If, like Sheldon’s mother, Mary, you are a Fundamentalist Christian, you believe that God created Heaven and Earth within a week. During that time, He created light, the sky, land, the seas, vegetation, celestial bodies, all manner of creatures, and finally man/womankind. Then, on the seventh day, known as the Sabbath, He rested.
This is what Mary would call the Word of God, as chronicled in the Bible. But it’s what Sheldon would call a “creation myth,” one of many that, depending on your religion, explains how the known universe was created by a Divine Being.
In “The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation” (3-1), we see Sheldon and his mother standing on opposite sides of the fence. When she thinks Sheldon is sassing her by saying that he plans on staying in Texas, “trying to teach evolution to creationists,” she cautions him: “You watch your mouth, Shelly. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.” Sheldon responds, “Evolution isn’t an opinion—it’s fact.” To which she retorts, “And that is your opinion.”
Sheldon is not swayed by her fiercely held convictions. He subscribes to the tenets of science, a discipline that subjects everything to the scientific method of inquiry, as articulated by S. Crawford and L. Stucki in “Peer review and the changing research record,” from the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (1990):
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
3. Form an explanatory hypothesis
4. Perform an experiment and collect data, testing the hypothesis
5. Analyze the data
6. Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
7. Publish results
8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)
So let’s put our faith in Sheldon’s “opinion” (as his mother has it), and start with a simplified telling of the Big Bang itself as Sheldon himself might explain it to Zach.
The Birth of the Universe
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a great cosmic event took place. “The universe began in a small, dense, hot state followed by an explosion that brought space and matter into existence approximately 13 billion years ago. The universe, today, still expands from this explosion.” So stated professor Neil deGrasse Tyson in My Favorite Universe.
In the subsequent pre–solar system phase, a primal supernova exploded, triggering the formation of our solar system. After the formation of the Sun, its outer planets were formed, including Earth, around 4.5 billion years ago. Approximately 100 million years ago, the western margin of California began forming when the Pacific and North American plates deep below the surface collided; 25 million years ago they pushed offshore Pacific islands together to create its western coastal range. The collision of the two plates created what we now call the San Andreas Fault.
The Birth of Civilization
As for mankind: descending from apes and chimpanzees, the first men, genus Homo habilis, made their appearance approximately 2.5 million years ago. John Pickrell wrote, in New Scientist, early man’s “face protrudes less than early hominids, but still retains many ape features. Hominids start to use stone tools regularly, created by splitting pebbles.” Somewhere between 1.5 and 1.8 million years ago, Pickrell continues, “Homo erectus is found in Asia. First true hunter-gatherer ancestor, and also first to have migrated out of Africa in large numbers. . . . Our own species Homo sapiens appeared on the scene—and shortly after begins to migrate across Asia and Europe.”
As civilizations grew up around the world, and vast empires were established, Europe witnessed scientific and industrial revolutions. In 1492, Christopher Columbus failed to discover a new route to the Indies (India and China), but discovered the New World, which eventually led to the subjugation of the indigenous population in North America by Europeans.
In 1847, when Mexico surrendered California, it became a U.S. territory.
In 1887, the Santa Fe Railway was completed, and it was instrumental in bringing “wealthy people from the East Coast” who “began to spend the winter in the warmth and sunshine of Southern California,” notes the DK Eyewitness Travel: California guidebook. “Many settled in Pasadena and were soon joined by artists and bohemians, who were also seeking the sun.”
From 1886 to 1941, according to Wikipedia, Pasadena’s growth spurred “the development of new neighborhoods and business districts, and increased road and transit connections with Los Angeles, culminating with the opening of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, California’s first freeway. By 1940, Pasadena had become the eighth largest city in California and was considered by many to be a twin city to Los Angeles.”
In the aftermath of World War II, Pasadena saw an influx of high-tech manufacturing and scientific companies, eventually leading to the establishment of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in northern Pasadena.
In the 1970s, downtown Pasadena saw significant changes. Demographically, the prevalence of serious crime helped encourage an exodus to the suburbs. This caused a drop in urban property values, which, notes Wikipedia, encouraged “local artists and hipsters” to move back into the city.
In the early 2000s, the city, known architecturally for its art buildings, underwent an extensive beautification program. Rapid transit lines were reopened, and trendy, high-density condos went up in the downtown area.
The Birth of Homo Novus: The New Man
Sheldon Cooper was born in 1973 in Houston, Texas; in 2003, after rigorous courses of study that culminated in earning two doctorates, he began work at Caltech.