The 'Big Bang' (theist, verse, science, Articles, convention)

[michel]

For some reason, I cannot leave this topic alone.
Could a non-theist please explain to me, using science, how the universe came into being ?

[Tawn]

Go read Hawkins..
Sorry Michael, I cannot explain. Im not sure the universe wasnt around infinitely.. Im content to say - I just dont know.

[Ori]

About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What exisisted prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurance was not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe.

[Engyo]

Originally Posted by michel

For some reason, I cannot leave this topic alone.
Could a non-theist please explain to me, using science, how the universe came into being ?

The answer is that we don't exactly know. We have been able to establish that at one point all of the matter and energy in our current universe was concentrated into a very small singularity. Then it popped. Billions of years later, the results are still expanding and interacting with each other. We can still find echoes of this pop (the "Big Bang") in background radiation.

Whether this is a once only kind of thing, or a cyclical thing, and the mechanics of it are things about which we have many theories, but not much provable. Will the universe continue to expand, or begin to contract sometime in future? Will there be a big crunch, or does everything finally succumb to heat death and entropy? The jury is still out.

The other part is that humanity as a species is highly unlikely to need to worry about these things, given our current lifespans; both as individuals and as species. Cockroaches might have a problem.........

[michel]

Tawn "I cannot explain. Im not sure the universe wasnt around infinitely.. Im content to say - I just dont know"Orichalcum "What exisisted prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation."

I am surprised. When a theist talks about God, he is asked to prove the existence of his G-d to the non-theist; are the above two comments the best you can do ?

[Ori]

It's the best I can muster at present.

[Engyo]

I will second Tawn, and tell you to read Stephen Hawkings' A Brief History of Time (updated version). He tells what we know for sure, and what our best guesses are about therest and why.

[Original Freak]

Why does there have to be a beggining?

[Halcyon]

I can do my best, i've read a fair bit on the subject.

The current theory is that way back when, this universe didn't exist (obviously). Imagine if you will an infinite region beyond our reality called hyperspace, this hyperspace is filled with things called membranes (i cannot get my head around membranes, commonly called branes, so don't bother to ask me), imagine them as trillions of strange rippling bubbles of all different shapes. 15 billion years ago two of these branes collided and BANG our space/time was born, matter and antimatter were produced from the energy of the explosion and immediately began a war, eventually (after about 0.5 of a millisecond i think) matter annihilated anti-matter and expanded out into the void. This matter was pulled together by gravity (which incidently is believed to leak into our universe from another brane ) eventually forming stars, galaxies and the rest.

Evidence for the big bang includes the universal background radiation and red shift.
Evidence for membranes includes mathematical formulae creatred by people far smarter than i can even imagine.