Origin of the Universe?

What explains the origin of the universe?

  • God created the universe.

    Votes: 4 4.8%

  • The universe created itself (spontaneous creation).

    Votes: 16 19.3%

  • The universe is eternal.

    Votes: 8 9.6%

  • This universe is the offspring of a "Mother Universe."

    Votes: 9 10.8%

  • Impossible to even guess.

    Votes: 36 43.4%

  • Another explanation (please provide it!).

    Votes: 10 12.0%
  • Total voters
    83
Ahh, much better.. well, going to sleep now, but basicly i currently think(hope) it is the whole brane thing from M-Theory. if it ain't that, then i don't think it can ever be known.. i can verbose in the morning, though i expect someone will beat me to it :D
 
Well, so far, the favorite definitely is "The universe created itself (spontaneous creation)." To me, that seems the most probable of any explanation.
 
I picked "impossible to even guess" but I'd add the caveat "with the information we have at this particular moment in time."
 
MrFrankZito said:
What is your take on the origin of the universe? Vote in the poll, and offer a concise explanation...


Check it out!
[/SIZE][/FONT]
Click to expand...

The universe started out as a big bang. Now , you can search google on that topic and it will come up with many links for you to self study about it.
 
I think it generally started off small, and then got bigger, and eventually bus fares will go up as the distance between things gets greater, causing some kind of economic problem, so the universe will have to shrink to limit bus fares, until it gets small enough to walk places, and then bus companies will go out of business, causing economic problems, so the universe will have to get bigger until buses become a viable form of transport again, and fares are affordable, and then the universe will be in equilibrium. It's all about buses.
 
I picked "Another explanation"

Because it was the closest to "I don't know."
 
I chose "Another explanation" because there was no option for "sneezed out of the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure."

But seriously, couldn't chose "Impossible to even guess" because the first four options were guesses, and since folks actually chose them it is certainly possible to guess. Had there been an option "Impossible to know with current data" I probably would have chosen that one.

(The above is just a verbose version of Jekyll's and Wolverine's responses.)

ETA: I think TV Frank's comes closest to my thoughts, as it hasn't even been demonstrated that the phrase "origin of the universe" has any valid meaning.
 
Last edited:
Im surprised to see that "the universe created itself" is receiving that many votes.

The best answer is that We Dont Know.

And of course, this is not to say that because we dont know some "being" did it, nor that we will never know, or we will know soon, not that its possible or impossible to know.
 
An interesting fact about the physical constants of the universe:

The physical constants of the universe ARE NOT optimally tuned to produce life. Indeed, the physical constants of the universe are optimally tuned to produce black holes. The appearance of life is a rare but inevitable side effect to that efficient black hole production. So, if God designed the universe, and set the physical constants, what God really wants is as many black holes as possible. We, and our ilk, are simply the side effects of that.

_________________________

The Libertarian Defender (atheist, skeptic, libertarian)

Check it out!
 
Actually, within the constraints of what we currently know about physics, it is impossible to know. The reason this is so is because all physics breaks down when we look backwards in spacetime towards the beginning of the universe of which we are aware. Assuming the early inflationary universe and Big Bang model to describe where everything originated, we simply cannot know what happened much before the inflationary period.

Spacetime didn't even exist "when" the universe was a singularity, because those concepts have no meaning at a singularity. There is no such thing as time without space, and there is no such thing as space if all the matter/energy in the universe is at a singularity.

Physics breaks down at the singularity (and actually before we get there when looking backwards in time) because physics and its fundamental forces depend on the existence of spacetime. Despite there being many branches of physics, depending on the scales described, ultimately all of those branches of physics describe the interactions of particles of matter/energy. At the point at which all matter/energy was at the singularity, it was infinitely dense and there could be no such interactions. Without those interactions, there is no physics to study.

Thus, we cannot ever know the origin of all the matter/energy that exists in the known universe. It is simply beyond our ability to measure or observe.

AS
 
As a side note, assuming the current model of an acceleration of the expansion of the universe, or even just the expansion at a constant rate, and the curvature of spacetime being flat, then eventually all matter/energy will dissipate due to entropy, and even all subatomic particles will become so far apart from each other that none of the fundamental forces of physics will be able to act upon them. This means that none of the particles will be able to interact with one another (this is sometimes described as "heat death"). Without such interactions, there can be no such thing as time. Therefore, time will literally cease to exist, the universe will be frozen, and it will effectively die. The universe as we know it will be no more.

Bleak, yes, but that is what will happen based on the data we have observed at the present time and the laws of physics that we believe to be true presently, and the assumption (a good one, and one we have no reason to doubt) that the laws of physics are uniform throughout the universe (except at singularities like black holes). Of course, without a doubt our understanding of the laws of physics will change over time as we make newer observations, and our model of the universe will change with them.

Still, it is doubtful based on present observations that the universe will ever do anything but continue to expand indefinitely. Such expansion means an eventual heat death.

This should take more than hundreds of a trillion trillion trillion years, or even much longer to occur, so we need not worry much about it. The earth will long cease to exist before that, as our sun will vaporize it when the sun eventually burns all of its hydrogen fuel and begins its inevitable death. This should occur within approximately five billion years or so, if not sooner.

AS
 
I went for impossible to even guess, because I'm pretty sure that what MrFrankZitto meant by that was Impossible to know with current data.
 
GrnMtSkeptic said:
How much woo is due to someone confusing "guess" with "know"? :)
Click to expand...

Oh no, not a derail discussion about epistemology and what it means to "know" something. I mean, the philosophers among us already have a whole forum dedicated to such trivial matters (just kidding about its being trivial, so no corrective retorts, please).

(BTW, I'm one of those who loves those jokes about scientists, engineers, philosophers, and mathematicians. I also love how the mathematicians often come out on top in them. Of course, then again, I was a mathematician in my undergraduate studies.)

AS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom