This is the crossroad of physical cosmology, biology, big bang, evolution and faith. The reader is advised to keep an open mind, do a comparative analysis of the facts, and subsequently form their own opinion. Isaiah 45: 6-8; That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other;I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’ “Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
All living organisms have pulses; algae, viruses, bacteria, plants, and animals. Their life span differs, the truly amazing truth is that cosmic bodies; the planet earth, and other planetary bodies, the stars (such as our star, the Sun), black holes that are usually at the centre of each galaxy, our native galaxy, the Milky way has a black hole known as Sagittarius A, at its centre, all also have pulses. Our Sun has an eleven year cycle (pulse), our planet has a 200000 years to one million years pulse (do the research on the breakaway of the Eastern section of the African continent: East Africa rift valley). Though the frequency of volcanic eruption in various parts of the planet indicate birth pains (formation of new material) on a shorter time span frequency. It’s counter intuitive to our comprehension that cosmic bodies have pulses just like us.
Major characteristics of living organisms: All living organisms share a set of key characteristics that distinguish them from non-living matter. Biologists generally define life through the following major traits:
1. Cellular Organisation
All living things are composed of one or more cells. The cell is the fundamental unit of life.
- Unicellular organisms (like bacteria) consist of a single cell.
- Multicellular organisms (like humans and trees) are composed of complex networks of specialised cells.
2. Metabolism
Living organisms undergo continuous chemical reactions to sustain life. This total of all chemical reactions is called metabolism, which includes:
- Anabolism: Building up complex molecules (e.g., photosynthesis in plants).
- Catabolism: Breaking down molecules to release energy (e.g., cellular respiration).
3. Homeostasis
Organisms must maintain a stable, constant internal environment despite changes in their external surroundings. Examples include regulating body temperature, water balance, and pH levels.
4. Growth and Development
All living things grow (increase in size or cell number) and develop (mature through a defined life cycle governed by their genetic material).
5. Reproduction
Living organisms have the ability to produce offspring to ensure the continuation of their species. This can happen in two ways:
- Asexual reproduction: A single organism produces an exact genetic copy of itself.
- Sexual reproduction: Two parents contribute genetic material to produce unique offspring.
6. Response to Stimuli
Organisms can detect and react to changes in their environment (stimuli). These responses can be behavioural (like a plant bending toward light) or physiological (like a person sweating when hot).
7. Adaptation through Evolution
Over generations, populations of living organisms adapt to their environments. Changes in DNA allow species to evolve via natural selection, ensuring survival in changing world conditions.
Characteristics of living entities exhibited by cosmic bodies. Cosmic bodies (stars, planets, galaxies) don’t actually meet the biological definition of “living,” but they can superficially display a few characteristics we associate with life. Here’s a breakdown of where the comparison holds up and where it breaks down:
Characteristics of Life (Biological Standard)
Living things generally show: growth, reproduction, metabolism, response to stimuli, homeostasis, organisation (cells), and evolution/adaptation.
Where Cosmic Bodies “Mimic” Life-like Traits
1. Growth
- Stars accumulate mass from surrounding gas and dust clouds, growing over millions of years.
- Planets form and grow through accretion of smaller bodies (planetesimals).
- Black holes “grow” by consuming matter and merging with other black holes.
2. Birth and Death (Life Cycles)
- Stars are “born” in nebulae, go through a main sequence “life,” and “die” as white dwarfs, neutron stars, or supernovae.
- This life-cycle terminology (protostar → main sequence → red giant → death) closely parallels biological life stages, which is why it’s used colloquially.
3. Energy Consumption/Metabolism (loose analogy)
- Stars convert hydrogen to helium via fusion, releasing energy — vaguely resembling metabolic energy conversion, though it’s a nuclear process, not a chemical/biological one.
4. Reproduction (very loose analogy)
- Supernovae scatter heavy elements that seed the formation of new stars and planetary systems — sometimes called “stellar reproduction,” though it’s not self-directed or genetically informed.
5. Response to Environment
- Planetary and stellar systems respond to gravitational influences (e.g., tidal locking, orbital resonance), but this is passive physics, not a biological “response to stimuli.”
6. Structure/Organization
- Cosmic bodies have internal layered structure (core, mantle, crust for planets; core, radiative zone, convective zone for stars) — analogous to organised biological systems, but not cellular.
Key Missing Criteria
Cosmic bodies lack:
- Self-replication with genetic information
- Homeostasis (active self-regulation)
- Evolution by natural selection
- Response to stimuli in a purposeful/adaptive sense
- Metabolism in the biochemical sense
Bottom Line
The similarities are largely metaphorical and process-based (growth, cycles, transformation) rather than functional in the biological sense. Scientists use “life cycle” language for stars and galaxies as a useful analogy for teaching and visualisation — not because these bodies are literally alive.
