 years old; that
humans and dinosaurs were around at more or less the same time, a bit like in the
movies Jurassic Park and One Million Years B.C.; and that evolution, the change in the
inherited traits of organisms passed from the change in the inherited strains of
organisms passed down from one generation to the next, does not, and never did,
happen. Given the evidence, it's hard not to feel that they’re probably wrong. Many of
them also believe that the Universe was created in seven days by an old chap with a
beard, perhaps with breaks for tea and sandwiches. This may be true, but if it was
created in this way, they were very long days: about two billion years long, give or take
a few million years, which is a lot of sandwiches.
Anyway to return to the dot, let’s be clear on one thing, because it’s very
important. The building blocks of all that you can see around you, and a great deal
more that you can’t see at all, were blasted from that little dot at a speed so fast that,
within a minute, the Universe was a million trillion miles in size and still expanding, as
the dot was responsible for bringing into being planets and asteroids; whales and
budgerigars; you, and Julius Caesar, and Elvis Presley. 2
Oh, and Evil.
Because somewhere in there was all the bad stuff as well, the stuff that makes
otherwise sensible people hurt one another. There’s a little of it in all of us, and the
best that we can do is to try not to let it govern our actions too often.
But just as the planets began to take on a certain shape, and the asteroids, and
the whales and the budgerigars and you, so too, in the darkest of dark places, Evil
took on a form. It did it while the earth was cooling, while tectonic plates shifted,
until, at last, life appeared, and Evil found a target for its rage.
Yet it could not reach us, for the Universe was not ordered in its favor, or so it
seemed. But the thing in the darkness was very patient. It stoked the fires of its fury,
and it waited for a chance to strike . . .
1 Scientists call this the “singularity.” People who are religious might call it the mote in God’s eye.
Some scientists will tell you you can’t believe in the singularity and the idea of a god, or gods. Some
religious people will try to tell you the same thing. Still, you can believe in the singularity and a god, if
you like. It’s entirely up to you. One requires evidence, the other faith. They’re not the same thing,
but as long as you don’t get the two mixed up, then everything should be fine.
2 In fact, about one percent of the static that sometimes appears on your television set is a relic of
the Big Bank and, if your eyes were sensitive to microwave light instead of just visible light, then the
sky at night would appear white instead of black, because it continues to glow from the heat of the
Big Bang. And because atoms are so small, and are constantly recycled, every breath you take
contains atoms that were once breathed by Julius Caesar and Elvis Presley. So a little bit of you once
ruled Rome, and sang “Blue Suede Shoes.”
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