The Big Bang

[Droopy]

The theory in science. I just can wrap my head around it and it's one reason why I am agnostic instead of an atheist.

The theory states that all of the matter in the universe was compressed into something the size of a golf ball. Then this unfathomably dense little golf ball somehow exploded and created all of the objects in the universe.

Okay, so who or what created that unfathomably dense sphere and who or what caused it to explode?

[CrownPrinceBandar]

1. One theory is.........

that all the matter in the universe is a byproduct of a collision between two dimensional "membranes". The energy released by this collision eventually became... well, everything.

[pokerfan]

2. See cosmology...

I tend to stay away from metaphysics, not because I'm not curious; I am very much so.

It's just that it seems to be virtually impossible to come up with any kind of testable hypothesis.

[The Straight Story]

3. DOH thought it was a sex thread, well back to my own research on the topic

carry on.

[qnr]

4. OK, I understand what you are saying, but I don't see why

this would be the thing that would make you an agnostic instead of an atheist. Granted, at this time, we don't know for a fact what happened. However, does accepting a deity make it any clearer? Who or what created the deity and why did it decide to go the big bang route instead of just creating things using a large canvas?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Droopy...

I'm with you on this question...

Where did that little ball come from?

I call it god...

The rest of science I understand....but the beginning just throws me!

:hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Everything is energy. Energy responds to thought.

There is a Thinker. That just wants to share what it's discovered, and to discover even more. I've seen enough things verified from some of the traditional texts to believe the larger leaps. And yes, this is even after having been terribly burned by the deceitful stuff.

If you want the physics road, look into quantum and post-quantum stuff. That's a technical term.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. I did.

You have a problem with the way I'm running things? Shoot me an e(therial)mail and I'll get back with you in an aeon or two.

And the REASON I squeezed it all together like that is, I COULD. :shrug:

[EstimatedProphet]

8. God did it

What else do you need to know?

[Droopy]

18. The big bang is as about as believeable as the existence of God

[EstimatedProphet]

27. I agree

The thing to remember is: at that time, there was no time.

If you want to talk about the universe, that's one thing. If you want to talk about God, then that's something else entirely. God by definition exists outside the universe, so trying to apply universal laws to God makes no sense. I don't see any reason why both God's existence and the Big Bang exclude each other.

[flvegan]

9. Giggity!

Big bang!!

[hfojvt]

10. one theory is that matter has always existed

Myself, I do not believe in singularities. In the current theory, it is not the size of a golf ball, it is the size of an atom. Smaller even. It's a singularity - an object, as it were, with no size - a zero point. I do not believe that matter in black holes is compressed into nothing. I think it is impressed into a quark-star (an object, really, made up on compacted quarks) and once you get past a certain density - it explodes.

Like another poster said, though, it's not really testable, but the matter explodes and flies away from the center of that explosion. However, since the universe is itself a black hole, the flying matter cannot escape the universe and fly indefinitely. Eventually it all falls back to the center and compresses and compresses - until it explodes again.

Lather, rinse, repeat. The matter of the universe does not have a beginning, or a creator - it always was, and always will be. Since it is a closed system, no energy or mass is lost and it can explode and contract, explode and contract forever.

Note that my theory explains some things that Stephen Hawkings cannot - such as galaxy formation. Since the universe, IMO, did not start as a singularity, but as more like an exploding billiard ball - shards of the billiard ball survive the explosion. Those shards are large black holes, around which galaxies coalesce.

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. Now

define "always."

:P

[Swede]

11. I love this kinda stuff.

And actually the point was infinitely small.

[elshiva]

12. I can't answer that because I am not a scientific person.

I am non-scientific, but NOT anti-scientific. Just like being a heterosexual does not mean one has to be a homophobe. I believe in evolution and that is the only thing that should be taught in public school.

However, I understand the earth as the on going creation of God.

[ZombieNixon]

13. Two cosmic turtles mated, creating the source of everything.

It was a "Big Bang." :P

[HuskerDU]

14. I like the one where a giant turtle created a 'Grubby' dog

that puked up the universe. That was our religion in high school- we were kind of a bunch of freaks!

[pokerfan]

16. It's turtles all the way down!

From Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time:

A well-known scientist (some say it was the philosopher Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.

At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."

The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"

"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

[ZombieNixon]

21. No, it swims. That's what turtles are for.

:eyes: :P

[sanguinivorous]

17. That's one of those big "Who cares?" questions for me...

It's one of those things science can never fully explain, simply because we can't go back in time to observe the "beginning" (if there was one) of the universe. Still, unless one manifests itself the existance of a creator god is unprovable and about as likely as the existance of faeries and leprechauns.

Given the choice between the two, I'll go with an unknown scientific explanation before I'll go to God. haven't seen anything in 38 years that's made me want to be anything but an atheist.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

19. The question that must be asked is where did that little golf ball come from?

I believe in both the big bang theory, evolution AND that there is a higher power who created everything.
Duckie

[skygazer]

20. Well, if someone did create it

Who or what created the creator? It's the same problem - I don't see how a belief in a deity clears it up at all. Where'd the deity come from?

I'm an atheist because I can accept the fact that there are things we don't know the answers to without having to resort to made-up stories to explain them. I simply figure that eventually someone will, in a scientific way, explain them. But even if there are things that cannot be explained, that doesn't necessarily prove the existence of a god. That's logic I can't wrap MY mind around.

[Droopy]

23. As I suggested up-thread

I don't think science or religion have the answers yet. I am not religious person, but I have looked at several religions from around the globe. It seems to me that all religions have their roots in paganism, which would be a much more agreeable form of religion to me if I were to practice one.

[skygazer]

26. Well, religions have their roots in a desire to understand the natural world

All people everywhere have wanted to know why things are the way they are and so they came up with explanationss that eventually became part of their cultural understanding. Why do earthquakes happen? Or rain? Why are the stars as they are and what are they? Why are we here and where do we go when we die?

People have always wondered about those things. It's not necessarily paganism that is the root - it's natural curiosity which led to pagan beliefs. Which usually have some naturistic explanation for those mysteries and as such come closer (to me) to the reality of things than "modern" religions which look to a god that is less about nature and more about man's superiority to nature.

Science has taken a lot of the mystery out of things. It is simply another way of providing answers, just as religion does, except it does so by a rigorous process that requires proof whereas religion only requires faith. Science also allows for a change of belief when a hypothesis is proven false whereas religion tends to insist on sameness. I like the fact that science doesn't claim to have all the answers - I find that more intellectually honest than saying that things are the way they are because god works in mysterious ways or some other religious copout.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

22. Who created the person who created the sphere?

We can go back and back endlessly on this. An explanation with "God" in the picture doesn't make things any clearer, in my opinion. I have a feeling we'll eventually get to knowing everything there is without any more stories.

[begin_within]

24. The answers are:

1. Titleist
2. Tiger Woods

[LeftyMom]

25. Explode really isn't the right word

It expanded, not filling in existing space, but creating space.

When you think about it, it's kinda amazing we understand as far back as we do, considering how long ago it was- the current model doesn't really start to break down until the point where everything's too dense to permit matter and it's all energy.

[leftofthedial]

28. why was a "creator" necessary?

Your question presupposes a particular kind of answer.