Is there genuinely good evidence that the universe could have been eternal/infinite into the past?

[Jos]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

 

[epronovost]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

When you talk about "the universe" to you mean by that the observable universe or something more broad and ill defined?

 

[Jos]

When you talk about "the universe" to you mean by that the observable universe or something more broad and ill defined?

Everything, whether observable or non observable.

 

[epronovost]

Everything, whether observable or non observable.

Well since we can't posit anything about the non observable it could be eternal or it could temporal or it could be neither or both who knows; it's non observable. The observable universe seems to have been in its current state for about 13 billion years and seems to be able to maintain itself in that current state for at the very least a couple more billion years though I'm not a theoretical physicist so I can't give you any special information.

 

[Valjean]

The current evidence points to a beginning point.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

Try putting a physical beginning and end to the universe. Contain it. You can't do it.

 

[Jos]

Well since we can't posit anything about the non observable it could be eternal or it could temporal or it could be neither or both who knows; it's non observable. The observable universe seems to have been in its current state for about 13 billion years and seems to be able to maintain itself in that current state for at the very least a couple more billion years though I'm not a theoretical physicist so I can't give you any special information.

Well if we only know of the observable universe and know nothing then I guess it makes no sense for me to ask my question then

 

[Jos]

The current evidence points to a beginning point.

I've heard experts claim that there are models that show that an infinite past universe is possible, is that so?

 

[Jos]

Try putting a physical beginning and end to the universe. Contain it. You can't do it.

Well I'm not able to try that so I can't say. How are you sure that's the case?

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

i am not bright enough to contemplate such things

but if the universe didn’t have a beginning, it seems like we couldn’t be here now

doesn’t now have to be a point in time that follows from other points?

I think without a beginning there wouldn’t be a beginning point, for others to follow from

this makes me think of Spaceballs for some reason

 

[Epic Beard Man]

I think @Meow Mix can best theorize this

 

[Jos]

i am not bright enough to contemplate such things

You're in good company cause neither am I

but if the universe didn’t have a beginning, it seems like we couldn’t be here now

doesn’t now have to be a point in time that follows from other points?

I think without a beginning there wouldn’t be a beginning point, for others to follow from

I've heard of this argument before, particularly from William Lane Craig who says that an infinite past could never allow for the present to exist as it leads to contradictions but I never really got the gist of it. Why would that be so? Would an infinite amount of things have to happen all at once and thus the present could never arrive ie. all points in time playing out at once?

 

[Jos]

I think @Meow Mix can best theorize this

Well I hope she simplifies it for me if she can

 

[Valjean]

Well if we only know of the observable universe and know nothing then I guess it makes no sense for me to ask my question then

If the universe is expanding, at an ever increasing rate, there would be nothing observable at this point, had it always existed.

 

[Valjean]

I've heard experts claim that there are models that show that an infinite past universe is possible, is that so?

How do they explain the redshifting in distant galaxies or cosmic background radiation?

 

[QuestioningMind]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

Currently our best understanding is that over 14 billion years ago everything in the universe was contained in something like a small compact singularity. Think of it like an nuclear explosion, how all of the tremendous energy released from a nuclear explosion comes from splitting a tiny atom that can't even be seen with the naked eye. So over 14 billion years ago this singularity started to expand/explode in what we call the Big Bang. That's when the universe started existing in its current form. At this point that's all we can say with any degree of certainty.

Did the singularity always exist? That's a tough question, since our concept of time didn't exist prior to the Big Bang, but the honest answer is we don't know. IF there's some sort of 'cosmic time' beyond the space/time continuum that we currently exist in, we have no way of knowing if the singularity always existed in some form or not.

What sparked the Big Bang? Again, we don't have enough information to provide an answer. Theists will claim that it was some creator god that caused it, but there's no evidence to back it up. It could just as easily be that singularities expanding in such fashion is simply what singularities naturally do.

So no, an uncreated/beginning less universe isn't just wishful thinking. In fact, considering that the our entire understanding of the current universe is based on it being a natural process, it could be said that it's insisting that some creator being had to have intervened to spark the expansion instead of it being a natural occurrence that's closer to wishful thinking.

 

[Deidre]

As I understand, infinity is a ''limit'' not a number, per se. So, from my faith view point, God has always existed. To me, there isn't much of a contradiction in saying that the universe is both eternal, and had a beginning point.

 

[McBell]

Now, I'm no cosmologist and I'm terrible at understanding science but are there good philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that the universe could be eternal/infinite into the past and thus didn't need to have a beginning and thus a God/creator to begin it? Or is an uncreated/beginning-less universe just wishful thinking? Please let me know and for you scientists and sophisticated philosophers out there, can you please explain it to me like I'm 5? I'd really appreciate it lol.

To the best of my knowledge, science just flat out not know what, if anything, was before the Big Bang.

Philosophy is used by far to many people to prove to themselves anything that strikes their fancy happens to be true.

 

[Meow Mix]

Well I hope she simplifies it for me if she can

I will respond from a keyboard when I can, preparing for a float trip this weekend. I’m an astrophysics grad student though, and a lot of my research at least touches on these kinds of questions.

 

[ChristineM]

There is no evidence to support an infinite universe, there is evidence our universe arose from the bb around 13.8 billion years ago. Before that time we can only guess.