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The 'Big Bang'
- Thread starter michel
- Start date
Ori
Angel slayer
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
Prince of Dorkness!
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.michel said:
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.........
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 ?
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 ?
Original Freak
I am the ORIGINAL Freak
Why does there have to be a beggining?
Halcyon
Lord of the Badgers
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.
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.
Fluffy
A fool
In my mind, Michel, the big bang is looking to be the way to go if we wish to find out how OUR universe was created.
But I don't think you mean that. What you want to know is how can something come from nothing? Surely at one point (even if you go Universe-->Big Bang-->M theory) there must have been nothing. Unfortunately, the the likelihood of finding that out is fairly small because the best that science has been able to offer is 1) and unprovable theory and 2) no explanation of what existed before these branes did or what created them.
But please be aware that for such a thing as a "beginning" to exist, time must also exist as a dimension. Well if you start going back before the big bang, there is no guarantee that time existed in all of the parallel universes or whatever you want to call the space where the membranes exist. Without time, there can be no beginning.
But I don't think you mean that. What you want to know is how can something come from nothing? Surely at one point (even if you go Universe-->Big Bang-->M theory) there must have been nothing. Unfortunately, the the likelihood of finding that out is fairly small because the best that science has been able to offer is 1) and unprovable theory and 2) no explanation of what existed before these branes did or what created them.
But please be aware that for such a thing as a "beginning" to exist, time must also exist as a dimension. Well if you start going back before the big bang, there is no guarantee that time existed in all of the parallel universes or whatever you want to call the space where the membranes exist. Without time, there can be no beginning.
But there is an important difference between the theist and non-theist.. and you know it michael.. stop provoking the inevitablemichel said: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 ?
The Theist says - there is a God. The unbeliever naturally asks for evidence.
The non-theist says, essentially we dont know whether the universe has always existed or came into existance and we dont know for sure how it did if it did.. this is what we DO know.. we will leave a big question mark until we have more evidence.
Essentially, the non-theist isnt making a claim.
I'm not sure what to go with. Obviously, for a big bang to have created the universe, there must have been something to cause the big bang at the start. I'm not stephen hawking, so not only do I not have a cool chair, I'm not able to explain that. But as i see it, all the alternative theories do seem to have the same problem - if X caused the universe to exist, then what caused X to exist?
I think the most logical solution is to believe that the universe was sneezed out of a giant space goat, and that we should all await the coming of the great white handkerchief.
I think the most logical solution is to believe that the universe was sneezed out of a giant space goat, and that we should all await the coming of the great white handkerchief.
[PART QUOTE=Tawn]The Theist says - there is a God. The unbeliever naturally asks for evidence.Fluffy said:
The non-theist says, essentially we dont know whether the universe has always existed or came into existance and we dont know for sure how it did if it did.. this is what we DO know.. we will leave a big question mark until we have more evidence.
Essentially, the non-theist isnt making a claim1) and unprovable theory and 2) no explanation of what existed before these branes did or what created them.
The non-theist says, essentially we dont know whether the universe has always existed or came into existance and we dont know for sure how it did if it did.. this is what we DO know.. we will leave a big question mark until we have more evidence.
Essentially, the non-theist isnt making a claim.
Basically, you two guys are saying "We science-driven non-theists have no explanation for the beginning; Theists have but it isn't provable"
The non-theist isnt making a claim ? Yes you are, you claim that there is no validity in the theists claim.
Original Freak
I am the ORIGINAL Freak
What created the giant space goat and what caused him to sneeze?Loki said:
I sure hope it's puffs with Aloe....
Lets just say the validity of the Theists claim, in the eyes of the non-theist, has not been shown to be anything more than a 'guess'..michel said:The non-theist isnt making a claim ? Yes you are, you claim that there is no validity in the theists claim.
Its not that there is NO validity - its just that validity has not yet been shown. This is an important point.
The non-theist is not making a claim. (Though some inveriably do
)Well actually the only claim the non-theist might be making is - because the Theists answer has no apparent validity we should provisionally assume it is not true.