Building a Universe

I've watched both of the programmes made by the BBC Top Gear presenter, Richard Hammond, in which he explains with state-of-the-art computer generated images - how Planet Earth and, indeed, the entire Universe were built over billions of years.

Now my first instinct was that this was all a bit too slick - more like celebrity science than the serious stuff from world renowned scientists like Richard Hawking, for example.

But you know what, I've changed my mind - because Richard Hammond will have reached a whole new audience who may not have watched the programme had it been presented by someone else - and that can only be a good thing.

Because what a story there is to tell - about the birth of the universe in a big bang, followed by the creation of giant Supernova stars which exploded after billions of years - blasting the elements required for carbon based life-forms (e.g. humans) all around space.

Which is how we all came to be here, of course.

After all the billions of years that it took to form the Planet Earth from whirling space dust and then the many, many million years of Darwinian evolution which followed - and allowed Richard Hammond to appear on the top of a computer generated tower where he replayed and re-envisaged these momentous events on the BBC.

And even after all that we are still a tiny little planet on the fringes of our own small solar system - the Milky Way - which forms just a tiny part of an unimaginably large universe that stretches across millions and millions of light years.

As I watched the programmes I wondered to myself why some people believe in various religious books - the Bible and Qu'ran - which they claim to be the literal word of God.

For example, that God 'made' the world in only 7 days (including a day of rest), that Noah saved the world's entire animal species in his famous floating Ark - or that the Prophet Muhammad flew up to heaven on a winged horse.

So, I tip my hat to Richard 'The Hamster' Hammond - keep up the good work.