Any atheists on this site that can name the religion of the scientist who proposed the Big Bang theory?

Question

>>don't you think you should believe the big bang theory?<<
Madeline, did someone tell you I didn't?
>>is there some reason you asked atheists this question?<<

vorenhutz, it was inspired by these recent questions by an atheist:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArUHBnvvPVUD6.NddsQgojjd7BR.?qid=20070708173309AAVeAYf
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuL31kSmjKGmP6S4durJ4Dvd7BR.?qid=20070708174207AAeO0x9

>>Catholic? Guess he wasn't a hard-core believer if he was investigating different creation theories.<<

Why do you say that, madnoelle?

Answer 1

Devout Roman Catholic.
The inventor of the IQ test was also a Roman Catholic, and Charles Darwin was a Christian when he first proposed the theory of evolution.

Answer 2

I don't know... What I do know is that the fact that the scientist who proposed the big bang theory was a catholic priest just goes to show that Catholicism isn't lock stock and barrel against science... even if the Jesuits occasionally have guys who go off the deep end, this guy wasn't among them.

Answer 3

The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter and in all directions.
In 1927, the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity. Years later, Edwin Hubble found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance.

The big bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Answer 4

Apparently, according to an article I read today, the pope tried to use this discovery to show that genesis did happen as described in the Bible (now that there was a definite beginning to the universe). However, Lematire did his best to talk him down from this since it wasn't a scientifically sound conclusion.

Answer 5

He (Georges Lemaitre) was a Roman Catholic priest. I fail to see what this has to do with his scientific theory, but since you seem to set such great store by his religion, don't you think you should believe the big bang theory?

Answer 6

He was a Catholic Priest from Belgium called George Lemaitre.
I think the year was 1927.

Yes he was a Jesuit and yes it was his version of a creation theory with God behind it.

But you knew all that already, right.

Answer 7

Cathoic?
Guess he wasn't a hard-core believer if he was investigating different creation theories.

Answer 8

Vesto Melvin Slipher, an agnostic, suggested it sometime around 1907-1909.

Answer 9

catholic, as the guy above me says. is there some reason you asked atheists this question? do you think his religion influenced his science?

Answer 10

come one evrybody knows that all the great scientists of the world were devoted atheists!(tongue in cheek)