Probing Question: What happened before the Big Bang?

Pennsylvania State University ^ | 03 August 2006 | Barbara Kennedy

[RightWhale]

Impressive math no doubt, but not worth throwing over the currently popular model.

[RightWhale]

how did something explode from nothing?

That is already answered. A superior question would be 'why did something explode from nothing.'

[RightWhale]

The universe is mostly empty space

Empty of some things, packed to the gills with other things. No part of the universe is absolutely empty. If nothing else there is that three degree microwave radiation everywhere.

[aculeus]

Probing Question: What happened before the Big Bang?

The Long Hiss. (Imagine sound of a lighted fuse.)

[doc30]

Actually, I was referring to matter in space. It is mostly empty, but as you correctly pointed out, there is a lot of matter concentrated in a few places (e.g. neutron stars). But my comment still stands. Even what we call solid objects, like my desk or your car, are mostly empty on the atomic scale. There is still a lot of room for compression.

[cornelis]

I've never been able to figure out how something got created out of nothing.

How matter is brought into existence through creation is not the same as asking for the origin of God.

You should know that something is eternal. If matter is eternal, it is divine.

[hosepipe]

[ This is absolute time when you need it! ]

Absolute time.. WHAT a concept...
A Rolex moment with a see in the dark radium dial.. for most..
An ancient chinese water clock for others..

For those in the moment.. time is absolute..

[edsheppa]

Either could be true and there is nothing to indicate one is more certain than the other.

Hold on there pard. There are some folks who hold quantum interference as prima facie evidence of a multiverse - it is the different universes interacting. And then there's the proposed test (by Deutsch I think) of using a quantum computer to test the multiverse. IIRC, he proposes a quantum computer programmed to solve a yes/no problem. If the computer tells you it defintely determined the answer but can't say what it was, then half of the computation was done in a different universe.

For my part both are too tenuous to be convincing.

[RightWhale]

Even such a simple thing as an electron is not a solid particle with a given dimension. It cannot be said that there is empty space between a proton and an electron in a simple hydrogen atom since for all we know the electron fills the entire space. We cannot say what the diameter of a proton might be except by specifying a process of bouncing another proton off it and measuring the bounce. What most call solid matter is not solid matter but could well be nothing at all but some multidimensional curvature of space. If nothing else, the curvature exists and if that is what solid matter is then space is filled completely.

[edsheppa]

It was obviously methaphor.

Not only isn't that obvious, it obviously wan't given past behavior.

[musicman]

Hmmmmm....probabry much rubrication.....

[RightWhale]

methaphor

Methaphor--an illustration by a chemically-enhanced orator.

[mother]

Thank you for making the post that I felt compelled to make ...LOL

[Dimensio]

What has atheism to do with the discussion?

[true_blue_texican]

An understanding of basic physics would let you know this.

You ever hear of Plasma Physics?

lectromagnetism is very weak on that scale and has virtually effect on the masses (i.e. stars, planets, comets, galaxies, dust clouds).

The above statement is precisely what I said that is wrong in BB and GR. They are more relevant than you think. Check out Plasma Cosmology.

[Junior]

The Big Bang is more readily likened to an inflating balloon.

[Junior]

I guess you were there!

I wasn't there when O.J. slaughtered his wife, either, but I have a high degree of confidence he did it.

[Junior]

It sure takes a lot of faith, to believe the crap all the "educated" people bring us.

No, it takes knowledge of the evidence. That you are incapable of understanding a subject has no bearing on the subject's validity. A three-year-old doesn't understand calculus; it does not mean calculus is crap.

[mother]

Dude.... there was NO explosion! Space-time expanded. Picture an uninflated balloon with a number of dots on it. Now picture that balloon being inflated. The dots move away from one another as the surface of the balloon expands no? Well, the surface of the balloon is space-time and the dots are galaxies. That is your "big bang".

[tortoise]

The odds are literally infinitesimal that our Universe just happened to get it right. The religious theory that the Universe was designed - and designed for us - is strongly supported by the extraordinary unlikelihood of the Universe being able to support us.

So who designed God's universe?