The cosmic web is the large-scale structure of the universe — the way matter (both visible and dark matter) is arranged across space on the grandest scales, forming a pattern that resembles a three-dimensional spiderweb or a sponge-like network.
Structure of the Cosmic Web
It has four main components:
1. Filaments
- Long, thread-like structures made of galaxies, gas, and dark matter.
- These are the “strands” of the web, often hundreds of millions of light-years long.
- Galaxies tend to flow along these filaments, pulled by gravity.
2. Nodes (Clusters)
- Dense regions where filaments intersect.
- These host massive galaxy clusters — some of the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe.
3. Walls (Sheets)
- Flattened, sheet-like structures of galaxies, less dense than filaments but denser than voids.
- An example is the “Great Wall,” a massive sheet-like arrangement of galaxies.
4. Voids
- Enormous, roughly spherical regions that are nearly empty of galaxies and matter.
- Voids can span tens to hundreds of millions of light-years and make up most of the universe’s volume.
How It Formed
The cosmic web originated from tiny density fluctuations in the early universe (visible in the Cosmic Microwave Background). Over billions of years:
- Regions with slightly more matter attracted more matter via gravity.
- Dark matter, which vastly outweighs normal matter, formed the initial gravitational scaffolding.
- Normal (baryonic) matter — gas and eventually galaxies — fell into this scaffolding, tracing out the filaments, nodes, and walls we observe today.
Why It Matters
- It reveals the role of dark matter (reference Isaiah 45: 6-8), since the web’s structure is shaped predominantly by dark matter’s gravity, even though we can’t see it directly.
- It helps cosmologists test models of the universe’s evolution (e.g., using simulations like the Millennium Simulation or Illustris).
- Studying the cosmic web helps explain how galaxies form, migrate, and cluster over cosmic time.
- That’s the basic layout: filaments (the purple threads) carry galaxies along them like beads on a string, converging at nodes — the densest points, where massive galaxy clusters form. Between the filaments and walls are the voids, vast nearly-empty bubbles that make up most of the universe’s volume.
- A useful way to picture it: imagine soap bubbles packed together. The thin films and edges where bubbles meet are the filaments and walls (matter concentrates there), while the hollow interior of each bubble is a void. The whole pattern is invisible in normal light on this scale — what actually holds the shape together is dark matter’s gravity, with visible galaxies just tracing the underlying scaffold.
Expansion of the universe refers to the observation that the space between galaxies (on large scales) is continuously stretching over time — galaxies aren’t just moving through space, but the fabric of space itself is growing.
Key Points
1. It’s not an explosion into empty space
- A common misconception is that the universe expanded like a bomb going off, with galaxies flying outward from a central point into pre-existing empty space.
- In reality, space itself is stretching everywhere, uniformly. There is no center and no edge — every point moves away from every other point.
2. The raisin bread analogy
- Picture raisin bread dough rising in an oven. Each raisin (galaxy) doesn’t move through the dough — but as the dough expands, every raisin gets farther from every other raisin.
- The farther apart two raisins start, the faster they separate as the loaf expands — this mirrors what we observe with galaxies.
3. Discovered through redshift
- In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble observed that light from distant galaxies is shifted toward longer (redder) wavelengths — called redshift.
- This happens because space stretches while light travels through it, stretching the light’s wavelength too.
- Crucially, more distant galaxies show greater redshift, meaning they’re receding faster — this relationship is Hubble’s Law.
4. Hubble’s Law
- Recession velocity = H₀ × distance (where H₀ is the Hubble constant, roughly 70 km/s per megaparsec).
- This means space is expanding at a consistent rate everywhere — it’s not that galaxies are “running away” from a specific spot.
5. Accelerating expansion
- Observations in the late 1990s (using distant supernovae) revealed the expansion isn’t slowing down due to gravity, as expected — it’s actually speeding up.
- This acceleration is attributed to dark energy, a mysterious force that makes up roughly 68% of the universe’s total energy content, though its nature is still not well understood.
6. What isn’t expanding
- Locally bound systems — galaxies, solar systems, planets, even you — don’t expand, because gravity (and other forces) hold them together tightly enough to resist the stretching of space.
- Expansion only becomes significant on very large scales, between galaxies and galaxy clusters that aren’t gravitationally bound to each other.
Bottom Line
Expansion means the space between cosmic structures is growing over time, carrying galaxies apart from one another — not because they’re moving through a fixed space, but because the space itself is stretching, and this stretching is accelerating due to dark energy. Psalm 19: 1-6; The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat. What do we have here, faith in God who says, He created light and darkness, physical cosmology that says there is matter and anti-matter, light/stars, galaxies and dark energy, cosmic web, is there a parallel to be seen, well the rest is up to the reader to form their opinion on this piece.
