The big bang theory presents an interesting meeting place for science and religion. Both seem happy to agree that the universe originated out of nothing in an explosion at a definite time very long ago. In western religious philosophy the big bang implies the existence of a creator outside of physical existence to launch the whole thing. The same kind of truce has helped, to a lesser degree, the neo-Darwinian paradigm for evolution and the origin of life on Earth. That theory says life originates out of nonliving chemicals and evolves to higher levels of organization simply by following mechanistic laws.
Western religions say yes, and every mechanism has a creator.
But here the truce has been uneasy. But his overal tone was cautious. While evolution is now accepted as a fact by science and is becoming accepted by the Catholic Church, the mechanism underlying its most important aspect, evolutionary progress , is not clearly established. Even science acknowledges that the mechanism depends on very long streaks of luck. The evidence for it is thin, a working model has not been demonstrated, and consensus within science has not been reached.