AndresDeLaHoz

Ok, we've been reading A Brief History Of Time in my catholic school, and I think next week we're supposed to have a religion teacher explain to us the "theological aspects" of the book. Now, I know this guy, and it'll probably be a bunch of ridiculous stretches of the truth (particularly when linking BB Cosmology to Catholicism and not other religions), but could someone give me some arguments AGAINST there being a god creating a universe via Big Bang?

eh

There is nothing wrong with the idea of a God creating a universe through a big bang, anymore than a God creating the universe in a steady state model. The problem is when one tries to insist the theory implies a divine creation. Cosmologists know otherwise.
There are many cosmological models that explain why the big bang happened, and none of them require the use of unseen magical forces to work. In other words, there is absolutely no need for a God in the BB model.

But what kind of God would create the universe in such a way? It does not seem to be the work of an all powerful diety, and the inflationary models make such work even less impressive. That is, what can we say of a God who just created a vacuum and let inflation do the rest? It seems that such a deity is by far the laziest God ever imagined by humans, and even deists would not be impressed. Is that really the kind of deity who is supposed to be concerned with the affairs of human beings?

Ernest Sparks

Tell them about Father Georges Lemaitre (1894-1966), who was the granddaddy of the expanding-universe-from-a-real-physical-source idea. But he always insisted on keeping his religion and scientific work separate, so his science would stay "clean". When his Holiness Pope Pius XII gave an audience and speech to the International Astronomical Union during their conference in Rome in 1952, Pius joyfully gave an endorsement of the big bang origin as an evidence of an act of creation. Father GL was embarrassed and miffed, and he wrote the Vatican handlers that His Holiness should be henceforth well-advised to stick to matters of the faith and "bug out" (using more polite language, naturally!) of science opinions.

Abbe Georges Lemaitre

Undercurrent

eh's point is a good one and is exactly what the more conservative (YEC) christians point to when they want to convert more liberal "god working through the BB" christians to their ideology. Sadly, a lot of otherwise liberal xians see just that conflict between the BB and their god and reject the BB.

Straight Hate

Andres: I echo the sentiment of eh and recommend Fred Adams' Origins of Existence for a more-detailed account of the big bang if you have time. God is a non-issue, much like the 10 pixies gripped to my fingers causing me to type.

Answerer

And remember God does not take six days to finish its creation.