Theories on the

Origin of the Universe

Theories on the Origin of the Universe

1. The Creation Theory

The book of Genesis of the
Hebrew bible and Christian
Old Testament, described
how God separated light
from darkness, created the
sky, land, sea, moon, stars
and every living creature in a
span of six days.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

2. The Rigveda’s Oscillating Universe

It describes the universe as an oscillating universe in
which a “cosmic egg,” or Brahmanda, containing the whole
universe expands out of a single concentrated point called
Bindu, and will eventually collapse again.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

3. The Primordial Universe

Anaxagoras believed that the original state of cosmos
was a primordial mixture of all its ingredients which
existed in infinitesimally small fragments of themselves.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

4. The Atomic Universe

Leucippus and Democritus believed in a universe
composed of very small, indivisible and indestructible
atoms.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

5. The Giant Living Body

The Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece believed that
the universe is like a giant living body, with the sun and
the stars as the most important parts to which all the other
parts are interconnected.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

6. The Cartesian Vortex Model

Rene Descartes believed that the vacuum of space was
not empty but rather filled with matter that swirled around
in large and small vortices,
producing what would later
be called the gravitational
effects.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

7. Newton’s static, infinite universe

Sir Isaac Newton described a static, steady-state inifinite
universe wherein matter is uniformly distributed and the
universe is gravitationally balanced.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

8. Einstein’s Static Universe

It is similar to Newton’s theory
wherein the universe is
dynamically stable that is
neither expanding nor
contracting. He believed that
the effect of gravity is
dynamic which would have
caused the universe to
collapse
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

9. The Big Bang Theory

The universe originated from
an infinitely tiny, infinitely
dense point of singularity
around 13 to 14 billion years
ago. It is associated to the
discovery of the cosmic
microwave background
radiation by Arno Penzias
and Robert Wilson.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

9. The Big Bang Theory

It is attributed
to Georges
Henri Joseph
Edouard
Lemaitre in
1927
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

10. Einstein’s Oscillating Universe

A positive curvature
results in the
universe expanding
for a time and then
contracting due to
the pull of its gravity
in a perpetual cycle
of Big Bang followed
by big crunch.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

11. The Steady State Theory

Fred Hoyle, Thomas
Gold and Herman Bondi
predicted that the
universe expanded but
did not change density;
matter was inserted into
the universe as it
expanded in order to
maintain a constant
density.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

12. The Inflationary Universe

Alan Guth proposed
that a short, early
period of exponential
cosmic inflation
occurred in order to
solve the horizon and
flatness problems of
the standard Big Bang
Model
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

13. The Cyclic Model

Developed by Steinhardt
and Neil Turok in 2002. It is
believed that the universe
undergoes endless cycles
of expansion and cooling
each beginning with a Big
Bang and ending in a big
crunch.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

14. Multiverse
Andrei Linde proposed that the universe is as just one
many “bubbles” that grew as part of the multiverse.
Theories on the Origin of the Universe

Hugh Everett III and Bryce DeWitt popularized the “many

worlds” formulation of the universe.